What set do you prefer?

[Ruro]

The question is an easy one, what type of mahjong sets do you like? For example you like plastic black tiles, or bamboo traditional sets. As for me I like my bamboo set, it\'s not shaped perfectly so filpping the dora and holding together 14 tiles can be a pain but i still like it. Why you ask, because i love the sound of the bamboo when it hit\'s the table. So what sets do you use (specify color, material etc) ?

[iandstanley]

For regular play I use ymimports solid plastic riichi set (all black at home and all white at my brothers ... both my sets but it saves lugging them around)

Every now and then I get a bit nostagic and pull out my bamboo set from the 70s (sometimes it\'s pulled out to play with my kids as it is the only set with arabic numerals on it and my youngest daughter 10 is still struggling with the crak suit)

I don\'t generally like plastic sets with a colour back to them as they seem a bit odd to me ... I\'d personally rather a bamboo backed set than a coloured plastic back ... though some of the good quality japanese sets like the pro set in the shop and some of the sets at Hiros site seem nice.

Maybe I\'m a product of the 70s, when if you wanted a good set in the UK you went for bamboo, if you wanted a cheap and nasty set you got one plastic backed in a horrible green colour. I\'ve never played with a good quality plastic laminated/dovetailed set and I suppose I would get to like it quickly once I\'ve tried it .... it\'s just that first step ... do I feel confident in buying a nice pro quality two-tone set when I never liked two tone sets in the past.

(PS If I managed to get my hands on a automatic table I\'d probably be glad to trade off nice tiles for convienience.)

[hirohurl]

The set that I prefer to use at home is one that I bought from the Mahjong Museum in Chiba Ken a few years ago. The coin suit is embellished with gold dots in the middle of each coin, and the 1-Coins, when put together in the correct order spell out \"Mahjong Museum\" in kanji.

I used this set in some of the photos on my 3-player mj site. You can check out three of the 1-Coins on this page:

http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjpage7.html

and the other 1-Coin, with the characters for \"mahjong\" on it, here:

http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjpage5.html

The colour of the backs is \"bamboo\".

I used to sell a fine mahjong set with real, hand-carved bamboo backs that were fitted onto plastic tile bodies. I really wanted one for myself, but the craftsman stopped making them...

In the mahjong parlours it is common to see pink-backed and light-blue backed tiles. Since the automatic tables have two sets of tiles, one in the guts of the machine and one in play, it is necessary to differentiate the sets by colour so that you can separate them if easily if they get mixed up.

[iandstanley]

The set that I prefer to use at home is one that I bought from the Mahjong Museum in Chiba Ken a few years ago. The coin suit is embellished with gold dots in the middle of each coin, and the 1-Coins, when put together in the correct order spell out "Mahjong Museum" in kanji.
http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjpage7.html
http://japanese-mahjong.com/3pmjpage5.html

They are very nicely carved. Absolutely beautiful

[Ruro]

yea the dot suit is absolutely beautiful it\'s a shame that now days they just quickly put together some plastic tiles with stickers on it.

[Zi Rong Low]

I bought my set in Taiwan a few years ago while we were touring there. It was a \"small\" solid plastic set with yellow backing which was the closest I could find that resembled the Japanese sets commonly featured in video games etc.

Obviously I\'d prefer the actual Japanese sets which predominantly use the blue colours in the \"Pinzu\" (Dots) suit and more green in the \"Souzu\" (Bamboos) than Chinese sets but the shipping charge is prohibitively expensive to send to where I live... :(