Japan - cool places
Places to visit when in Japan, related to Go. Shopping, bookstores, clubs, restaurants, historical places, events, cemeteries, shrines,transport etc.
Please add your choices. Thanks!
See also Wikitravel, a worldwide travel guide Wiki. Information of interest specifically to Go players should be added here; more general travel info should go there. Their Japan page is here: http://wikitravel.org/en/Japan
In Tokyo, the Asahiya Shoten bookshop in Jimbocho is the specialist second-hand store. Charles Matthews
Charles, are you sure about the name? I've been to a go & shogi bookstore called Akashiya. Hmm, looks similar but difficult to confuse... do you happen to have the address of Asahiya? RafaelCaetano
Looks like a spelling mistake to me. It should be Akashiya. http://www.akasiya-shoten.com/
The branch in Nakano (Nogata) that I visited before seems to have closed, leaving only the main shop in Jimbocho. Richard Hunter
Charles My mistake - Asahiya used to have a shop in North London.
Tamsin If you can, do try and visit the Nihon Ki-in's main office. You need to get off at the Ichigaya subway stop and find your way from there (it's not far and the Nihon Ki-in have a map, albeit an upside-down one, on their website). You will find lots of gobans and stones on display, plus photos from historic matches at which these pieces of equipment were used. If you're nice, somebody will probably show the famous "Yugen no ma" or "Room of Profound Darkness", the press room and the the inseis' playing rooms -- all uncannily accurately reproduced in Hikaru no Go. The Nihon Ki-in also runs a very big playing salon for the public. They will fix you up with appropriate opponents and everyone is very kind. Finally, if you can't get along to the Nihon Ki-in, but feel the urge to play, you can find dozens of go clubs, large and small, listed in the English language edition of the Tokyo phone book.
kokiri One of the subtemples in the Daitokuji complex in Kyoto had a go board on display upon which two famous generals were reputed to have played. IIRC they played each other at Go before meeting on opposing sides of the battlefield but, since I can't even remember their names, I'm probably mistaken; perhaps someone can correct me. Anyway, it's not exactly must-see, but a bit of go history in a pleasant setting nevertheless.
BobMcGuigan I'd recommend visiting Shusaku's birthplace in Innoshima, on the Inland Sea. It isn't in a major tourist area so it would need a special trip, but there is a Shusaku museum there where you can see his favorite goban and stones. Innoshima has a web page (do a Google search) and you can get travel directions to the Shusaku museum there.
In Tokyo the Maruhachi Gobanten and Maezawa Gobanten are two shops where really top quality go equipment is sold. You can see a kaya board that costs US$200,000.
Rafael Caetano I guess most people interested in JapanCoolPlaces are going to the big cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, etc.
Anyway, if you're willing to travel a bit more, there's Hyuga city, in Miyazaki prefecture, Kyushu. Hyuga is "the home of the shell clam stones".
I was lucky to go to Hyuga in 2001, as the Brazilian representative in the WAGC. An English guide who worked there showed us a very small "cemetery-island" close to the beach. They say that samurais were buried there. Instead of flowers, there were go stones on top of the graves. No kidding.
I can recommend Ben's Cafe located in Shinjuku district of Tokyo, just next to JR Takadanobaba Station. Atmosphere was very friendly and my beginner friends got a very good teaching session in English.
Be warned though that their website says there will be go lessons at 11:00 am every Sunday, but there wasn't lesson when I just visited the place and playing only started afted twelve. I still got to play some good games and had fun. It's a good place to have breakfast too. --Esko Arajärvi 31.3.2007
lavalyn: What about cool places in Japan that don't have to do with go?
BobMcGuigan: How about Onioshidashi? It's a park-like natural site a couple of hours by train outside of Tokyo. Many years ago a massive volcanic eruption created a lava field which by now has become a beautiful park, with shrubs and flowers and birds all over. There are paths through the lava on which you can walk. The volcano is still somewhat active and you can see it smoking in the distance. Just to make it tangentially relevant to SL, when I visited there more than 15 years ago I bought at the souvenir shop by the entrance small ceramic figures of two frogs playing go. You can get there by bus from Karuizawa Station and Nakakaruizawa Station on the Shinetsu Main train line, or Naganoharakusatsu Station and Manza-Shikazawaguchi Station on the Azuma line.