First Newsletter from the future!
Hey yall, it’s time for the first Newsletter (at least for a while) for the ARA! Your first question may be ‘how is this from the future?’ Well, it’s January’s Newsletter and it’s being written in February. The only way to do that is if I wrote it from the future (definitely not because it’s late)! The goal with these Newsletters is to have something that is easy to distribute, informative to the community, and also not a slog to read. The things you can expect are monthly news items related to Riichi, important ARA events and happenings, minutes from our monthly meetings, and maybe even a rant or fun fact to tie it all together. The goal is to make it enjoyable for YOU, the person reading this, so make sure to bring any feedback to the Communications Working Group!
Minutes For Jan. 2026 Meetings
Minutes for the January 2026 meeting can be found here:
https://www.nariichi.org/ara-meeting-minutes?month=01-2026
Some highlights include a new fresh format for World Riichi Pros (shoutouts to Laura for being the new WRP Administrative Pro!), Corak winning the 2025 ARML championship which is the first of its new format (he finally got one), and the ARA starting the process for club recertification and verification (it’s unfortunately likely on the Harrison timeline so expect it sometime in the next several months to years). Nathanael also shared a presentation showcasing clubs recapping what they did during 2025 which was super cool!
Upcoming Events For the Next ~90 Days
Virginia Beach is having their Riichi Tournament on February 21st-22nd. They are at 23 out of their cap of 64 players and are having signups open until 7 days before the event. If you’re thinking about joining, you only have a little time left so act fast!
Oklahoma Mahjong is having their tournament in Tulsa on March 14th-15th. They are at 45 out of 64 players signed up, so spots are going fast! This is the first tournament to be ARA ratified AND have Open Riichi allowed, so everyone will have their eyes on this event to see how that rule unfolds.
DC Riichi Mahjong is having their biggest tourney to date on March 28th-29th in Alexandria Virginia! Instead of a zany format this year they chose to make the format much more common, and took all that experimental energy into their plethora of side events! Signups are at 149/152, so get in quick or sign up on that waitlist if you’re looking to play the biggest aka-nashi tournament in the US!
The Pacific Mahjong League is hosting their 2026 Invitational on May 2nd-3rd. Featuring Jenn the JPML Professional and online superstar personality, this 32 player capped tournament will feature some of the best players for the US. Featuring auto-haipai Amos REXX tables, this one of kind tourney is accepting signups now!
World Riichi League is having their finals in February. Make sure to stay tuned and check them out for more info!
Saikouisen USA has a plethora of Pro Ama events coming up in the next month. If you want to see the schedule or more info about the events, check out the website below!
The last day to join the American Riichi Mahjong League Spring Season beginning in April is March 15th. If you are looking for more info, check with your local club/the link below!
One Down, Many More to Go
As we reach the end of the first Newsletter, I want to look back at how far we’ve come. Even just two years back the ARA went by a different name and was less than half the size of what it currently is. Now, we are doing so much more and growing even faster. This organization is something that myself and many others can be extremely proud of, and something that I think helps this community more and more as time goes on. Instead of patting ourselves on the back, I want to look at the road ahead. Thinking back to how much we’ve been able to do in the past two years, I can’t even imagine how much we’ll be able to accomplish in the next two. With that comes experiments, feedback, failure, all leading to success. What I want is for people to think about what they want from the ARA, and especially from this Newsletter, and write your feedback either in the Communications Working Group in the ARA Discord, or to our official contact page here: https://www.nariichi.org/contact
-To All of You in January 2026, From Harrison