Reporting from Osaka Go Camp 2015

[MagicMagor]

Hello everyone.

As i and Ember had mentioned in our study journals, we are visiting the Osaka Go Camp this year, which will actually start tomorrow. We are currently in Osaka and had already a great week in Tokyo.

We blog about our whole trip to japan at Japan Go Trip 2015. We already have several posts about our week in Tokyo (including two visits to the Nihon Ki-in) and will continue to blog about our time in Osaka at the camp.

Feel free to visit our blog and drop a comment or two

[Kirby]

Have an awesome time! I'm jealous.

[Jujube]

This is a great blog so far! Keep it going! I especially like the shots of the clubs, everyone at the Ki-in was ...er, in their twilight years! I thought that the HNG craze was supposed to make Go salons younger places again?

[Ember]

Thanks for the feedback, everybody! It's nice to get some comments on the blog (even if not ON the blog ). If you have a question on the camp or anything concerning the posts, please do not hesitate to ask.

@ Jujube: "twilight years" made me laugh really hard. But you are right, at the Ki-in mostly elderly people play. When we left on thursday afternoon, there was a schoolgirl there, too. Highschool, I think (because of the school uniform). But since she knew the young pro who I had played against the day before (and she strongly looked "out of place" because of her age) I strongly suspect that she is at least an insei. I didn't ask, though.
If you want to play younger people I guess you better try another Go club. The one from our second club visit in Ueno might be a good start. The owner himself is younger than 30 (and really strong) and there was a guy of about the same age playing, too. One guy was more of the age of the Ki-in players and the third one was somewhere in between.


@ Go boom: Yes, the Go boom is definitely over in Japan (again).. Li Ting said only today that at the (most recent) peak of its popularity a few years ago, there was a Go club at almost every train station. Now, you have to search a bit longer until you find one. There really are quite a few, but actually you find more dental clinics than Go clubs here. Concerning manga, there are still a few of them and (at least) two of them running. One of them (couldn't read the name, sorry..)looked more like a manga about samurai but Go appeared frequently there. Then, there's also Hoshizora no Karasu, which is still running but which doesn't seem to be nearly as popular than Hikaru no Go was. At the Nihon Ki-in I also bought a oneshot manga about a woman who works in a Go club which is really good, too. It is by Taro Kasa and it's called 日々碁席 (Hibi Go seki - sorry if I wrote it wrong, my Japanese is probably not good enough to break it up reasonably ^^; ).

[gowan]

Concerning the age of the players in the playing room at the Nihon Ki-in, I would expect that in the middle of normal working hours. Did you try after work when people might be passing an hour or two to avoid the commuter crush, or in the evening when most people would not be working?

[EdLee]

ガンダム !!

[Ember]

Concerning the age of the players in the playing room at the Nihon Ki-in, I would expect that in the middle of normal working hours. Did you try after work when people might be passing an hour or two to avoid the commuter crush, or in the evening when most people would not be working?

Good point. Well, the playing room at the Nihon Ki-in closes at 6 pm so that might be a reason why there are so many elderly players and hardly any younger people playing there. On wdnesday, we were there until the club closed but there was actually not a difference between the folks playing there in the early evening and on thursday during the day. School children should be able to go to this particular Go club, too, but I guess for them it's not really attractive to play with "their" grandparents.
Some Go clubs, like the one we visited in Ueno, seem to be open until 9pm and we met the youngest people here (maybe.. mid-twenties..?), like you already guessed in the evening.

ガンダム !!

^^ (I'd have preferred an Evangelion, but I guess Gundam has more tradition. Maybe next time...? )