In early October, my local city here in Japan hosted an event for go players to commemorate 100 years as a city.  Five professionals, including NHK commentator and 9-dan Michael Redmond, played twenty simultaneous matches each, against one hundred Nagaoka residents.

I didn't get to play Michael Redmond, but I got a match against Tatsuya Seki, professional shodan (1-dan) who is from our prefecture.  I won, but it's not quite as big as my glorious victory against Mr. Kataoka, since there wasn't enough time to finish, and most games with Mr. Seki had to be adjudicated.  Mr. Redmond helped speed things up, as he already finished at his table and helped other professionals by judging their games' most likely outcomes, mine being a win.  For this I recieved 2kg of Koshihikari rice.  In Asia, that's a big deal, as rice used to be used as currency in Japan.  Also, it ties in with the history of Nagaoka City, when they used a rice payment of 100 sacks to build a school, right after a civil war despite lots of hungry people.

After the main event, there was a formal party at a nearby hotel, pictured above.  The mayor and others attended.