I've been trying board games again. Between being pretty good at chess and annoyed into quitting Go, taking time to get serious about learning shogi seems like a nice goal.

Oh boy, what fun two days had it been. And because I'm ahead on work and await responses to a metric bitchload of letters, this week is basically learning how to play and rewatching Star Trek TOS in the background.

So, first of all, my brain is incapable of holding Kanji. I see that "王将" and "飛車" are different symbols, but despite just copying them... I can only tell you that the first one is King because that stylized ][ is the piece I tried to frantically locate amidst the gibberish. No idea what's the other one. A rook, perchance? This alone, knowingly irrationally, makes me want to get defensive and prove I'm not a total fucking idiot.

OK, so use simpler symbols?

Yeah, sure, but then I lag even harder translating the move cheatsheet symbols onto piece symbols. No, I don't know why it's so difficult for me. Yes, it's been annoying me to hell and back.

"Then why won't you use the 'westernized' pieces?"

For the same reason why I wouldn't expect to see even a mediocre chess essay use the author's favourite dinosaur-themed pieces: any literature that's worth a shit uses kanji. I'd rather bank on acquiring familiarity over the years than be forced to unlearn a crutch as an intermediate player.

Oh, there are pieces with move pictograms and simplified Kanji! Happiness and jubilation!

Thank Cthulhu - may his sleep be eternal - someone figured this game's lingo is plenty difficult for bakagaijins fumbling over every little thing, no need to complicate this shit for tradition's sake.

Bitchin', let's do some puzzles!

Did you know everyone begins with 1500 as a provisional rank in all categories?

But wait. I'm approaching this all wrong: everyone sucks at the beginning. That's normal, no need for a bruised ego. Also, learning chess from my father was like surviving Pai Mei and Zhukov, so this should be fun with kid gloves on. Training, theory, and gaining experience by getting my proverbial ass whooped should be the key.

Well then, looks like I'm at least on track with the "ass whoopin', received" quotas.

But you know what? This is legitimately fun, unlike Go, where I'm often more confused by winning a game thought lost than frustrated at losing a game thought victorious. That silly game got me wondering how I can possibly rank 3 kyu (~1700/3rd cat. chess) despite my strategy being little more than "this place could use a stone 'cause, dunno, symmetry or something." Shogi? I already understand why I'm losing.