Monday 4th May: Golf Practice Or How To Drive A Ball 100 Yards With Any Club...

Ah yes, golf. Having avoided this subject for virtually a year, I found myself having to dust off Mr David Leadbetter's book "The Golf Swing" and haul my neglected clubs out of the attic in preparation for a round of golf at Takanosu Golf Club somewhere in the Japanese countryside north west of Hiroshima. It all came about because I happen to "teach" Mrs W, the owner of the club, English. Or, more accurately, we play mahjong along with Mrs T at Mrs T's house while chatting in English - at least in a form of English that includes all the usual Japanese terminology for playing mahjong.

Mrs W is a keen golfer who has become hooked on mahjong. She and Mrs T sometimes join our games of 3-player mahjong on Friday evenings. Both Noda and Jaime are keen mahjong players who happen to be hooked on golf so it did not take long for everyone to agree that it would be a spiffing idea if we made up a party and played golf at Takanosu during Golden Week.

By coincidence, the best day for everybody was May 4th, aptly designated "Midori no hi" or "Green Day".

Now, as I say, I had not so much as touched a golf club for virtually a year. Not since I scored something like 158 on the easy 9 hole course on the Ota river in the northern outskirts of Hiroshima.

So, on Monday 3rd May I hauled David Leadbetter's book and four clubs up to the driving range at Mitaki to do a bit of practice... The four clubs were my driver, and the 6, 7 and 9 irons. Anything below 6 is a complete waste of time and effort as far as I'm concerned.

Just as I feared, I was stuck between a highly competent chap who was blasting his balls all the way up the driving range with his great swinging driver. He was behind me so he could see exactly what I was up to. In front of me was a young lady with a personal "trainer" many years her senior. He sat on a chair and observed in that expressionless way so beloved of the natives of these parts.

I delayed the moment of truth for as long as possible with the rituals of (1) getting clubs out of bag, (2) getting a drink from the drinks machine (3) getting a basket of 50 balls from the ball dispenser and (4) reading David Leadbetter with a great show of concentration...

Actually, reading DL's book did me a lot of good. I picked up a detail I'd missed before - that I ought to shift my weight on my right leg from the ball to the heel on the upswing...

Armed - or footed - with this new nugget of technical know-how, I picked up the most promising of my range of clubs, the trusty no. 9, the easiest iron in the bag and got stuck in.

After a few toppings and slicings I got back into the rhythm and managed to loft a few balls somewhere between 50-90 yards more or less straight ahead.

The next 50 balls were dedicated to the no. 7 iron. The next 50 balls to the no. 6. Both irons, when they made decent contact with the ball sent it around 100 yards up the driving range. Whenever I got tired and started topping the ball, I reduced the swing to a half swing and built up from there. I also found it convenient to blast a series of balls at top speed.

The final 50 balls were dedicated to my driver. By now the bloke behind me and the girl and her chum had disappeared. There was no one around to notice the ball that my driver sent rolling off the tee to end up four feed behind me. As for all the sliced shots, or the ones that set off in a straight line until they reached the 30 yard mark and then scooted off to the right in a sort of delayed slice, I don't suppose many people noticed.

Just as with the 6 and 7 irons, my driver, when it behaved itself, sent the ball approximately 100 yards up the driving range...

I now had a blister on my left index finger and a red weal on the palm of my hand. 200 balls satisfactorily blasted (or topped or sliced) off the tee. Time to go home and sleep off golf practice in preparation for Green Day at Takanosu...

David Hurley
Japanese-Mahjong.com

Friday 30th April: Chombo Wakes Up Noda...

Ray and Jaime were taking on Noda tonight. It seems that all was going along fairly quietly until Noda discovered that he had accumulated too many tiles on his first Oya-ship of the third game and had therefore committed a Chombo.

That had the effect of waking him up. He went on to win that game, with Ray replying in the fourth leaving everything to play for in the fifth and final game.

However, Noda dominated the game to finish on +72, and +107 for the evening with the Anglo-Irish sharing the losses more or less evenly between them.

Noda +26, 0, +24,* -15, +72 = +107
===

Jaime -15, +17, -6, -26, -22 = -52
Ray -11, -17, -18, +41, -50 = -55

* Chombo 

DH
Japanese-Mahjong.com

Friday 16th April: Mister Nobu Rising...

The first time Jaime and I met Mr Hanada he was in the company of the former's trouble'n'strife, or rather more correctly, that esteemed lady was in the company of Mr Hanada since he, being her boss, might well be the owner of the company which employs her.

Be that as it may, the plain and simple fact of the matter is that the Lord and Master of that lady's work space was perfectly pie eyed, quite frankly fried to the tonsils and not in full control of his ambulatory facilities.

So it will be understood that it was through no lack of charity on our own part if we failed to take him entirely at his word when he declared (several times as I recall) that he would like to join us one Friday evening around one the mahjong tables at Kodama jansou.

A week or so later the word went around that Hanada-san really did intend to come along for a game of mahjong on Friday and so Noda, David, Jaime and Nobu were in attendance against his arrival.

I must admit that there was a degree of scepticism as to whether or not he would let his countenance shine forth among us, right up until Hanada-san breezed into the parlour without a totter to be discerned in his gait.

Hanada-san was just in time for the second game. After the usual preliminaries in which the conventions of the game were checked out and the new player apologized for his hopeless ineptitude, Hanada-san entered the lists and within about 60 seconds of play had taken Noda for a 12,000 point Ron to the delight of the foreign party!

The jubilation was not to last, however, as Noda turned out to be the only winner of the second game (+51) and after a flat zero in the third, retired for the evening. 

It was during this game that David was Oya for less than a minute as Noda declared Double Riichi and went out on Ippatsu Tsumo.

One can only wonder what would've happened had Noda elected to play on, but what did happen was one of the most remarkable events in the whole history of the Hiroshima Cock's Eye 3-Player Mahjong Club and Noda had the devil's own luck not to get caught up in it.

The event to which we allude is this, videlicit, that Nobu started winning, and once he had started he just woudn't stop! Now that was an event which we had thought was beyond the event horizon and as such it pretty much disproves everything we've been told about general relativity.

The first person to succumb to the rise of the Nobu was poor old Hanada-san, who had been sinking gently to the mezzanine floor up to that point was swiftly deposited in the coal cellar thereafter. It was Nobu's achieving his first ever Ryanshi as Oya that did it. Hanada-san declared Riichi forgetting that it was Ryanshi, confessed his error and thereby committed his first Chombo of his hitherto brief career at our tables.

Mr Hanada's tray is as empty as the rest of the mahjong parlour...

It may have been David who triggered the change in fortune. David was Oya when Nobu declared Riichi and was able to discard a couple of safe tiles but would need to get rid of the 6-Bamboo Dora if the hand took the fast route to Tempai. With 3s and 9s pretty much out in the open he had already decided to take the risk if the hand developed. It did, and so he did - and lost the bet!

Nobu took over as Oya and went on to rack up +102 in a single game, and then pulled in a further +34 in the final game of the evening, turning a -50 deficit into a +86 victory.

Mr Nobu rising out of the event horizon....

Mister Nobu rising
Nobu rising
Got the Nobu rising
Mister Nobu rising
Got to keep on rising...

Yes, Nobu must keep on rising if he is to excite the discomfiture of a certain lady just above him on the 3PMJ Grand Accumulated Results Table 2010.

The scores for the evening's play were as follows:

Nobu --, -34, -16, +102, +34 = +86
Noda -16, +51, 0, --, -- = +35
Jaime -4, --, +36, +5, -36 = +1
===
David +20, -8, --, -49, 0 = -37
Hanada --, -9, -20, -58,* +2 = -85

* Chombo 

DH
Japanese-Mahjong.com

Noda's Zombie Mahjong - Hit By Yakitori & Chinrootoo But Still UnDead!

Last Friday evening Noda played mahjong like a zombie. He failed to win a single hand in the first game and was stuck with his Yakitori on the table. In negative figures in the second game, and caught out by David's Chinrootoo Ron in the third, Noda just kept coming back. Jaime was devoured in the fourth game and Zombie Noda ended up on top of the pile.

 Noda had begun to show signs of revival in the third game. Then David opened his hand to claim three sets of Terminals and was left with a pair of 9-Bamboo and a pair of White Dragons. He drew a fourth 1-Characters and made Kan.

Then Noda declared Riichi. David picked up and discarded a series of friendly safe tiles, and then picked up the 1-Coins and discarded one of the White Dragons. That proved to be safe as well. Next he drew a South and discarded the other White Dragon. Next he drew a second 1-Coin and threw the South even though it was Table Wind and none had been discarded before...

Silence from Noda...!

Then Noda drew and discarded the 1-Coins!

Ron!! As David was the Oya with 1 x 100 Tenbou on the table Noda had to cough up 49,000.

 Noda gives David Chinrootoo & 49,000 points

In the hand that followed, David was somewhat deflated by one of his more foolish Chombo attacks. Noda declared Riichi again and threw a 2-Bamboo which David claimed only for Noda to instantly declare "Chombo!" - for there was a 2-Bamboo sat snugly in second place in David's discard row!

From that moment on the zombie could not be killed and the Chombo payout ultimately worked to consign David to second place...

Noda -23,* -8, -5, +72 = +36
David +20, -14, +26,** -13 = +19
===
Jaime +3, +22, -21, -59 = -55

* Yakitori
** Chombo

David Hurley
Japanese-Mahjong.com

Two Ladies Join The Lists

On Friday afternoons I play mahjong with two Japanese ladies, one of whom was a complete beginner a few months ago. Mahjong has replaced English conversation, except inasmuch as I offer advice and game analysis in English.

We play 4-player Riichi-style, but with elements of 3-player Mahjong thrown in. For example, the North tile is used as a "Dora" bonus tile, and we use the convenient scoring method of 3-player mahjong.

Last Friday, with Jaime back in Blighty whacking balls around St Andrews, and with Nobu's nose firmly attached to the grindstone, it didn't look as if Noda and I would be able to play mahjong that evening until I hit upon the idea of inviting the ladies, Hatsue-san and Aimi-san, to join us.

Happily, they agreed.

So, Aimi, Hatsue and I spent the afternoon on an intensive 3-Player MJ training session. Our party broke up around 5pm and we arranged to meet in town at 8pm.

It was a beautiful day, so I hopped off the train at Yokogawa and strolled along the river bank into town, negotiating my way across three branches of the delta until it brought me close to the entrance of Kemby's bar.

It was too early for a quick snifter so I headed past and went for a good old soak in the middle of town. There is nothing quite like relaxing in a hot spa in the middle of a city teeming with sweating multitudes. The closest anybody has come to it was that chap who took pleasure in observing from his casement window a storm-tossed barque toiling upon a stormy sea while he was sat warm and snug in front of a cosy fire in the upper room of a secure stone tower.

I recovered from the heat of the bath and sauna by ordering okonomiyaki and beer from a decent little teppanyaki restaurant called Hana-chan, located between Chuden-Mae and the river.

While I was there, Hide-san called up to ask if there was a game...

I arrived at Kodama Jansou via a quick snifter at Kemby's and told Mama there would be five of us. She said something or other and I popped out to meet Aimi and Hatsue.

When I returned with my charges, Noda had arrived, and so had a steaming dish of yaki-meshi and a cleansing beer to wash it down with. It seems that Mama had thought I'd ordered dinner as usual. Well, it would have been rude to have left it, so down the hatch it went while Noda, Hide and the ladies played the first two games.

Aimi-san is an experienced player of "standard" 4-player Riichi mahjong and I think she had a fine time of it at the table because whenever she needed a tile the wall seemed only too pleased to oblige.

Hatsue-san coped well but was especially impressed by the pace of the game and the speed with which hands were made during the third game when all three regular players were involved.

The funniest moment of the evening was when Hide-san was exchanging pleasant chat with Hatsue across the mahjong table about playing golf and it was quickly established that they both were familiar with a certain golf course in the area.

Hide: "Do you work there."

Hatsue: "I am the owner."

At this point Hide's eyes turned into saucers and there was a loud "CLANG" as his jaw dropped onto the table.

Hide represented himself as a "tada no sarariman" - just an ordinary employee - though I can't say that I've ever thought of him in those terms. However, I hear that his charm had a positive effect upon the evening.

There was quite a scrap in the third game with all three regular players looking for a big win. In the end David came top after winning a couple of "okake-riichi" competitions (as Oya) with Hide. Noda finished in a strong second place.

The ladies left after that game. Aimi-san finished on +63 and so enters the lists in third place. Hatsue-san finished on -82, sandwiched somewhere between Nobu and Jaime.

No sooner had the door shut than Hide claimed "Ron" off David's North Dora tile and revealed Kokushimusou (as a "ko" player, for 32,000 points). Funnily enough, David finished the fourth game on exactly -32,000 points and Hide was not able to build on the result even though he came top because David fought a rearguard action and Noda only shed 5 points.

However, the result was enough for Noda to extend his lead by a few points over David at the top of the table.

The final results of an entertaining evening were:

Noda -30, +36, +41, -5 = +42
Aimi +49, +14, --, -- = +63
David --, --, +63, -32 = +31
==
Hide -2, -34, -55, +37 = -54
Hatsue -17, -16, -49, --, = -82

David H
Japanese-Mahjong.com

Neil's Birthday Mahjong Bash...

Neil, a former Lang Education Center English language teacher who now works as a roving Japanese translator and resides in the nether regions of Kyushu, emerged from his self-imposed exile and returned to Hiroshima to celebrate his thirty-somethingth birthday with a night of mahjong at Kodama jansou.

L to R: Nobu, Neil, Jaime, Noda

Noda held on to the starting Oya of the first game long enough for David to finish his chow and take the fourth seat. Noda rampaged through the first game scattering all opposition.
Nobu joined us in time for the second game, which Noda also won while Neil seemed to be suffering from mahjong collywobbles and turned into a serial tile-snatcher and then forgot which tile he'd taken out of turn and was awarded a special birthday Chombo.

As well as bringing along his 2009 Mahjong Duck Nobu had got himself a natty plastic miniature year-of-the-tiger tiger in a "lucky" sake box which sat on display alongside the duck on the corner of the mj table for the duration of Nobu's game (see photo above). Nobu declared his determination not to end 2010 on the bottom...

So how did Nobu do?

• Nobu finished the first game with his Yakitori tessera stuck firmly to the table.
• Nobu finished the second game with his Yakitori tessera stuck firmly to the table.
• Nobu broke the "lowest score" record for the year so far.

Meanwhile, Tim joined us and  he and David (who sat out of the second game) chewed the fat about the virtues of the Amazon Kindle.

Noda won again and called it a night on +152 - the best result so far this year.

Seats were reallocated for the third game, and with all parties in the mire it seemed an appropriate moment to present Neil with his birthday present, supplied by Jaime. It was a Carp baseball team official's happi jacket, reputed to bring good luck to the wearer. Or was that what we told Neil to persuade him to try it on? Anyway, he popped it on and began to concentrate on getting lucky (see photo)...

 

Happi Birthday Neil!

The result was disconcerting at first as he pretty quickly managed to commit a second Chombo for the evening. He didn't carp and from that point on his luck was markedly happier, but just as the old text says that it is better to give than to receive,   

beatius est magis dare, quam accipere...

and that the ox should not be muzzled as he tramples out the grain,  

non alligabis os bovi trituranti...

so it proved tonight as Jaime grazed to his heart's content for much of the rest of the evening.


The chief victim was Nobu who bore up well for the most part, but was gutted to get trapped with a single tile wait - I mean he only had one tile left in his hand after ponning all the triples - only to see Jaime win another big hand at his expense!

 

Nobu grimaces at his unhappi luck.

David also completed his worst performance so far this year so Noda goes back on top, with David still in the black on +19 for the year so far. Neil came in on a creditable -9, while reduced his deficit and opened up a gap of 109 points between himself and bottom-placed Nobu.

Noda +99, +53, --, --, --, -- = +152
Jaime -34, -12, +63, +23, -16, +25 = +49
===
Neil -27, -12,* +31,* -5, +37, -33 = -9

David -38, --, -39, +1, -21, +8 = -89

Nobu --, -29,** -55,** -19, --, -- = -103

* Chombo
** Yakitori

David Hurley
Japanese-Mahjong.com
 

How Like Unto A Dwarf Wisteria Is My Game Of Japanese Mahjong

As my afternoon and evening classes had been cancelled I was able to pop back to the homestead where I thought I might indulge in a quiet afternoon nap and woke up about four hours later. Thus refreshed I hopped onto the tram into town and hopped off at Kamiyacho Nishi, wherefrom I wended my way towards Bizenya to set myself up for the evening with the old Yasai Ramen and Gyouza combination.

I don't know much about the people who run Bizenya, but from what I gather, they are fond of art and gardening since the place often has a mini exhibition of pictures on the side wall, and different potted plants at the entrance.

As I approached the threshold, my eye was drawn by what I took to be some cut wisteria branches in full bloom outside the door. On further inspection it turned out that I was looking at an ornamental wisteria plant, uncut, potted and very much in the land of the living. I didn't know that you could get full sized blossom off a miniature plant, but it seems that you can and that the Japanese go in for a bit of wisteria bonsai on the side.

My game this evening had something of the quality of the ornamental wisteria about it. With an unpromising start, such as might lead one to suppose the Wisteria Minima Davida was dead. But in the middle of the evening there were signs of life and something resembling a recovery came into blossom. I am not sure how high this particular wisteria can grow or whether its vines will have anything more than a vain hope to cling on to.

Meanwhile, the great Wisteria Senexa Nodaria spread and blossomed rampantly across the evening, casting a shade on the falling petals of the weeping cherry, Cerasus Infortunius Iacobus

The result means that for the first time in about six months(?) David is off the bottom. Noda, however, is back in the black so we wonder how much longer the top of table will be the preserve of foreign plant species...

Noda +33, -22, +70, +3 = +84
David -45, +84, -13, +32 = +58
===
Jaime +12, -62, -57, -35 = -142

During the course of the evening Jaime asked me if I had seen the youtube video of Susan Boyle, a contestant in the Britain's Got Talent show, who shocked the judges with her performance...

Of course, I had not seen it, but when I got home I checked it out... Fantastic!

Here's a link to the show.

Japanese-Mahjong.com

Noda Marches On As Foreigners Sink In The Mire

This was not a good night for foreign players! It was probably all the fault of the Poor Little Cypriot. When Noda was on his first hand as Oya the PLC moved off Tempai to try and build a pure bamboo hand, a tactic that backfired and that went against every principle of play when Noda is Oya!

While the PLC did indeed end up with 13 Bamboo tiles in his hand, he was still one off Tempai when Noda went out. Worse still, Noda went on to rack up about eight or so hyaku tembou, and by the time he relinquished the Oya the PLC was in hock to the tune of about 30,000 points. It was thoroughly deserved, and the score for the first game tells the story: Noda +116, David -116, Ray 0!

The second game saw one of the recoveries of the year, however, as the PLC found himself with a Suuanko-Tanki wait on 3-Coins, but also with the option of going out on 2 or 5-Coins. Ray threw the 3-Coins and handed the PLC a much needed 65,000 points, which could possibly be the record single hand score for the year.

Hide arrived in time for the third game, and it turned out that the foreigners' fortunes, such as they were, had peaked. Ray never got past zero, and the PLC never got that far, -14 being the best cumulative score of his evening.

Noda won the third and fourth, and called it an evening on a healthy +209, a score which ensured that he had broken through the +1000 point barrier in style.

I'm sure that Ray and the PLC would have been happy to have called it a night at this stage too, but Kayo had arrived and not yet had a game so they stayed and both continued on the downward slope as Hide won the fifth and Kayo the sixth games.

The result was that Ray took the "worst result" from Jaime by racking up a total score of -193. It was a bit harsh really, when you consider that 65 of those points came from one discard!

The Grand Accumulated Results Table is beginning to look rather embarrassing as the top four players are all Japanese and all in the black. All the foreign players are in the red, and the only Japanese player down there with them is the rookie Nobuhiro, and he is moving up the table by default as the foreigners drop below him one by one...

Not only that but Nobuhiro is an improving player who is expected to record a positive finish any time soon...

Noda +116, -3, +59, +37, --, -- = +209
Hide --, --, -10, +13, +38, +11 = +52
Kayo --, --, --, --, -9, +45 = +36
===
David -116, +102, -5, -14, -16, -55 = -104
Ray 0, -99, -44, -36, -13, -1 = 193


David Hurley
Japanese Games Shop