Go Parlor

Go is an ancient game. It's most likely a chinese game but the Japanese and Koreans both play it and have taken the game as their own. Chris started playing Go back in the states and when he heard there was a Go Parlor in a town near us his mouth started watering. I had a lot of fun even without playing. I took a ton of pictures and talked with people. Mostly I just nodded and smiled.

Also, because of my ridiculous sinus infection I have been having nose bleeds. Just before I walked in the door my nose exploded and dripped on my pants. Eventually it quit bleeding and I went in.
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The Go Parlor is mostly old guys socializing, so they were quite excited to see not only some young blood, but FOREIGN young blood.


Everyone just sits and plays game after game, they switch to a different partner sometimes, but mostly they play slowly and chat.


This is from the corner of the room. The whole place is just this big. It was quite warm and comfortable, I wanted to take a nap. They lady that runs the place gave us tea and cakes. Woot!


Chris, Rowan and I all noticed that whatever age everyone was, they all sat on the floor. They looked pretty comfortable in that position. There were folks who could barely walk, that couldn't stand up straight, but they sat on the floor with legs crossed. Rowan theorized that because they have sat like this their entire lives their joints are stronger and are quite used to this position. The 2 or 3 chairs in the room were often left empty, used only by spectators to better see the whole board.


Mrs Tabuchi, the lady running the place, tried playing with Rowan, but could only explain in Japanese and we couldn't figure out what she was saying. She kept taking Rowan's pieces off without telling him why. He got a little frustrated but he persevered.


When the going got too rough, Chris would lean over and explain what was going on to Rowan.


It looks like he's going "What about this move, see if you can handle THIS!"


I really like this picture, I used my new lens. I stood on the opposite side of the room and could still get in pretty tight.


Chris says that in Go, you often have to try to think up to 25 moves ahead. I can't imagine.


One can join the Go Parlor for about 3000 yen a month and have your name put up on the board. As you gain levels your name plate moves up until you are the master.


These are the white pieces...


This guy blew me out of the water. At 93, he suffered from a little hearing loss but remembered lots of English. When he saw us he sat down and said "Hello! Rejoice! Spring is here and the winter is gone, the flowers will bloom and the earth is beautiful!" He met some navy guys when he was younger and learned English when he was younger. He was in incredible shape for 93.


This guys with long hair heard about my nose bleed and came over. Mrs Tabuchi kept saying "JUDO MASTA". He grabbed my hand and rolled my pinky finger like a cigarette then pulled it quickly. This apparently will stop the bleeding. Since my nose was fine before he did it, I'll never know. But I haven't had a nose bleed since!


Though I'm started to feel better now, yesterday I was given a mask to keep my nasty cough germs out of the little kids faces.

Kumamoto Two

We had a quick trip into Kumamoto, a city I like more everytime I go. I bought a new camera lens, which I haven't used yet! I only took a few pictures and none of them have turned out. So desu ne...

Also I was super sick last week. I had to go to the hospital, which is basically like the Dr.'s office in the states, to get my fever down. The hospital was only about 50 feet from my door so no big. Turns out I had a 104 fahrenheit fever. After about 2 hours I was better and went home to sleep. People brought all sorts of blankets and food to cheer and warm me up. Everyone was super nice.

On to the pictures!

I finally got a picture of the capsule to do it some justice. We found a great hotel in Kumamoto for really cheap. I love capsule hotels!


They even supply sleep wear. Tim models it for us. And Chris makes like he's on a street car.


We ate at this pretty delicious italian restaurant. This picture really sucks, its quite boring, but the place had an atmosphere I really liked. The light was beautiful and it was sort of basement place. Your head was about where people's knees on the street were. I'd like to go back and have a couple drinks at night.