Day 111: Mahjong

This game is widely known and played globally, especially in the countries which have been under somewhat of influences from China, as its root is of course in China.

Here in Japan, this game has evolved uniquely, that is, differently developed from the Chinese original one.

Japanese Mahjong - Wikipedia

To be honest, I do not know the rule of Chinese style Mahjong, so I can't explain how different those two, so please allow me to discuss the Japanese style here in this note.

Mahjong in Japan is said to be one of the most interesting, fascinating and intriguing games.
Since the rule is a little complicated, the number of players are not so large but is actually increasing, from 5 million in 2017 to 5.8 million in 2018, according to this stats below (it's kinda surprising that we have this..!)

「レジャー白書2019」麻雀人口580万人で前年比80万人増

As mentioned in this site, I think Japan is the first country to have the professional Mahjong league!

Also, while playing this, we incessantly use our own brain and fingers, so it's said to be good to protect senility and dementia.

If you once understand and get accustomed to the rule, I believe everybody could enjoy.

You could not always win, even if you've played long.
But if you sensibly observe how the others play and somehow catch the flow of luck, you would have more chances of win, not 100% though.
That's the best part, I believe.

Word of the day :
intriguing : 興味ある、魅力的な、面白い、不思議な
senility: ぼけ、老衰、痴呆症

Quote of the day
“Luck is flow and force. There's no power that can fully take that into account, fate is still wavering.”
― Nobuyuki Fukumoto