Mahjong Mat

Beats the heck out of the bare kitchen table, so yes, I got my money's worth. :) The surface of the mat is very similar to a mouse pad, but thinner. This means that it tends to attract and hold onto grime (nothing a damp cloth or a sticky lint roller can't easily remove). The mat itself breaks down into three pieces - two sides of the border are permanently attached to the pad itself, and the other two pieces snap into place after you roll those out. It's very well put together and quite sturdy, despite being made of plastic. The carrying case does the job, but I don't expect mine to last, as it's already starting to fray around the velcro. This is kind of expensive, but if you're trying to get into playing Mahjong, it's the Cadillac of mats. Highly recommended.

Two of the plastic sides are attached, two are not, so you can easily store this mat. The two you attach are nice to put on and off. The ends slide onto the corners and come off when you lift up on them. The mat itself is nice, tiles slide easily and mat is thick enough to protect our table and keep the tile sound ok when you shuffle tiles. The edges are nice for helping you line up tiles in a row. And the edges have large pockets for holding your betting sticks. Using with Amos Max set and is fine, has room for tile walls. No problems.

I have only used it once so far, but it works as expected and I'm happy with it. It also arrived weeks earlier than the estimated delivery date, which was a very nice surprise. The only drawback is that it costs much more than I would normally pay for this type of thing. When searching for this product online I've found that the mahjong mat itself costs around $30 to $40 and it's the shipping cost that drives the price to approach $80 (due to the fact that it comes from Japan). After a while of shopping around online, I found Amazon had the best price. What drove me to order the mahjong mat despite its price was the fact that there are not any similar products in the U.S, (online I have found products called "mahjong mats", but they are really just table covers. They don't have the raised edges which makes making walls much easier and keeps tiles from falling off the table) and I did not want to go through the process of constructing my own.

I play a lot of Riichi mahjong and have used a plain border-less mat in the past. This junk mat is a vast improvement because I can easily store and sort my tenbo/bones and dice with this. Also it's great having borders around the mat because it prevents tiles from falling off when shuffling. The border makes it easier to build straight walls and organize your hand. During gameplay I like melding sets and actually having a solid corner to place them in to. I was concerned the mat would crease and fold easily during gameplay but this is not the case. The underside of the mat is a rubber grip and sticks well to a clean glass playing surface. I would imagine it would be okay with plastic or wood surfaces too but can't say for sure. It's not easy to slide the mat around when there are tiles on it so place it in a good position prior to playing. This isn't a huge setback however, and really speaks to the good grip underneath the mat. I like the color of the mat. It's not a faded dull color or typical green poker table color. I find it more teal-colored and very bold. It looks nice with my yellow-backed tiles. It easily fits 4 walls of 17x2 tiles that are sized 25mm, which I believe is a typical small Japanese Riichi tile size. This is the set I primarily use this junk mat with. I have a larger Chinese mahjong set with 40mm tiles. It's very tight with the large tiles but doable. You could always get weird with it and do 3 walls of 14 stacked 3 high in a triangle pattern & set aside 10 tiles for the deadwall - which helps with space but is far from traditional. If you're concerned with space I personally wouldn't consider using this with tiles over 36mm. I have an American mahjong set that I'm not really into these days but of course you can use this for American mahjong, though there are more tiles involved in American mahjong. One thing to note is if you play on a large table and/or one that isn't square shaped, you may have 1 or possibly 2 players who have to reach a bit to play when playing with 4 players. I play on a rectangular table just a little wider than the mat's size but twice as long. With 2 or 3 players there's no problem. With 4 someone has to reach, npi. The price on this is a bit high though I suspect it's due to it being a Japanese import. My mahjong set didn't cost much more than this but I get good use out of this junk mat so for me it's worth the ~$42 I paid. Prime shipping got it to me in 2 days so there's a warehouse somewhere in the U.S. that already has these shipped in from Japan at the time of reviewing 3/2016.

The felt was extremely suitable for mah jong smooth and flat. The material is so well made for this game. The frame is very easy to assemble and when put together, it did not move around from the table top (an excellent design). Last but not least, it is light and I love the carrying case. Worth every penny and the wait for the item to arrive (it was late).

Fantastic product. If you don't already have tiles though you should get the AMOS set that comes with them

I needed a replacement mat to play Riichi MahJong with my family. I purchased this and I was disappointed in several aspects of the product. The positives - the mat is nice and smooth that works well with playing with traditional mahjong tiles. The plastic edge that provides a 'lip' to keep the tiles on that mat allowed us to form the two rows of tiles to create the tile wall for each player. The mat is designed to roll-up into a nice nylon bag for transport. The plastic edge/wall also has little built-in storage to store the 'bones' (betting chips used in mahjong) for each player. The negative - this design allows the plastic edges to fold-up when needed to be put into the storage bag. Unfortunately, the 'bones' tend to spill out of the built-in trays when slightly jarring the table. In addition, the moveable plastic edges do not prevent the spilled out 'bones' from slipping in-between the plastic edge and mat. We would find several 'bones' underneath the plastic edge/wall/built-in tray. Ultimately, each player used the trays used to store the tiles in the mahjong set to hold the 'bones' instead of the mat's built-in trays. I believe this mat may work well for beginners that want to learn Mahjong and are looking to transport and play mahjong at different locations. However, a more experienced Mahjong player may find themselves disappointed and annoyed in the lack of stability of the plastic edges, ease in spilling the 'bones' out of the trays, and losing those 'bones' underneath the plastic edges.

As an avid Riichi Mahjong player, I was thrilled to discover the Mahjong Junk Mat. What makes it even more exciting is that it is manufactured by TAIYO GIKEN, the Japanese maker of the best-selling Japanese domestic mahjong products branded as “Amos" from mahjong tiles to automatic mahjong tables. Setting up the mat is a breeze, and it doesn’t even come with an instruction manual. The quality is simply spectacular, and with proper care, it doesn't wrinkle. The mat fits perfectly on regular tables and even smaller surfaces like coffee tables and heated tables (Kotatsu). Overall, I would highly recommend the Mahjong Junk Mat to anyone who wants to enhance their Riichi Mahjong experience. It's a must-have for all enthusiasts.