Sendai

[MMaestro]

Hello. I'm currently traveling through Japan and am going to have some free time in Sendai. Does anyone know of any Go Clubs or parlors in the area?

-Thanks

[Kirby]

I spent a year in Sendai, and there are two places that were pretty active. The one that I went to the most was the Circle Hall Go Club. Circle Hall is a place in Tohoku University off of Kawauchi campus. In particular, it's number 18 on this map:


Their homepage was (at the time) this: http://www.geocities.jp/tonpei_igobu/, but it's a kind of poorly designed site.

It's free to play at Circle Hall, and I met a number of cool people there, some of which I maintain contact with to this day (it was back in 2004/2005 that I was there).

The second place that you can go to is an actual "go salon" that's downtown near Sendai station, but you have to pay to play. According to google maps, it should be located at: Japan, 〒980-0021 Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai, Aoba Ward, Chuo, ４丁目１−３ プレイビル ３Ｆ.

I went there before, too. I was a student, and I think the fee for playing for the day was 500 yen - which was the student price (I think regular adults paid like 800 yen), about 5 USD at the time. They let me play the first time for free, though.

I would recommend those two places for sure. The only other places I found for go in downtown Sendai were for little kids.

Disclaimer: I went to these two spots in 2004 and 2005, but I'm not sure what state they are in after the earthquakes. Based on google maps, though, it looks like the go salon is still intact.

Good luck!

[Kirby]

Ah, I forgot to mention, if you do go to circle hall, it looks like the room is 308 (go upstairs). When I was there, there were tons of clubs in that building, so it would take some time to find it if you didn't know the number.

If you do end up going to the university club, I'd be interested to hear if the building is still dingy

[Kirby]

I tried to make a google street view link of circle hall, if you want to know what it might look like (I don't know if it's up to date):
http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ge ... 0.3,,0,-10

[MMaestro]

Thanks so much I'm going to go by the Sendai Station one first since I'm closer. And then maybe I'll head over to the University. Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes

[Kirby]

Thanks so much I'm going to go by the Sendai Station one first since I'm closer. And then maybe I'll head over to the University. Thanks, I'll let you know how it goes

Sure. I'm also curious to know if the Sakurano building is still near the station. It always felt like home when that pink sign came into view. After the earthquakes, I have no idea what things look like... It's really a pity.

[MMaestro]

Hi!

Just to report I tried to get to the Tohoku University but couldn't find the Kawauchi campus. But I ended up going to the salon and had a wonderful time.

The town is for the most part fine. Sakurano is still there. The earthquake, for the most part has been recovered from and it's almost as good as new. Although the real damage was in the areas afflicted by the tsunami.

[Kirby]

Hi!

Just to report I tried to get to the Tohoku University but couldn't find the Kawauchi campus. But I ended up going to the salon and had a wonderful time.

The town is for the most part fine. Sakurano is still there. The earthquake, for the most part has been recovered from and it's almost as good as new. Although the real damage was in the areas afflicted by the tsunami.

Ah, yokatta...

I'm glad to hear that you had a good time, and even more glad to hear that Sendai wasn't hurt as bad as I had imagined.