As much fun as it is to play with balls, it’s a lot more fun to shoot arrows at stuff.

With all the high finance involved with the latest Lotto America (aka The Clever Tax on the Poor) I thought I’d mention Japan’s way of doing the lottery.

Japan runs four lotteries a year, called “Jumbos” and gives out about 1.4 billion dollars a year between them, with the largest amount being handed out in the New Year Lottery.

There are a couple things that make Japan’s lottery intriguing.

First, there are multiple first prizes of around 400 million yen (3.39ish million dollars US) and dozens of secondary prizes worth thousands of dollars. The money is given out in a tax free lump sum and there are limited numbers of numbers making the odds of winning something slightly better than TCTotP.

Second, and even better, the winning numbers are chosen by arrows. At the big drawing, several spinning targets with numbers are set up several feet from machines that shoot arrows. Next to each target is a cute model dressed like an airline cabin attendant who, after a countdown, presses a button that fires an arrow at the target. Numbers are then called out and some people are happy and some are still hoping.

This is a lot better than watching balls roll out of an air machine. Although, in defense of balls, the arrow drawings do go on a long time.

Although I’m eligible, I’ve never played the lottery. (I have more fun things to waste my money on.) I did have a ticket once, though, when a restaurant I ate at with my karate sensei gave us a free ticket because we ordered either whale or sake. My sensei handed me the ticket and told me we’d split it 40% (him) 60% (me) if we won.

We didn’t win, though, but it was fun watching the arrows.