How Many Shogi Koma Make Up A Single Set Of Pieces?

Feedback and enquiries from customers or potential customers is always informative!

Here is an email I received just now:

"About the shogi pieces, when you write "complete set of pieces" is that for one or two players?
Just to know how many I need to buy."

That is a very good question! It is also helps me to see things better from the customer's point of view. When I wrote the phrase "complete set of pieces" it seemed obvious to me that it meant 40 pieces - enough for two players to play a game of shogi.

But, actually, it is not so obvious. Just because I deal with shogi sets every day and am used to my own terminology does not mean that it is clear to someone who might be interested in buying a set from me. The customer comes to my site with no prior knowledge of me or the goods I offer.

So, let's be clear about this... my website offers "complete sets of shogi pieces that contain 40 pieces - all the pieces that two players need to play a game on one board". (Some sets include a spare piece, to make a total of 41 pieces!)

David Hurley
http://japanese-games-shop.com

I'm Back From My Holidays!

Got back from our family holiday in Austria yesterday afternoon. I have now taken the "away on holiday" notices down from http://japanese-games-shop.com and http://japanese-mahjong.com and so am officially "back in business".

If you have never been to the Austrian Alps before, I recommend it!

I also recommend 10 days away from computers and the Internet!

While I was away in Austria I received my largest order ever, from a mahjong club based in... Austria! I'll start working on it on Monday morning!

Ich danke Ihnen für Ihren Einkauf!

David Hurley
http://japanese-games-shop.com

Autumn Break In The Alive-With-Music Hills!

We are off to Austria on a family holiday, so there will be no more shipments of goods until October 2nd at the earliest!

If you do not mind waiting, you may still purchase any of the items on Japanese-Games-Shop.com, but acknowledgment of your order and turnaround will be delayed.

We will be staying in Viehhofen, between Salzburg and Zell Am See. My daughter has been preparing for the adventure by watching The Sound Of Music, and studying German with the help of Shuan The Sheep - er, sorry, Shaun Das Schaf!

Pamper Your Mahjong Craving By Playing On A High Quality, Robust, Mahjong Mat!

Do you suffer from a mahjong craving? Then you should consider pampering your craving by playing mahjong on a high quality, robust, Japanese mahjong mat!

I have just upgraded the shipping method for the heavier of the two mahjong playing mats that are available on my website at http://japanese-mahjong.com/mjmat.html.

I noticed that the information about that mat was confusing as I had posted two different shipping rates. Also, due to the weight of the mat I used to ship it by surface mail to save the customer shipping charges.

There is no problem with shipping rubber-backed mahjong mats from Japan by surface mail, since the mats are so robust they can survive the journey in good condition. The problems are that surface mail takes sooo long and also that it is less reliable than express mail service. As if that was not enough, surface mail has no tracking service.

So, I have taken another look at the situation and decided to... gulp... cover the extra costs of Express Mail Service shipping on this item MYSELF.

Now, whichever of the two mats you buy, you will get it much more quickly as they both are now being shipped by EMS - and you'll be able to follow the progress of your parcel via the EMS tracking service... Delivery is within a week of dispatch in most cases.

Did I mention that insurance is included in the shipping price?

So, mahjong players, pamper your mahjong craving by playing on a high quality mahjong mat! Head over to http://japanese-mahjong.com/mjmat.html and get yourself a mahjong mat!

Best wishes,

David Hurley
http://japanese-mahjong.com

Japanese Mini Mahjong Set With Transparent Tiles!

I have just updated my range of Japanese mahjong sets to include a new Mini Mahjong Set With Transparent Tiles


One improvement, I think, is the new-style Japanese acrylic mini mj set I just added. Now every single tile is transparent, so you can watch your opponents' every move - but go careful how you read those difficult character tiles!!

The craze for playing with transparent mahjong tiles developed out of the Akagi manga series, in which the hero, Akagi has to play in a game using a set of tiles with 3 out of 4 tiles being transparent. If he loses he has to have so much blood drawn from his body... If he keeps on losing and he'll die of blood loss...

The mini mj set is really a novelty or party set, or a portable holiday set. The score sticks and dice are also mini-size. The dice are especially microscopic!!

Check out the Japanese Mini Mahjong Transparent Tile Set!

New Disney Hanafuda Deck Added To My Listings

Disney has given a Japanese games company called Angel a license to produce a novelty Hanafuda card deck with Disney characters on the cards.



Hanafua card decks were first made in Japan over 350 years ago as a Japanese response to the introduction of Western-style playing cards.

A hanafuda card deck consists of 48 cards divided into 12 suits of four cards each. Each “suit” is named after a month of the year and portrays a flower that blossoms during that month.

The word “Hanafuda” can be literally translated as “flower cards”.

For more details about hanafuda decks in general and the Disney/Angel hanafuda deck in particular, check out Japanese-Games-Shop.com.

David Hurley
http://Japanese-Games-Shop.com

New Hand Carved Japanese Shogi Koma Added To The Range!

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was planning to add a new set of hand carved shogi pieces to my range of top quality shogi koma sets.

It took me a while, but at last, today, I have done it!

The set is hand carved by craftsman Yamagami, using a deep-cut carving style. The style is very distinctive, as can be seen in the above photo.

The wood used for this set is Siamese boxwood.

For more photos and details about the set, click here.

David Hurley
http://japanese-games-shop.com

Yamato The White Fighter by Takahashi Yoshihiro Now Available!

Takahashi Yoshinori is famous in Japan as the creator of some of the most violent, and at the same time most appealing, manga stories to be published in Shonen Jump monthly comic for boys (but also read by quite a few girls).

In Takahashi Yoshinori's manga world it is very much a case of dog-eat-dog. He made his mark both in Japan and in Scandanavia with the publication of Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, a story about a Japanese Akita dog called Gin who goes in search of his father, Riki, deep in the Oku mountains of northern Honshu, where both humans and dogs are menaced by a sleuth of wild bears.

In the wake of that success, Takahashi created the Weed series, about the son of Gin. Then he brought out a prequel that describes the life and times of Gin's father, Riki, and his father, Shiro.

I just added Ginga Densetsu Riki to my site as these comic books, published in 2003 and 2007, are no longer so difficult to get on the secondary market.

Takahashi Yoshiro has also written a manga series called Shiroi Senshi Yamato, or Yamato the White Fighter. The story set in the world of Japanese Tosa fighting dogs. The fights depicted in the manga series are quite brutal, although the aim of Tosa dog fighting is not to fight to the death, but to fight until one dog loses spirit within a bout of up to thirty minutes.

If a dog loses the fight, but shows an undaunted spirit, then it stands a good chance of winning the competition on spirit alone.

The series is available in Ten volumes, and I have made every volume available as there seems to be a reasonable supply of them at the moment... although the secondary market fluctuates from week to week, as you will appreciate.

See: Japanese-Games-Shop.com/manga.html

New Japanese Study Dictionary Added To Listings!

I just removed the Japanese Buddhist Proverb Dictionary from my listings as it seems no longer to be available.

However, I have replaced it with an excellent Japanese language study tool:

The "Yoji Jukugo Jiten"

That is to say, being interpreted, the "Four-Character Japanese Idiom Dictionary".

As readers of one of my other blogs will be aware, Japanese words or idioms consisting of four characters (or Kanji) are the ultimate challenge of language proficiency, so getting some of them learned by heart is a must for the ambitious student of Japanese...


Here is a small selection of the yoji jukugo featured in the dictionary:

• Isshokenmei Isshokenmei ni yarimashita (I gave it everything I had.)
  
• Jigojitoku Jigojitoku da. (You brought it upon yourself.)
  
• Anchumosaku (Groping in the dark.)
  
• Bozenjishitsu (So completely disoriented that you have lost sight of yourself.)
  
• Gyokusekikonko (A jumble of jewels and rocks; a mixed bag.)
  

The dictionary costs just $3.50 and is available from http://japanese-games-shop.com/nihongo.html

David Hurley
http://japanese-games-shop.com

Spring Pruning and Planting!

The cherry blossom season has come and gone in Hiroshima and now the dogwood trees are out in bloom.

Meanwhile, over at Japanese-Games-Shop.com some pottering, pruning and planting has been going on behind the scenes....

Some items have been pruned from the listings.

OUT:

• Various sized mahjong dice - hardly an "in demand" line since most sets come with dice supplied. Then, when an order comes in I can rely on my supplier to be "out of stock" in the particular size and colour I require!!
• Plywood Shogi boards. Supplies became erratic in this neck of the woods.
• Beige Shogi cloths... Supplies seem to be erratic but a few still get through...

NEW LINES COMING SOON

• An "curvacious" style of high-quality hand-crafted Shogi koma.
• Glass Shogi sets!!
• Plastic Shogi playing mats.
• Igo boards
• Igo stones
• Igo bowls
• Novelty character (Doraemon?) mini igo sets

In short, authentic Japanese games lovers, "Watch this space"!!

David Hurley

http://japanese-games-shop.com/