By Tom Sloper (トム•スローパー)
2008年 11月 30日 Column #389 |
Japanese Modern (riichi/dora). I have sad news to report this week. Los Angeles' only downtown janso has had to close its doors due to the economic downturn. The club had been operating on a thin margin already, and when players reduced their mahjong playing activity, it became a money-losing proposition.
Ricky Shiraishi, Sanctuary's erstwhile owner, had to find someplace to put his four automatic mahjong tables. He moved one table to his home, and set up a room as a game room. A shopkeeper across the way from Sanctuary's old location agreed to store two tables until such time as Ricky can either sell them or reopen.
The fourth automatic mahjong table is actually just a tabletop. Ricky bought it from a local man who had contacted me and advertised it for sale on my website. Ricky had never got around to setting it up in the club. And he'd never got around to ordering tiles for it from Kakinuma, in Japan. So now the problem was what to do with it since he was closing shop... he decided to give it to me.
I suppose it works better than my old Jansui did when I bought it on eBay. When my budget permits, I'll order tiles for it and find out. And when Ricky's budget permits, I hope Sanctuary will reopen.
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© 2008 Tom Sloper. All rights reserved.