Tokyo - Day 6 (Harajuku, Odaiba / Ikebukuro (Go club alert!), Roppongi)

On our last day in Tokyo we visited Harajuku. The weather report didn't sound very nice (lots of rain) so we decided to visit the most important spot first - the Meiji-jingu. This shrine is situated inside a big forested area, so it is very quiet and nice. After our experience with the Senso-ji in Asusaka I (1k) feared that this shrine would also be overrun by tourists, but it wasn't as crowded as the Senso-ji.

Despite its young age - the shrine was built in 1920 (or at least finished) - it is still quite impressive. For example the three tori (temple gates) are made out of the trunks of 1,500 year old trees.

The second temple gate

From a Miko (shrine maiden) 4k both bought some victory charms for good fortune at the Go camp and both of us left a wooden tablet with our wishes and prayers at a holy tree inside the temple area (1k: Sorry, I forgot what it was called).

Some impressions from the temple.

Next stop was total contrast to the quiet and peaceful Meiji-jingu, we were headed Takeshita Street near Harajuku station, a fashion-centered and consumeristic, crazy street. As it had started raining, we didn't take many photos - but rest assured: It was loud, colourfull and even more crazy than you can imagine. There are two more streets that are supposed to be even crazier, Cat Street and Killer Street. But since the rain suddenly got quite a bit heavier, we didn't go there anymore.

Takeshita Street!

It was only early afternoon but the rain made walking in Harajuku not a good option. Since we had different preferences for our last day we split up.

I (1k) went to Odaiba, an artifical island created in the bay of Tokyo. My first impression when I left the station and went to the beach was how quiet it was. After spending nearly a week in big loud Tokyo this was a great contrast.
But of course Odaiba has more to offer for a sightseeing tourist than a nice quiet beach. Instead one can feel as if being in New York, with the skyline of Tokyo behind the bay and the Statue of Liberty in front. That's right, there is a small replica of the Statue of Liberty on Odaiba.

Statue of Liberty in Odaiba

The second (for me) great sightseeing spot was a life-sized model of the Gundam mech, which happens to be there probably because there is also a Fuji-TV building located on the island.

Gundam!

While 1k was walking in the rain and visiting the bay, 4k did some shopping duties in Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. This is an enourmous (big would be an understatement) shopping mall, office building with 11 floors in total (including the basement). You can find anything there, there is even an aquarium (with seals and penguins, among others!) - since yesterday, 27th of June, you can also play Go there! Unfortunately, 4k was one day early for the opening, but she still took some photos for you.

The club is located on the 9th floor (office floor). If you want to go there, the best point of orientation might be the Pokémon Center on the 2nd floor. Take the elevators that are nearest to this shop (a bit hidden, take a look at the floor map near the escalators) to the 9th floor and then turn right. Go right through 2 glass doors (between them is a huge staircase on the right) and you can almost see the club on the right side of the corridor. Look out for the 碁 sign.

It looks like a really nice Go club (if open ;-) ) with brand new playing material (thick table boards, wooden bowls). It seems to have some kind of affiliation (owner..?) with the Japanese representative of the 2004 World amateur championship (fifth place) - the certificate and trophy are on display in the club and visible from the outside. I'd guess that this Go club is a great choice for anyone who is travelling to Tokyo with one or more person that's not interested in Go but in shopping (and maybe children, too, who are interested in the aquarium). I'd accept any bet that you can't pass more time playing Go than the other(s) can pass by shopping (if money is no concern, of course ;-) ) !

Looks like a great place to play :-)

We met again in Roppongi to eat dinner. Roppongi is a great spot to go out, as it has a lot of great restaurants and bars. Also there are several nice exhibits at Roppongi, currently there is a Star Wars exhibit running and one on the anime/manga Naruto (both finish by the end of June).
At the restaurant we decided to visit (Gonpachi), we had to take seats at the counter, as we hadn't reserved a table upfront - which tells you something about the popularity of this restaurant. The food was very delicious but somewhat expensive (especially concerning the size of the servings). However, the atmosphere is really very nice! Also quite a few famous people visited the restaurant, e.g. Lady Gaga, Silvester Stallone or Keanu Reeves.

Gonpachi!

Tokyo - Day 5 (Nihon Ki-in visit 2/2, Shibuya again)

Since we had already visited our "most wanted" sights in Tokyo and hadn't played Go very much yet, we decided to catch up on that and play Go at the Ki-in for most of the day. The young lady at the pairings counter had mentioned that today (thursday) lots of players would be at the Ki-in Go club. It seemed like the perfect opportunity!

We arrived at the Ki-in in the morning and sat down in the main hall. Since it was a thursday - the usual playing day for the professional players of the higher dan ranks - we decided to arrive a bit early for the club to see if we might geet a glimpse on a pro we know and go then up to the club at 10 o'clock (which we thought would be opening time). Before that we checked the games for today at Igo-kisen. The top game would be played between Hane Naoki 9p and Cho U 9p. Of course we didn't know if they'd be playing in Tokyo headquarters or somewhere else so we just sat there silently in the main hall and waited for somebody to arrive. We were not to be disappointed! With 100% security we saw O Meien 9p and Cho U 9p walk by. It was really cool (and a bit hard not to stare at them to be honest ^^; )! We didn't take any pictures, of course. That would have been too much (maybe it was already rude that we were present at that time... but it was really tempting to take a real look at the players you only "know" from websites and tournament results on the one day this was possible! >_<; ). While we were waiting, an elderly man approached us. He spoke English and German quite well and we talked for a bit. He had been living in Germany for a few years and was now at the Ki-in for a Go class held by a professional player in one of the classrooms right next to the main hall. Shortly afterwards, a young woman came to us. She helped with the organisation of the Go class and broke to us that the club wouldn't open until 11 o'clock.. same time as the museum in the basement. However, we were very lucky since she invited us to come to the Go class which would be starting at 10 o'clock and leave it early at 11 o'clock to go up to the club. Of course, we gladly accepted this kind offer and sat down at the places she showed us to in the back of the room. We didn't understand much (4k) /anything (1k) of what the professional was talking about, but we understood what he showed on the big board in front of the class. It was a lecture on damezumari in various positions. So it was still a really good learning opportunity! A short time after 11 o'clock we went up to the Go club on the second floor and were immediately amazed: The main hall was already 3/4 full with players!! Pretty much everyone was a retiree (there is some truth in every cliché it seems ^^; ), but here and there a few younger people (mostly women) were playing, too. Since there were also quite a few people waiting to be called for a game we quickly got to play a few games each.

Usual thursday at the Nihon Ki-in ;-)

1k/5d won all of his games but one, that day and 4k/2d managed to lose one game because of playing a move that was no ko threat - which lead to the loss of 18 points. In the end 4k (black) lost by komi. On the whole, the games were pretty calm: no big fights and when a fight occured or stones were cut, the outcome was mostly in our favour. However, there were two exceptions. One of them was a game 4k played. The opponent was a very aggressive player starting his first invasion at move 6 or something of the like. Invasion after invasion followed and he kind of succeeded everywhere - until the last chance for 4k arose to catch up. 4k caught a yummy group of weak white stones floating in the center (which he kindly enlarged to an even yummier size) and won the game by resignation.
The other exception was the third game 1k played at the Ki-in. The opponent was a 5d again, but this time very aggressive and 1k thought he would lose this time for sure, after messing up the first corner quite quickly. It was a wild game with a very, very big capturing race - which ended in favour of 1k (thanks to just 1 liberty!).
After that the people at the pairing counter thought they might have underestimated 1k and gave him a special opponent. This elderly man had over 420 rating points, which according to the system used by the Nihon Ki-in would mean, he should give 1k/5d a five stone handicap. Instead 1k was asked to play with only two stones. This game was very calm, especially compared to the previous one. For a long time it looked like white just didn't have enough points to overcome the territory black had build.
In the end white managed to cut and kill a big black group of 18 stones and the game ended shortly afterwards. Despite this big killing, white won by only 21 points.

I (4k) was especially happy to finally play a woman for my final game. I liked her style from all the people I played today the best, it seemed the most balanced to me. She was not afraid / reluctant to attack like the other players that day seemed to be but wasn't overly aggressive (like that one guy I played), too. It was a really nice, interesting game.

Before we left, 4k's rank got an update. Since she had been winning so much (5 out of 6 games), 4k got 10 additional points and earned a promotion to 3d (usually 10 points/wins are needed to gain a rank). This however, we couldn't put to a test since we left that evening and unfortunately didn't have the time to come back before we left for Osaka... Still, it was nice to be a dan for a day - even if it IS nothing more than a number and a letter. :-)

Our playing cards from the Nihon Ki-in (left 4k, right 1k)

We have to apologise that we again cannot provide any game records. However, tomorrow the Osaka Go Camp will start and we definitely will record our games and put a few up here.

After the Nihon Ki-in we went to Shibuya again - to shoot the photos we couldn't on our first visit. We already wrote about Shibuya in a previous post, so i won't repeat this here. Instead here are the photos, that were missing from the first post:

Hachiko

Impressions from the scramble crossing

Tokyo - Day 4 (Third Go club visit: Nihon Ki-in 1/2)

After two rather complicated visits to Go clubs we wanted to make life a little easier for us and decided to visit the headquarters of the Nihon Ki-in near Ichigaya station next. We had been looking forward to this visit very much ever since we decided to visit Tokyo and we were very curious to see what was waiting for us.

Getting to the Nihon Ki-in is actually very easy. It is marked on the maps in Ichigaya station not only on the platforms but near the exits, too. At the correct exit there even is a huge plaque with the logo. When you take the right exit (we think it was number 2), you immediately turn right into the next street et voilà, here's the steep street every reader of Hikaru no Go will recognise, with the Nihon Ki-in headquarters already in view.

Finally at the Nihon Ki-in

When you enter the building, you'll be in the entrance hall. Here are some pictures from the entrance hall:

The Museum of the Nihon Ki-in is in the basement. Actually, it is just one room. It is not as big as I expected it to be, but it has some very interesting exhibits, e.g. the memorial plaque for the (only) German professional, Hans Pietsch, who was killed during a journey through South America promoting Go, the board on which the first game of Go was played in outer space or original copies of kifu of players such as Honinbo Shusaku. The most stylish exhibit might have been a very thick floor goban made entirely of glass.

In memory of Hans Pietsch (6p)

For the Go club, you take the elevator to the second floor. When we came here on wednesday afternoon, there were a few people playing but the big playing room was actually relatively empty. Since we arrived around 4pm and the Go club closes at 6pm, we only payed half the usual price (1.340¥ is the usual price) and received a player card at the counter where the pairings were made. There was no rank (or rating) written on it yet, we first had to play a "test game".
Each of us quickly got to play a game (1k got a 3d and 4k doesn't remember because of her eagerness to play) and won it without any serious problems. After that, 1k got "promoted" to 5d (!?). That was quite a bit higher than we thought it would be. We knew that European ranks are among the hardest and that the difference between a 3k in - let's say - Germany and a Japanese 3k is quite big, but 1k wasn't quite prepared for this. After that, 1k (or should I now say 5d? ;-) ) got to play another opponent (a 5d this time) and won quite easily again.

For 4k there were not many options as it seemed and no rank had been decided yet. At the counter for the pairings there sat a young woman and a young guy. 4k didn't really understand what they were talking about but as it turned out she energetically talked him into a game with 4k. He was quite nice, but unfortunately spoke only very little English. He gave 4k a handicap of three stones but very soon the game turned into white's favour even though he didn't really do anything special - this guy was really strong.
After the game the young guy reviewed the game and (thanks to the elderly man, the young guy didn't mention it - or 4k didn't understand) it turned out that this young guy was a 7p and 4k just got a free teaching game. XD After this game, 4k got a new rank, too: 2d! Since 1k was still playing, 4k (now 2d ;-) ) then played a handicap game with the elderly man just for fun, giving him (as he suggested) 4 stones. However, it seems that wasn't enough, it was a fairly easy win. After that, the Go club closed already and we had to go. However, we decided to come back on the next day to put our new ranks to the test and finally play lots of Go.

Tokyo - Day 3 (Second Go Club visit)

Since the first visit to a Go club here in Tokyo was a little disappointing, we decided to try another club. As we already were in the Ueno area and since several visits to the Ueno Go Center and the way there were well described by other Go players on Senseis Library and on somebody's Google Maps, too, we thought that this time it was impossible to fail. How very wrong.. (kind of)

After a very long walk throught the Ueno Zoo and through gorgeous Yanaka, we went back to Ueno station, looking forward to rest our feet and finally play some Go. The Go club was supposed to be very close to the station near the Ueno Park and you supposedly could already see the club from one of the platforms at the station. After searching around by ourselves without success (again), thanks to free WiFi, we identified the bulding in which the Go club was supposed to be (that was the buidling we'd already checked). But after a thorough search of this and two other neighbouring buildings and after asking several people, again, we came to the conclusion that the club must have closed or moved somewhere else because it definitely wasn't where it was supposed to be.

Very disappointed we searched for alternatives. It was already getting late (most of the clubs seem to close at about 9pm and now it was about 7.30pm) so we had to be quick. Via WiFi 1k found another Go club in Ueno but since we couldn't read the adresse, we went to a Koban (a very small police station you can frequently see at large crossings and which has huge books with detailed maps of the surrounding area). There, they fairly quickly showed us the way and we set off.

It took us 10-15 minutes to walk to the club from Ueno station and you really cannot miss it when you pass it on the street: It has a big 囲碁 and a black and white Go stone in every window. It is situated on the first floor.

Go Club Counter

View from the Counter (50% of the boards)

This club is a lot smaller than the first one (it has only about a dozen boards) and is definitely not used to see foreigners visit: Everyone (three players, two of them playing a game and the owner) looked at us in astonishment and at first the owner didn't really know what to say. He was actually quite a young guy, we'd guess he was under 30. However, he spoke a little English, enough to ask if we were Go players and what our strength was (he asked us about our KGS ranks). Soon both of us sat down at the board.

1k got to play with the owner who turned out to be a KGS 6dan (1k got a 6 stones handicap). At first it looked like a good game (4k: that's what it always looks like for black at the beginning in a handicap game! ;-P ), but after a mistake the game was over fairly quickly. 4k got to play with the remaining player who introduced himself as a "beginner" (4k: I think he said something about being 6k, but I'm not sure about that). The owner suggested a handicap of five to seven stones for him. The game was played with five stones. Again, 4k made at least one disastrous mistake, which the opponent luckily missed to punish.

1k against Japanese 3dan giving 2 stones

In the meantime, 1k started another game with one of the players who had been playing when we arrived at the club and the owner distributed some kind of flat cake to everyone in "celebration" of our visit. 1k's opponent introduced himself as 3dan (both of us are pretty sure that we heard him say that) but he took the black stones and a handicap of 2 stones against 1k. 1k still won (1k: but the handicap felt right).

By the time the game was finished it was already way past 9pm and the club closed. In the pouring rain we took off for the next train station and decided not to make life any harder for us from now on and go to the Go club of the Nihon Ki-in headquarter in Ichigaya tomorrow.

Tokyo - Day 2 (First Go club visit)

First activity related to Go in Japan! After so much sightseeing on day 2, we decided to look for a Go club to play a game or two and to give our feet some rest. We had already seen two Go clubs while riding a train but none when walking the streets. That had to be changed! We already wandered throught the streets at the evening of day 1, looking out for a club in the nearby area of our hotel, but without success. This time we were better prepared, we had an adress. Negative side: it was a printout and - of course - it was written in Kanji... After asking several people and walking and searching Nihombashi for about 90 minutes, 1k finally found the club (while 4k was busy watching an extremely cute mini-version of a Shiba Inu). A little nervous we took the elevator to the sixth floor where the club was located.

The first impression was really good: The club looked very nice and the material and the chairs and tables looked quite new. The playing material was of great quality (thick table boards, beautiful bowls, something that might be used in a German tournament for the top 3 boards). The place was huge, with at least 40 boards there. However, there was no one there but the owner of the place, which actually was a bit disappointing (and sad, it looks like a great club!). The owner was very nice but spoke only very little English. We speak only very little Japanese and the travel dictionary isn't of much help in a Go club at all (could someone please write a little travel dictionary for such occasions?). That's why small talk was really difficult. 4k made some good guesses here but maybe understood 5% (a pessimistic guess, maybe more) of what the owner was saying.

Since it would have been strange to turn on the spot, we stayed for a while. First, 1k and 4k played a game (2 stones handicap with 4k playing lots of rubbish) while the owner was watching and after that, the owner took 4k's place and played 2 games without handicap with 1k. All three games had one thing in common: They ended in resignation. The owner was really good and demolished 1k quite easily with great fighting strength. Of course it is not easy to say as the weaker player (or the even weaker player), but he must have been at least of European 3/4 dan strength. We didn't ask him, though, how strong he was (partially beacuase we didn't know if it was polite, partially because we didn't know how to say so).

Beginning of the first game between the owner of the Go club and 1k

After the games, the owner treated us to some coffee. However, we didn't stay very much longer since the small talk turned a bit strange and strayed over to German food (potatoes) and other things due to the limited command of each other's language (and we were hungry, too). We payed a small fee (we got a discount: 2 people for the usual price of one, maybe because it was so empty) and left the place.

For us it was not the exciting experience we had hoped for, but we would still recommend this club to anyone with a better command of the language. We are very positive that the club usually isn't as empty as during our stay plus the owner is a very kind man. Next club we try might be the Nihon Ki-in's. So if you're interested in that, stay tuned (and mabe leave a comment, too!).

In the near future we'll create a Google maps for all the Go clubs we visited in Tokyo and Osaka.