Has anyone seen a cheap go set for sale? You know the game that is played with black and white stones, popular amongst taxi drivers? It has another name in Chinese. The game originated in China but is hugely popular in Korea and Japan.
Surely you can get a set in Okinawa? I mean, they even have their own variation of the rules, so it must be popular there. But if you’re visiting Taiwan, I think any decent-sized stationery store will have it.
Stationery stores, supermarkets, hell, I think I’ve seen a few 7-11s and Family Marts selling it too. It’s almost impossible not to find.
Well, everything is so bloody expensive here in cartel-land that I can barely afford to eat rice or wipe my arse with store-bought toilet paper. I will definitely pick up a few of those travel versions of the game in Taipei next month…however, if anyone sees a real board with a wooden base/real stones, LET ME KNOW!
Wooden boards are available at most of the little mom-and-pop places, especially the random-junk shops that tend to congregate near nightmarkets.
The best looking Go board that I have seen was ironically, at Sogo’s. The board was a deep burnished wood that doubled as a small table, complete with drawers mounted beneath the board to store the playing stones. The stones were “real” stones…what appeared to be a granite, and perhaps quartz. (I’m no geologist, so don’t shoot me.) It retailed for NT$ 15000.
(BTW - That was in Kaohsiung)
Ezra, thanks…that fancy Sogo model is actually cheaper than the cardboard versions here on Cartel Island!
The Chinese word for go (the board game) is weiqi (both syllables second tone), meaning literally “surround chess”.
@ Kick-stand - I always thought that SOGO’s was a Japanese store. Don’t they have SOGO’s in Japan?
Hey, we do have Mitsugoshi, but as far as I can tell, there are no Sogos. It’s really a Taiwan thing…what could be more ‘Taiwanese’ than Sogo Taichung? I doubt a Japanese could even navigate his way around that place…and the prices are so flex…you can bargain. (I just bought luggage there).
Anyway…there probably are a few Sogos somewhere in Japan…but they are not generally present. They are a Taiwan thing.