囲碁

Yeah yeah I know I havn't gotten around to writing about my trip yet. I am truly sorry for the delay, but I have not been home long enough to do it. I have been auditing classes to see which one's I want to take and have not been getting home until late.

Today after class I decided to go with Tomohi and Hayato to search for a club or circle to join. We started by going to the club building on Toyama campus to check out the ads. When that didn't work, we found the club directory written on a wall with all of the room numbers. That is a good place to start. I told them I wanted to check out Calligraphy, Igo, Shogi, or some other gaming club. Once writing down the room numbers we ventured up to the club rooms. The first stop was the Shogi club. As soon as we walked in I did not feel very good about the club or its members. They were playing in a tiny room which was already packed without us in there. They also did not seem very interested in teaching me (one who has absolutely no Shogi experience). We left and went to the next room, calligraphy. There happened to be nobody there at the club room except for one person. He explained the general layout of the club, gave us the weekly schedule, and said to come tomorrow to the explaination meeting. I will be going to that tomorrow.

The next stop on our list turned out to be our last, the Igo club. When we walked in there were 4 people sitting around a table playing nothing other than Smash Bros for the N64. As I looked around I spotted bookshelves full of manga and other games with of course Igo stones scattered about. The people at the table looked a bit surprised, but introduced themselves and said to take a crack at playing one of them at Igo. I played the practice game on a 9x9 board with no handicap against one of the kids. We ended up tyeing. The otherse looked really shocked that I kinda knew my way around a Go board. After pulling themselves together, they challenged me to a game of Smash. I creamed two of them and was about the same level as the other one. It was a good time hanging out with my fellow gaming Otaku. Tomohi and Hayato decided to leave, leaving me alone with the club. We played a few more games of Smash before stopping.

This is where the real fun began. I followed them to the actual Igo club which is located really close to Takadanobaba station. It is back behind some buildings and up a couple flights of stairs. There is this huge room with tables everywhere and go boards set up every few feet. At first I saw no-one but old men playing Igo, but over in one corner there was the rest of the Igo club members. Everyone was surprised to see me show up. I sat down to a game with a girl named Mizuno on another 9x9 board. I won the first game with a 2 stone handicap before switching to the 13x13. I won again with a 3 stone handicap. The rest of the members were stunned that I was not making newbie mistakes and gave me a lot of pointers to get better. Next time we will see how it goes.

After playing for a couple of hours we went out to eat at the local Chinese restaurant. It was great being able to talk to so many different people while of course being the only foreigner in a long time to participate in the club. They invited me back to continue playing with them if I want to. There are no club dues as long as I participate in the events. They said that they play every day from Monday to Friday starting from 4pm after class. I do not have to go every day, which is good from my point of view. I need free time too! For the time being I think I will keep going. Most of the group members and I have things in common such as video games and computers. Just do it!