Hello! Er..It's been a long time since I've posted in any forum but uh yeah-- Greetings from Hokkaido, Japan!

I've been interested in Go ever since I read Hikaru no Go about 7/8 years ago but back then I wasn't able to really understand the game..anyway I found myself wanting to learn the game (I really wanted to understand the games in the manga more) so I've been reading and watching videos about Go.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to talking about Go with everybody! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu~

Hi Soup, Welcome!

よろしくお願いします。

Welcome!

I hope you share some pictures of the local GO scene in Japan, and tell us a little about it. I know myself and many others on the site would appreciate it and find it interesting.

A funny thing happened at our GO Club one day. We had two local High School teachers and a Couple of female Japanese High Schoolers come to our GO Club to learn. They had seen one of our fliers around town and thought it would be fun. So we did teach them and they took pictures of learning GO in small town America! They had never played before. I thought it was funny that they learned how to play in America. What a small world.



よろしくお願いします!

_________________
Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony

Small world, indeed. Which small town ?

よろしく~! ♩є(･Θ･｡)э




Thanks for the warm welcome!

I'll definitely take some pictures once I get the chance. There are some Go Salons in my area but from what I heard from a friend, they are mostly an older crowd. I'm thinking of joining but I don't know if anyone my age frequent them..of course that said, there are Go clubs in high school and in universities. I saw a bunch of high school students playing go at a school festival I went to before. But I can kind of understand that most young people here don't really play go much. Usually they just go to karaoke or an izakaya (if they're of legal age), go shopping or go to a game arcade place (you can sing karaoke, read manga, play games/sports and video games there). Still I'll try and see if I can join a University Go Club too. I'll let you guys know how it goes.

Anyway quite amazing that they learned their national (traditional?) game in America rather than back home. I'm quite happy that they were interested to learn more about Go though! Are they coming back?

PS. Ditto @ EdLee's comment

Welcome from Sweden,

also what is 'Izakaya', some kind of drinking establishment?

For Ed and MMSoup Small town America is Walla Walla Washington.

I think the girls came more to say they played GO in America and send pictures on FB to their friends, than any serious interest in the game. Like when an American eats at a McDonalds for a taste of home in Japan. (If I was in Japan it would be a very long time before I missed American food with all that wonderful Japanese food) But we were glad to have them they were lots of fun they were only here for a 2 week exchange. Incidentally my experience in College with Japanese students was memorable. They were always interested in doing things that they had not done in Japan, and always seemed to make the most out of different situations. They were lots of fun.

See photo. Here is a link to our FB page we have more pictures from the club there. https://www.facebook.com/wallawallagoclub

Yes I have heard GO is not so popular with the young people. A shame but it is what it is. However you might find as a young person going to the GO salon you will get lots of support from the older players. I am sure the High school and the University clubs must be very competitive. So keep sharing keep playing, and may you always be nearly in tune when you Karaoke!

_________________
Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony

I have made several different fliers and experimented with different posters. I am not an artist but I kind of like how this one turned out I thought it was eye catching: I wanted the look of Japanese calligraphy --lol it may not have turned out that way but that is what gave me the idea. Club cards are in the GO Bowl.

_________________
Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony

Hello~ ^_^

Yep. It's a Japanese bar There's one right next to my apartment so I always hear lots of university students making a racket lol. I like izakayas but sometimes the master would place food I didn't order infront of me and I have to eat it as per custom. I once accidentally ate basashi (raw horsemeat) because of that.

OOOh!! That's a really nice poster! It looks great~ Very creative use of the Go bowl for the club cards ^^ Great job on the calligraphy. I'm sure tons of people will join you guys because of the poster.




I see what you mean, I think they were excited to see people in America appreciate and love something from their country (of course also China and Korea). I'm happy to hear you had a great time though. I think especially when people here travel to different countries they get a kind of ..freedom? I guess? I don't know how to explain it. People in the US are more open and spontaneous than here so it's easy to make friends and also do exciting stuff. In Japan, usually there isn't much room for spontaneity. I was once at a hanami (flower viewing party) and lots of people were pissed drunk and just going crazy but right after the party everyone suddenly returned to business as usual (I don't mean like the next day btw, I mean like, instantly during the cleaning up of the picnic area). It was pretty funny XD

Also, I love karaoke so much I sometimes spend more than 4 hours at a time. And that's sometimes hitori-karaoke (one person karaoke) ;P

So you do not like raw horse meat? Lol

_________________
Walla Walla GO Club -(on FB)

We play because we enjoy the beauty of the game, the snap and feel of real stones, and meeting interesting people. Hope to see ya there! お願いします!

Anthony

Ill have to echo all the requests for pic's on the Go scene in Japan. Hikaru no Go was also my first look into the world of Go but I wasn't able to see it until last year. I'm much older now and time constraints eat into my Go studies.

I also love Japanese Culture and really anything to do with Japan - Anime, Manga, History, ect. I'm attempting to learn the language as well (its going very, very slowly) and can't wait to be able to read most things in Japanese (like the Nihon-kin site).

Welcome to 19x19 and Go!

The taste is actually not bad, but I don't like the idea of it. lol





I love Hikaru no go! When it was still being serialized here, it made go so popular. However I think the interest has waned again in the last couple years...but hopefully more young people will be interested in it!

I'm happy to hear you're interested in Japan ^^ and it's great you're learning Japanese. I'm sure soon you will be able to read the Nihon-kin site too. Learning Kanji is a little troublesome though...even Japanese people sometimes can't read some characters.

hello, i,m new to this site so i thought i might introduce myself here!

Welcome, and you can start your own introduction thread.

Welcome, I am new too!