After tangling with the complexities of the endgame of the Thirty Years War with Dr Mogami across the mahjong table in one of his father’s upper rooms we cleared away books and maps and whiteboards and markers and pulled the cover off the mahjong table. The senior Mogamis came in and cheery greetings were exchanged all around and condolences offered and accepted. The servant was dispatched to fetch sandwiches and sundry refreshments from the local convenience store, and the fridge was checked to ensure that it was full of nappy ale.
All things being in order, play commenced.
Now the first game, as I recall, went into a third round as there was no overall winner, but in that round the balance of the game tipped in favour of Doctors Mogami, with myself and Mrs Mogami Sr somewhat below the bar. Since I was less below the bar than Mrs M Sr I was only clobbered with two of the dreaded “BATSU” penalties – XX.
The next game went to Dr Mogami Jr, who clobbered me several times in a row during the early part of the game. However, I eventually came in on dead-zero which, by agreement last time we played, meant that I would score two MARU bonuses – OO!
In the third game I suddenly woke up and won a string of hands and also managed to manipulate play so as to benefit from DORA bonus tiles, which are few and far between and so much more precious in the Mogami’s game. The result here was that I was the only winner – with quite a nice score and a hefty boost of six MARU bonuses – OOOOOO!
Then, in the fourth game Mrs Mogami began to win some hands – she had had a pretty dismal afternoon and now her fun began. A struggle then ensued between the male members, so to speak, which was won by Dr Mogami Jr to ensure that he took first place for the evening. I polished off the final hand with an open Toi Toi hand which mitigated my losses in that game.
The final scores saw Dr M Jr walk away with 2,500 yen, myself with 1,750 yen while Dr M Sr had to fork out most of the elder players’ bill…
We had managed four games in six hours and there was still plenty of time to hop on a tram and get home courtesy of my season ticket…
David Hurley
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