The Stagnation of Riichi Mahjong
Hi everyone. In March, there is no pro league and major tournament either (well there is “grandprix 2009” but it’s only for the JPML top-pros). So this time of my column, I’d like to introduce one story . I often go to Free Mahjong parlor in Akihabara. It’s not because I am a deep otaku, but there is a friend of my working at the parlor. This day, as usual, I was playing non-rate riichi mahjong. However, there was some unusual sight at this day at the mahjong parlor. There was a foreigner playing mahjong with me at the same table. I could tell from his face and the way he speaks. He must be a mahjong maniac from outside of Japan. Let me call him Bob because I heard someone called him Bob. I had no clue whether he was a skilled player or not. After few rounds, however, it was obvious that Bob is not that experienced. The way he “tsumo” and discards tiles were bit clumsy. In addition to those, by the time east-round ends, he did not made any “Agari”(Tsumo nor Ron),and tempai either. When the first game ends, Bob ended up by 4th place. I felt little pity for him, but I never made allowance for him. Because I thought it is rude to think about allowance. I thought giving all my strength to him was the best way to show respect to him. By the time the second game was close to its end, Bob was still losing. However, during this match he won a hand with “Hatsu (Green Dragon) only”. It was only a 1000 point hand, but when I looked at his face, there was a big smile on his face. “What a strange kid…” That was my first impression on him. At the third game, Bob was getting something. He won his hand two rounds in row and trying to catch the first place. But you know, riichi mahjong is not that easy. He also had “Houjyu”, as many time as he won his hands. When we got to the 4th round of South-round, our scores were pretty much flat. Anybody could have won this game if he/she won a 1000 point hand. The consequence was that the other player won the game by “Tanyao” hand. Right after the winner was settled, Bob showed us his hand. He was close to tenpai, actually it was 1-shanten. However, what he was making was not usual to this kind of situation. He was making a half flash hand with ponned “Hatsu”. It was pretty obvious that 1000point could have led to the winner, but he was going for more difficult way of winning. Everyone in the table thought, how newbie he was;nevertheless, I was not. Showing his hand, Bob mentioned with big smile on his face “aw I almost won this hand and this game…”. Yes, he was very happy all the time. No matter he wins or loses, he never changed his face. When I looked his face I learned something very precious from him. As we getting to know more strategies about riichi mahjong, we tend to forget the precious moments. The moments which the first time you won your hand, the first time you won a yakuman hand, or the very first time you touched mahjong tiles. Do you still remember those moments and big excitement you experienced? You must have been happy just because you could play mahjong with buddies. This anecdote sounds very typical to readers, but those people feeling stagnant of riichi mahjong these days, please remind those moments and enjoy playing mahjong again. Simply enjoying mahjong will lead you to play better mahjong. This is also my slogan that I carry every time when I participate at big tournaments.
