Odd I’m quite old and love strategy games but for some reason have never played this one. Definitely need to buy a board and try it out. I prefer to buy high quality game boards so if any avid fans of the game have a preference please let me know.
The best boards are the tournament boards from Megahouse. They are bit difficult to get outside of Japan. But don't let hold you back. Start playing online for starters.
I like the recent variant on websites and apps where a random neutral start position (about ten normal ply moves in) is used to reduce the effect of opening books.