Now that summer is here and university classes are finished, I spend an hour or so lolling in the hot baths and sauna of a certain salubrious spot in the middle of town before heading over to Kemby’s to meet the foreign mahjong contingent and kick off the evening with a few preliminary beers during Happy Hour. Thank goodness Kemby’s have dispensed with complicated free-beer-ticket system and simply charge half price for all the beers you drink. Much easier.
Friday 18th July – Foreigners Fall At Kodama
Two Fridays ago we had every single player on the Grand Accumulated Results Table 2008 in attendance, which meant that we were able to have two tables in play for the first time in a while.
It looked as if Nobu would achieve a breakthrough and come out on top for the evening, but then Noda woke up in time to punish him in Nobu’s last game of the evening…
Hide –, –, +49, +38,+52, -6, -17 = +116
Noda +24, -4, -1, +2, -43, +102, -10 = +80
===
David -21, -37, +38 –, –, –, — = –19
Ray +18, +57, -4, -41, -44, –, -15 = -29
Kiyo –, -19, +4, –, –, –, -14 = -29
Nobu –, +20, +30, -32, +47, -89, — = -34
Jaime -5, -16, -29, -22, +2, +4, +24 = -42
Kenyon +3, -1, -39, -8,* +6, –, -4 = -43
* Er, was this a yakitori or a chombo?
Friday 25th July – The English Fall Further At Jan Topia
Then last Friday, even though Noda was not with us, we still ended up with seven players, including a first time appearance of Satoru-san for about three years. Satoru was one of the ORIGINAL players when The Poor Little Cypriot first washed up on Japanese shores back in 1990…
Nowadays, whenever Satoru appears on the scene we go through a routine in which he protests that he hasn’t played for so long that he’s virtually forgotten how to play at all – and then proceeds (after a suitably shaky start) to rack up the points. That is exactly what happened on Friday.
Half way through an evening in which David went out on one of his rare Kokushimusou hands (courtesy of a 1-Coin discard from Ray), Satoru, as Oya in the third hand of his Oya-ship, claimed the 7-Coins off David to reveal a hidden Chinitsu hand for a score of 50,000 points!
Satoru –, -32, +98, +43 = +109
Kenyon +72, +7, -6, +8, -6, -21, +59, -34 = +79
Ray -24, -19, -4, +51, +3, +40 = +47
Kiyo +63, +19, +3, -29, +2 = +58
===
Hide –, +50, -15, -4, +17, -24, -43,** -12 = -31
David +12,* -25, -77, -47, -11, +45, -16, +46 = -73
Jaime -60, -44, -15, -54, +26, -42 = -189