WEEKLY MAHJONG

When I was asked this past week about the origin of the caricature of me that I use on my Mah-Jongg Q&A Bulletin Board and on the online version of this column, I realized that I'd been remiss. I should have told the story long before this.

It's been almost a year since the Open European Mahjong Championship in Copenhagen, when I first met Jenn Barr. Jenn is an American who lives in Japan, and is a professional mahjong player there. After her return to Japan from her European junket, she was interviewed by manga artist 有元美保 (don't ask me how to say that - I can't read kanji!).

That's me with the real Jenn, and the title frame of the 10/1/07 installment of her interview about her European junket.

The interview ran in "Kindai Majan" in the 2007年9月15日 and 10月1日 issues, in the comic strip "愉快な人々." In that interview she told him about meeting me, so I was part of the story in the 10月1日 issue. I'm chuffed (as the Brits say) to not only be a Japanese manga character, but also to have been mentioned so prominently by Jenn that the artist decided to give me my own frame.

Funny thing - I didn't even know I'd been caricatured in Kindai Majan until Jenn came to Los Angeles. I invited her to go with me to the local janso, Sanctuary, and as long as I was going to see Ricky (the club's owner) I bagged up a bunch of Kindai Majans... I subscribe through the local neighborhood Japanese bookstore, and just keep the ones that feature me or my friends. I was just about to give the 10/1/07 issue away when Jenn told me I was in it! Close call.

Yes, that's me. You can tell by the fact that it has my name in katakana トム•スローパー in there (and just to the right of my beard, "team USA"). And on the right is the cover of the 10/1/07 issue, the one my frame appeared in.

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Question or comment about this column? Email and the discussion will be posted on the Mah-Jongg Q&A Bulletin Board.

Links about Japanese-style mah-jongg:

• Tom's 1st Mah-Jongg Adventure in Japan
• Vega Mah-Jongg Parlor - in ENGLISH
• Vega Mah-Jongg Parlor - in JAPANESE
• Riichi-ing out in Shibuya, 2002
• More Adventures in Japan
• Little Tokyo no tomodachi
• Janyou no tomodachi
• Japanese Mah-Jongg is usually played on automatic dealing machines.
• A downloadable English-language booklet has been made which describes the standard Japanese riichi/dora majan rules of the European Mahjong Association. http://mahjong-europe.org/rules/. Direct links to the 24 page booklet and the 2 page summary: http://mahjong-europe.org/filer/riichirules.pdf; http://mahjong-europe.org/filer/riichisheet.pdf.
• http://guide.riichi.nl/ - Ryan Morris' excellent English-language guide to Japanese mahjong is finally back online - hosted in Holland.
• Yakitori Online ( http://www.yakitorionline.com/) is a lively discussion forum where the sole topic is Japanese majan.
• Reach Mahjong ( http://reachmahjong.com/) features columns by Jenn Barr, Garthe Nelson, and Gemma about Japanese majan.

© 2008 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.