東方麻雀牌セット

Monday is Mahjong day!

Honestly I'm not sure if I make 52 individual posts about Mahjong, but it sure is worth a try.

I'll probably talk about basic rulings, Japanese rulings, and scoring (After I learn how to keep track of score completely; been too reliant on the computer to do so for me).

But this week I'll just be showcasing special Mahjong sets. Originally I wanted this set:

 As you can see here, the set has colored characters for all terminal tiles (Minus the 9's).

This set was manufactured over a year ago, and only 120 exist. Unfortunately for me, that means they are almost impossible to obtain (Hours of searching all in vain).

Here is another cool Touhou set:

But it is also out of my grasp. This set has all terminals personalized, even the 9's. However, I just don't like the overall style of the set. Seems "childish" to me, but it's all about personal taste.

So I contemplate buying the Saki 咲 set:

Very spiffy if I do say so myself. What I like about this set is that each tile is "Saki"fied, either with the face of a character, or an item that character holds dear (Tacos, Penguin, etc).

But something like this will always be available, so a purchase of this would only be wise if you intend to play with them, and even then, aesthetics aren't worth that much.

Finally, I find a more recent manufactured Touhou set:

Once again, all terminals except for 9's are characterized. What intrigues me about this set is that the character designs look like they have been "carved" in the same manner as regular sets, as opposed to just printing a design onto a tile. It sure makes feeling tiles more difficult, but I rather die than ruin the mint condition of this set.

Best of all, the set is available to purchase! It's a hefty price to pay (Almost $300 including shipping!) but purchases like these are an investment.

Now if only Paypal transferred funds quicker.