Kodansha Bilingual Manga Updates

The Japanese publisher Kodansha offers a range of bilingual (Japanese and English) titles of famous Japanese manga and from time to time I have offered them on the manga page of my website, particularly "Ribbon no Kishi" and "Genji Monogatari"...

Ribbon no Kishi
I temporarily removed the manga series "Ribbon no Kishi" (or "Princess Knight" in English) from my site as it had disappeared from the shelves, but now I am pleased to be able to announce that Princess Knight is back and available once again at http://www.japanese-games-shop.com/manga.html!


Genji Monogatari
Kodansha used to publish a four-volume "Tale of Genji" manga series that made Murasaki Shikibu's famous Japanese classic accessible to English speaking readers. That series disappeared from suppliers' shelves recently. However, spurred on by a customer I went out and discovered that Kodansha reissued the manga in a new two-volume edition in July of this year and so I have just updated the manga page of my website to offer this new edition.

A Note on the Kodansha Bilingual Editions Offered on My Site
The Kodansha Bilingual series offered on my website are all purchased NEW. I do not keep a stock of these manga but order each one as orders come in.

This "special order service" requires a slightly higher "shipping and handling" price than for the other volumes on offer on my site, but if you compare it to what is on offer on the second-hand market on Amazon.com, for example, you will see that you are actually getting better value for money. For example, a second hand copy of Kodansha's Princess Knight is currently available for the "low price" of $51.92 plus postage!

Japanese Mahjong Yakitori Tiles - New!! "Sweating Sparrow"

If you play the Japanese version of mahjong you may be accustomed to the familiar site of a tile with a picture of a skewered sparrow on it! It is a flat tile, similar in size to the Wind Marker and it sits to the right of each player until he has completed a hand. Any player who fails to complete a hand through the course of a game is said to be "Yakitori" - skewered and grilled sparrow!

I offer a couple of styles of Yakitori tile on the Japanese mahjong goods section of my site. Just recently I have been able to add a third design to my range of tiles. This one is a sweating sparrow. A set of four costs just $15 (plus S&H) and can be purchased via Paypal at Japanese-Games-Shop.com.

Ultraman Hanafuda is Back too!!

The unique Ultraman Hanafuda deck disappeared from the shelves of Japanese-Games-Shop.com some time ago never to be seen again - or so we thought!

HOWEVER, I think I have just located a new source of this hard-to-get hanafuda set so as of today I am once again making it available. Go to http://japanese-games-shop.com/ultrahana.html and this is what you will see:



You'll find Ultraman or one of the other characters from the animation either fully represented on each hanafuda card or lurking somewhere in the background!

This collector's set is made by Bandai.

Sushi Mahjong Is Back!

Good news folks! Sushi mahjong is back!!

The Japanese sushi mahjong set is a neat combination of mahjong... and... sushi! The three mahjong suits have been transformed into sushi, wrapped sushi, and shellfish, each in nine variations!

The set is very entertaining and colourful to use but until recently it has been impossible to get hold of... but I have found a source... at least for the time being... so if you are looking for an unusual variation on the game of mahjong, or for a way to learn about sushi (or ideally, both!) then check out the set and snap one up while it is available. You can check out the set and get further info about it here.

Tomy Pocketmate Games Make Great Stocking-Fillers!

With the Christmas shopping season looming the desperate search for inspiration - or simply for a range of quick and easy stocking fillers - is looming. Japanese toy company Tomy's range of "Pocketmate" games brilliantly fills the void - and the stocking!!



Most of the games in the Tomy Pocketmate series make use of ball bearings but each one has a novel kind of twist that takes them beyond most pocket games of a similar size.

A typical game is self-contained and usually features some kind of shooting action, such as "Baseball Game" or "Crazy Machine Gun." A couple of others require you to negotiate a maze either avoiding traps, or getting through within a limited time.

Games such as "The Tennis" and "Golf Game" are played "outside the box" - in the first case the box opens up to form a miniature tennis court, while in the second you can take a plastic golf "player" with a metal golf "club" around a 9-hole golf course which you construct by putting three parts of a golf green together in different combinations!

At the moment six of these games are available on my site:

1. Baseball Game
2. Shogi - Japanese chess; the only game that does not feature a ball!
3. Maze Game
5. Crazy Machine Gun Game
10. Golf Game
11. Smartball Game

In the next few days I will be adding six more games from the Pocketmate range to my site:

4. Hole In Golf Game
6. Combat Tank Game
7. Clean Tennis Game
8. Time Trap Game　
9. Target Range Game
12. Marble Catch Game

After that there will be just one more game to go for the whole range to be covered!

New Japanese Mahjong Sets & Accessories...

It has been a hot busy summer here in Hiroshima, but not fruitless as I have been able to expand the range of mahjong sets and accessories available on my website.

As well as the leading hirohurl product - the dead cool all-black tile mahjong set - there is now a more traditional white and bamboo coloured set available. Apart from the colour of the tiles, the set is made to a similar high quality as the black set.

A new novelty mini set has recently appeared on the Japanese scene. Three quarters of the tiles are made of acrylic and are transparent. The remaining quarter are standard white and bamboo plastic so you get to be able to peek at a part of the other player's hands. I guess the standard tiles can be arranged to fool the other players about the structure of your hand...

Every mj set on my site is made to Japanese specs with none of those annoying Arabic numerals that you see on western sets!

Apart from mj sets, I have added a range of accessories such as a nice chunky Japanese Wind Marker and a range of Japanese style dice - the "1" spot on white dice is larger than the rest, and painted red.


There are also some novely spherical dice - and yes, they always come to rest with a number upwards!