Mahjong Travel Journal: Kanazawa (part 1)
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.
I started my trip by looking up the travel time. Plane: 4-5 hours (including train time), Car: 4-5 hours. With the new toll system in place in Japan, allowing you to go anywhere on the freeway system for about $10 USD on the weekends, the decision seemed extremely obvious to me, so I packed up my puppy, Luna, some egg salad sandwiches and we set off at about 6am on Friday the 14th of May.
Japanese freeways have great rest stops and our first stop was the Takasaka Parking Area. Here they have a dog park, sell doggy bentos (lunch boxes) and have a fine selection of souvenirs and coffee to keep me awake. I took a short nap, then took Luna for a romp in the park before setting off to our next break.
After about 2 hours we got off the freeway in a place called Karuizawa, Nagano prefecture. The only thing I could say about this place is yuppy golf town. I’ve never played golf and I realize it is quite affordable in many places, including Japan in recent years, but during the bubble prices were ridiculous (I’m talking $100,000 or more for 1 person’s yearly membership to the course) and although the prices now are not like that, the courses looked well-kept and the nearby residences looked like summer homes. Around the station the shops were full of novelties and there was a nice fountain in front of Karuizawa train station.
We stopped in a chain store called 3 Dog Bakery for some lunch, ordering Luna the doggy meatloaf and a bagel sandwich for myself. After that it was time for Luna to try on some clothes and get a cookie with her name on it. Then it was back on the road for the second half of the trip.
We finally arrived in Ishikawa prefecture and at my friend from my Seattle days house. She was nice enough to let me, Luna and all of Luna’s stuff stay in her living room for 2 nights and even take care of Luna while I was working.
The next morning I showed up at Nankuru, a parlor in Kanazawa city for games with their customers. Another pro from Osaka, Yui Ueda. We joined in the games all day and I did horrible. Ueda-pro walked away with a win, but I had the hardest time putting together a hand and went back home to Luna with my tail between my legs. The rules at this parlor are a bit hard to get used to too.
The rules are called “Sakae rules” and are used at a number of parlors throughout Japan, usually at the Three-Five and Sakae parlors. There are 3 red 5’s, one for each suit and the red-dot is good enough for a winning hand point all by itself. That means a hand like this:
Can be won on, and is worth 1300 points for a non-dealer. Plus one chip bonus.
This parlor also had a gold South tile. I never saw it used in the 2 days I played these rules, but if you make a concealed quad of South, then you get one chip bonus from each of the other players right then and there. Also, if the gold South is the Hidden Lucky Tile Indicator (meaning it shows up underneath the Dora Indicator) then it’s another one chip bonus. Although I didn’t get the chance to collect on any of these, I had plenty of chances to pay the 1 chip bonus to lots of my adoring fans (*just a tiny hint of sarcasm there).
It was a really fun day, however, and it was great to see a parlor outside of Tokyo. There were lots of great mahjong players, but I was also surprised at the mix of inexperienced players even though the rate at this parlor is a bit on the higher side. At my first table I was the resident scorer because none of the 3 customers knew how. At first the guy to my right wasn’t sure even I knew how to score, so he asked a staff member about the first hand I scored, but by the 2nd one he was trusting me and also kicking my ass. There I was telling him how much I owed him for the hand he just won on. Aiya~.
In part 2 you can read all about the next day and my tournament with the Kanazawa members of JPML.
