New Matsuoka Mahjong Wind Marker

The classic Matsuoka Wind marker for Japanese Mahjong has changed!

Out with the orange-black-white and in with the white-red-black!

The new design makes it very easy to see at a glance the presiding wind.

The katakana script on the tile reads "Matsuoka", "Century NEXT".

The Matsuoka Mahjong Wind marker is available at http://japanese-mahjong.com

Back from my Holidays! The JGS Spring Clean Is Now Underway!

Blore Hall, Peak District, February 2009: Heading for our early morning swim...

Bodiam Castle, Sussex, England, March 2nd 2009

Two and a half weeks in England and hardly any time spent on a computer!

The upper photo shows my daughter in front of Blore Hall, where we stayed for a week. It is about 7am and we are off to have a swim and a sauna.

The lower photo is of Bodiam Castle in Sussex. We spent the last few days of our holiday in the Weald of Kent close to the sussex border and as my daughter had told me she wanted to visit a castle in England (in search of Prince Charming, I think), Bodiam was the ideal choice.

It is now two and a half weeks since we returned to Japan and I have only just got around to updating Japanese-Games-Shop.com. It was in dire need of a spring clean!

Here is what I did to the site yesterday evening, this afternoon and this evening:

• Added a 23-rod and a 27-rod Tomoe abacus to the Japanese Soroban page.
  
• Updated the manga pages: Some of Kodansha's bilingual manga are difficult to get hold of now, so I have replaced my own listings with Amazon.com listings.
• Posted new photos of the Nintendo New Ivory Mahjong Set on Japanese-Mahjong.com and updated the product page.
• Put in some major renovation work on the Hanafuda page. One link on that page directed people to a former website of mine that died more than two years ago!! All is spick and span now, dead links have been cropped, new Amazon listings have been added and the Hanafuda-Style Playing Cards are available again.
• The Shogi pages had gradually degenerated as stocks ran out towards the end of last year. Also, for some reason, one of the new sets was not showing. I have now re-listed the Hanayama Honkaku Shogi Set and added a new full-sized economy set, Shogi In A Box, which I think will prove popular. The Shogi pages are a work in progress at present.

Shogi In A Box

Tomoe 23-Rod Soroban - Get your head round that!

There will be several more announcements coming shortly... New shogi koma and possibly boards too... New mahjong accessories... and some completely new lines of goods too...

Watch this space!

Holiday Notice

I'm taking my daughter to England for a couple of weeks, 15th February until 6th March.

We'll be staying at my mother's place. One of my jobs is to clear her attic of my books and other stuff. 26 boxes of books, many of them hardbacks collected over the last 30 years, will be on their way to Japan!

Then we are taking mother to the Peak District where we'll stay for a week in a 600 y.o. property. My daughter is excited at the thought of sleeping in a four-poster bed!

After that, off to Kent to see more relatives.

Did I call it a holiday?? :-)

Anyway, the website is "open for business" while I am away, BUT the next shipment of goods will not be until Monday 9th March at the earliest.

After I return I want to overhaul the site and add some new lines, but I will talk more about that in an upcoming post.

Genki de, ne!

DH
Japanese Games Shop

Hanayama Honkaku Shogi Set

Hanayama produce some excellent games sets. They are always well designed and attractively packaged.

Recently, Hanayama added a new shogi game to their listings: The Honkaku Shogi set.



The board and pieces are made of plastic and the board has two built in drawers where the pieces are stored. The neat thing about the drawers is that they are set in each side of the board and you can pull them out and use them as trays to hold the pieces that you capture during the course of the game. (In shogi, when you capture a piece you can use it later as one of your own pieces and "parachute" it onto the board.)

If you are looking for an unusual and attractive Christmas present for a youngster, this would be ideal!

All orders will be shipped from Japan by Express Mail Service, so if you order before 10th December, you'll get it in time for Christmas!

To find out more and order a set, go to http://japanese-games-shop.com/shogi.html

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