About

We are Bristol Riichi Mahjong, a group of riichi mahjong players and enthusiasts from Bristol in the UK!

How to chat to us

We’re most active on the JanKenRon Discord server - when you arrive, head to the ‘Channels & Roles’ section and choose the Bristol role to get our channels. We’re also on Facebook, and you can email us at bristolriichimahjong@gmail.com

When we meet

We meet about every two months for all-day weekend meetups, normally at the Watershed Cinema Café Bar in Bristol city centre.

All our main meetups will be advertised here on the website!

Smaller meetups are being organised all the time by our club members - feel free to ask who is free to meet for a game on Discord or Facebook as mentioned above.

We might do occasional special events too!

I’m new to riichi mahjong! Can I come to your meetups?

Many of our first-time attendees have only ever played riichi online. That’s no problem! We can teach you all the extra bits so you can start playing in-person. And yes, it’s fine if you don’t know how to score! (People can go for years before they feel comfortable with the scoring!!)

If you are looking to get into riichi completely from scratch, we would ask that you take some time to learn how to play and win some basic hands, so you can dive straight into playing when you join us. Here are some resources to help you:

This playlist of videos from the excellent Light Grunty channel - teaches the tiles, flow of a game, and some basic winning criteria (yaku)
Mahjongo - an easy-to-use free browser game against computer opponents

You are very welcome to attend and simply watch, to get a feel for the game.

Also, if you can find four people who want to learn in-person completely from scratch, but need a helping hand getting to grips with the rules, drop us an email as I (Tom) would be delighted to help!

About the organisers

Chair: Tom Pearson

Hi, I'm Tom! I was first shown riichi in 2016 at a work board game night. It took Final Fantasy XIV to add its own riichi minigame in 2019 to push me into learning it properly, and I've been hooked ever since! I love teaching mahjong to anyone who'll listen... (sorry to colleagues at my last two jobs!) and organised meetups in Leeds before moving to Bristol in 2021.

Live tournaments are my favourite way to play, and since joining the European Mahjong Association's tournament scene at the UK Open in 2022, the game has taken me to many great cities and introduced me to many great people! I represented the UK at the European and World Championships in 2024 and 2025 and am currently the reigning UK riichi mahjong champion!

I find riichi to be a wonderfully social game, with new puzzles and surprises at every turn, and I want as many people playing it as possible!

Co-chair: James Johns

James (or JJ) here.

Being the self-confessed game enjoyer and fan of various worldly things, I was always fascinated as a young boy by this mysterious game from the east "Mahjong". It was only when some friends of ours mentioned they had a set, that I suddenly went "hey this sounds fun, let's learn it together". So me and the wifey did just that. This was late 2018, we then managed to coerce some others to join and started some intermittent (almost regular!) pub sessions though nothing too official.

Covid then occurred and we found ourselves with a lot of time at home and needing to find something to do with so lo' and behold, we played Riichi. A lot of riichi. As things eased up, through the UK Mahjong Facebook group a few more people appeared and started to jump into games (including Tom above) and things grew steadily. Suddenly we found ourselves putting out the word and having consistent 3-4 tables going and meets all through the day, and then possibly continuing for the infamous "Mahjong after dark" at ours thereafter.

I am a filthy casual through and through but I really enjoy the game so would love to face anyone who's offering the challenge!