Mahjong Life and Living

At Anime Central last May , I got the chance to ask Mai Nakahara a mahjong question.  I asked her: To prepare for the role of Miyanaga Teru, did you learn/play mahjong? Initially, her answer wished that she could.  However, she was not into gambling. Immediately afterwards, I had to clarify by pointing out "kenkou mahjong", or clean non-gambling mahjong.  There, she iterated the word "shoubu".  So, her follow up answer noted how personality can reflect in a person's play.  So, she feared showing bad parts to her personality. She's right.  We put ourselves into the mahjong, as we express ourselves via our decision making abilities.  Everyone can point to the luck factors of mahjong.  Yet, the one thing we can control in the game is ourselves and what we do.  This concept is true in life. The real life example here.  I could have cowered and sat in the audience.  I never would have gone to ask the question.  I have my mahjong friends to thank, as

I remember years ago, xkime, mentioned how confidence can affect mahjong play.  Confidence has a relation to results.  The link applies to our current psychological make up, which affects our decision making abilities.  Luck can be a factor in the game, but decision is much more significant. Throughout my ladder history, the highs and lows are shown in my record .  The clusters of wins and looses can be seen.  For some of them, I can recall my feeling. Currently, I am not feeling very confident in my game.  Thus, my decision making is not where it should be.  To make matters worse, it is becoming a bit more difficult these days to find a "refresh".  This comes with the territory of a personal frontier not being breached.  If I were to ever breach Tenhou.net's wall at 5dan, then a new rush will be felt then.  However, I may continue to suffer until then.  This was the case in previous mahjong walls. Via Majsoul, I ran a very strong high wave.  Here, I rode my way int

Games are supposed to be fun.  Now, I ask myself some questions and answer them as best as I could: So, if we put the social element into mahjong, what do we get?   Social mahjong. What do we do in social mahjong?  Well, we play a game of mahjong, where the result has no impending consequence, such as league or tournament standing.  Gambling mahjong is a completely different category, which can be played socially but the monetary consequences disqualify it. How is social mahjong played?  Casually but players could still try their best to win.  At best, it can be considered as practice.  As a game, mahjong has its objectives, and we normally go for them (regardless of the game).  While that may defeat the purpose of the gamem it is a matter of playing how the players want to play. Is winning/losing important?   Even though we try, it is not important.  Though, the most enjoyable games are the ones where players try their best.  Regardless of placement, players should be able to wa

The fictional story of Saki has some real life connections.  I am not referring to the magical plays, that characters are able to pull at the drop of a hat.  People do make such miraculous plays once in a while.  However, we lack the capability and insight to do them on command, regardless of our skill levels.  When it comes to the characters, most everyone focuses on either their looks or their mahjong abilities.  If you look deep enough, you can see more to them.  Some of their background stories and their feelings either during a mahjong game or regarding mahjong overall are very much relatable. Here, the greater focus stems on the emotional connection to the mahjong experience depicted by the characters.  I shall highlight some characters : From the very first episode, I remember Saki Miyanaga  declaring to Nodoka Haramura about her dislike of mahjong.  Stunned, Nodoka just stared in the rain.  Early on, I did not understand what Saki meant.  These days, I understand how she f

At least, this is my prime directive: Play as much as you want, or as little as you want. Well, that is: if time allows you to anyways.  I will elaborate on this later.  This thought just needs to sink in. In case you're wondering, yes, I am very much influenced by Star Trek.