Archive for the ‘Mahjong Travel Journal’ Category
Mahjong Travel Journal: Taiwan
Mar 23rd, 2010
by garthe
Hey all. I was a little worried people might start thinking all I ever think about is Mahjong so I thought I’d write about a recent trip I made to Taiwan. It was a lot of fun. Checked some sights, met some cool people, oh! And um, well, played a little Mahjong.
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Posted in Columns, Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: WSOM Press Conference in Macau
Feb 17th, 2010
by jenn
Last month was the announcement of the 2010 World Series of Mahjong. ReachMahjong.com’s Marketing manager Kirk Camerlingo and I (Jenn) joined the event in Macau and also celebrated the second Reach/Riichi event to be held at the WSOM. I spent only a few days in Macau, but it felt productive. It was probably the first time I took a MTJ trip without actually playing any mahjong!
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Posted in Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal : Leaving the comfort zone
Jan 10th, 2010
by jamie
Greetings everyone, Jamie here with the tale of my trip to Tokyo! For the New Year’s holiday, I decided to venture out beyond the impeccable boundaries of my small, cold island and make the long Journey to hang out with Jenn and Kirk in Tokyo. While this would mark my 3rd trip to Tokyo, it was the first time I ever had the pleasure of experiencing it with a native.
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Posted in Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: Sado Island
Nov 25th, 2009
by jenn
If you’re a regular ReachMahjong.com reader, you’ll know that we have added a new contributor, James Johnston, to write book reviews each month. James resides in Japan, if you can call it that, on Sado Island. While in most of Japan the term “foreigners” means a person like Garthe or I, on Sado this term refers to all mainlanders as well. We ventured to Sado and spent the day letting Jamie drive us around this little island of the shore of Niigata.
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Posted in Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: Fukuoka
Sep 18th, 2009
by jenn
I am just getting back from a short weekend in Fukuoka. I was going back to my roots. Fukuoka International Airport is the first place I ever landed in Japan and that was over 10 years ago. The last time I walked the streets of Tenjin was 8 years ago and now I was going back for my job. What a great thing.
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Posted in Columns, Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: Kanazawa (part 2)
Jun 4th, 2009
by jenn
I started my journey last time up to Kanazawa to visit JPML’s Kourin’s parlor. You can read part 1 here.
Now, on to the tournament and the games!
After a good night’s sleep I was back in Kanazawa at Nankuru’s sister parlor, Gal-nan, a parlor that employs only girls. This time it was a tournament, the monthly tournament for Kanazawa and Toyama players. Many of the JPML pro’s living in Kanazawa play and the parlor and tournament is run by JPML’s Ms. Kourin.
I got this job from Kourin and her associate. They were in Tokyo and took the time to come visit me at Fairy. It seems the idea was to get to know me and invite me out to Kanazawa, so we played a few games together and I gave them my card. Kourin e-mailed me right away and we arranged a time when I could come up as a guest, which happened to be last weekend. The only problem was the time.
Sunday morning’s tournament was to start at 11am and so if I was there by 10:30 it would give me ample time to get ready and say hi to everyone. Or so I thought. Thanks to a bit of traffic I was set to arrive at 10:45. And then the call came at 10:30. Thinking I would still make it in time for the tournament and they were just worried, I answered the phone and let them know my status.
Only the tournament was to start at 10:30, not 11am.
I had never been to the parlor and now besides being late I also risked getting lost. Lucky for me the parlor was easy to find.
So after parking in a spot NOT belonging to the parlor (which ended up not being a problem) I rushed out of the car and up the stairs, frantically searching for this door that I had never been through.
When I walked in it was like a bad nightmare, the kind where you show up late for a test or a big presentation and you’re naked and everyone is staring at you. Luckily I wasn’t naked but the rest held true. The only open seat in the house was saved for me and everyone else was ready to go, staring at the door, waiting for the only white girl pro in their league to show up from Tokyo.
If any of them had showed up at the same time as me it would have been a penalty.
Luckily I had confirmed the incorrect time with the manager of Nankuru the day before, so all was forgiven quickly enough. I quickly took off my boots and took my seat with the others.
We played 4 games of JPML A-Rules and despite my great run since last month, especially with A-Rules, I couldn’t pull it together this time. I didn’t get last place though, so I, as the guest, got to present the 2nd to last player with the bag of rice he won, and the cash prizes to the top 3.
I am choosing to blame my performance for the day on lack of breakfast.
I spent the afternoon and evening playing in the free games at the parlor and did much better than the day before. Not to say I did great, but it was a fun time and I ended up with more than I started with.
Since I had to be at Fairy by 10 the next morning, the 6 hour drive home was brutal, but Luna was happy in her cage in the back of the car and I got some naps in and took advantage of the weekend discount.
All in all it was a great trip and I can’t wait until they call me up to Kanazawa again. I also can’t wait to find out where Mahjong will take me next!
Posted in Columns, Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: Kanazawa (part 1)
May 24th, 2009
by jenn
I was called to a guest job on North Honshu, to a city I’d heard of, but never been to: Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. There are a number of JPML members in the neighboring Toyama prefecture, but I had never stopped anywhere north of Tochigi, so this was an exciting trip for me.
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Posted in Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: North-Kanto League ( NOW WITH IMAGES!!)
Apr 23rd, 2009
by jenn
Last week marked the opening of the Japan Professional Mahjong League’s brand new North-Kanto League. While JPML has leagues throughout the entire country, this is the first chance I have ever had to not only witness, but actually participate in the opening of a new regional league.
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Posted in Columns, Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: SNPM Pair Match
Feb 18th, 2009
by jenn
In the last travel journal Garthe, Konno and Jenn went to Utsunomiya to visit Kaori Shimizu, one of the strongest mahjong players in the world. This time Jenn teamed up with Kaori to play in the Saikoui Japan Pro Mahjong’s pair match. With matching clothes and winning smiles how could they lose?
The SNPM Pair Match happens every January and is one of the most exciting tournaments of the year. The big names in Japan mahjong dress up, show up and spend the day catching up with all the other big names. People are there in costumes and this year there were even 2 actresses from the new drama “Mukoubuchi” (based on the popular comic). Two years ago Jenn and Garthe played together and ended up with less than amazing results. This time Jenn joined the former OUI title holder, Kaori Shimizu and two of the most well-known girls in the mahjong community took on 100 other pairs for the title. I (Jenn), started out with a horrible score. I couldn’t get a rhythm going and I ended up with -50.4 points. There is a 30 point penalty for 4th place, so it was a finish of 9000 points or so, but how embarrassing! I was the one who invited my elder, Kaori to play and then I completely busted us in the first game! I sheepishly went over to Kaori to let her know that I was sorry and watched her win a 12,000 point hand as dealer. I remember thinking, “Man, she’s going to be carrying me today.” And hug my head all the way back to my seat.
To my surprise Kaori came over a few minutes later. “Jenn! I’m sorry! I got last place!” she said as she approached me. I breathed a sigh of relief and told her of my defeat too. We both resolved to win the next 3 games to give ourselves a fighting chance. The 2nd game was worse than the first. This time I busted out in the last hand and had negative 67. I went through the same motions again and was even more surprised when Kaori did too and came to tell me that she had also busted out! What a pair we were.
After 4 games Kaori had a first place and I had a 2nd and a 3rd. My score was -129.5 and our combined score was around -200. We ended up in 89th place which means that we were not dead last, we didn’t get the booby prize (2nd to last) and we didn’t get the cut-off prize for 90th place. If only I had lost one more hand!
Other notable names at this tournament were Masayuki Katayama (author of Obaka Miko), Toshimasa Chou (2nd place at the WSOMRE qualifier in Japan) and Kozue Miyauchi. We were lucky enough to get permission to cover this event thanks to Toshimasa Chou. He was also the winner of Takeshobo’s Saikyoui tournament, one of the biggest mahjong tournaments in Japan (Ben played in that one too). You’ll see Chou playing in lots of big tournaments in the next few years and we’ll definitely be covering him on ReachMahjong.com too! So we have gone to Utsunomiya to visit Kaori and now she has come to Tokyo to play with us. Starting in the spring Jenn and Kaori are going to continue their adventures together in the new JPML North Kanto League so look for their story from Gunma in April.
Posted in Columns, Mahjong Travel Journal |
Mahjong Travel Journal: Utsunomiya
Dec 28th, 2008
by jenn
As Garthe and I are getting more successful, comfortable and accepted in our position as the only American mahjong professionals in Japan, we are starting to spread our baby chick wings and explore the mahjong world outside of Tokyo. We are meeting new pros and enthusiasts everyday and it has inspired us to include some travels in our agenda.
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Posted in Columns, Mahjong Travel Journal |
