Live from Japan!

More accurately I should probably call this post an Igo update. I have still been playing Igo, both at my school and outside it. I really enjoy this and I always come home very excited and wanting to talk all about it. Danielle, however, as much as she may love me, can’t seem to fain interest quite long enough for my liking. So this time I am going to bore you with my igo stories. (Actually, I don’t think they are boring at all, but when I started talking about it at a dinner party this weekend the room emptied faster than I thought possible. woe is me…) The first part is at least a bit interesting. I have been playing go with a buddist monk

Last week I got the chance, for the second time, to head out to a buddist temple and play with a monk and some of his friends. I have found a friend here, Jonathan, who is quite good at go, especially for a foreigner. He plays quite regularly with some people around Gifu. Well I guess a month or two ago, one of the guys he plays with regularly asked him if he would like to play with a couple of friends of his that are quite good. So Jonathan was in, now Jonathan has asked me along as well, this is really quite good for me. Especially since I really have no business playing people this good at my current level, I usually learn one or two things and I feel like my game has improved a lot. They are good humored about it and I think we all have a good time.

The temple is quite near to the river and very big and picturesque. I get the impression that the monk we play with is in charge of the temple and lives there alone. So for his own amusement he invites us over for go. We sit in a small not so attractive room of a large pretty one, I presume because this small room is easier to heat. There is often sushi to eat and any number of products from peoples gardens. We chit chat a bit but overall the mood is fairly serious when the games are on.

This last time I played three games and won one of them, (in actuality I may not have won but for a little help in the end from one of the onlookers, but it would have been very close.) I was pretty happy with how I played this game. I had an 8 stone handicap against Jonathan who is quite good. I held my own and didn’t lose my cool. The second game I played against the monk, with a 9 stone handicap, which is the maximum allowed, although I could have used a larger one. I was not happy with this game, (which i lost by a lot), because he was really good I got intimidated and made some really bad plays. The third game, against Jonathan’s friend, I did much better and felt good about my game, even though I lost.

At the school go club I have been going back and forth with my rival there. I do not play her with a handicap, although I probably should. However, she is often distracted by her friends, who are always on my side and want to see her taken down a notch. I have a lot of fun playing with her and afterwards I sit and chat with her and her friends about all sorts of things. I has really worked out well for me there as well, I get to practice my japanese, and they practice some of their english. The mood could not be much less serious and still contain a reasonable game.

Today, I was pretty happy with my game against her, with the exception of one rather large mistake that basically cost me the game. Afterwards we had a longer conversation, in which we talked about all sorts of things. The biggest chunk ended up being kind of complaining about the idiosyncrasies of each others language. Me poking at the things I hate in japanese and her poking at the things she hates in english. We also talked about regional dialects, and how words change in them from place to place. Actually turned out to be quite educational on both sides.

I really enjoy playing igo, but I am finding that another favorite part of the igo thing is getting out talking with some japanese people.

Okay, you can all wake up now, boring igo time is over. By the way Danielle has been making use of my time away as well, as our friend Angus put it, “So, he is out playing an intellectual game with monks in a temple, and you are sitting at home drinking and watching a girly program?”