Child’s Play

I have loved the hilarious and clever captions that you have come up with so far for the little game in my previous post. Keep ’em coming! Speaking of games, the guys at work presented me with a very fun and thoughtful White Day gift when I returned from my trip around Asia. With Kodomo no hi (Children’s Day) rapidly approaching on May 5th, I thought it would be fun to share this gift with you. The gift was a bag filled with a variety of traditional Japanese toys and games.

It is made of a waxpaper-like material and has a hole in one end that you blow into and it inflates. This rated high on Squirrel’s list as well! She would grab for it, which would partially deflate it, then hand it back to me to reinflate it, and then she would promptly clap her hands in delight, and then we would start the process all over.

This object, that we English-speakers know as a kaleidoscope, is called a mangekyou in Japanese, which translates to roughly mean “thousands of flowers and mirrors”. An apt description don’t you think?

This fun little object is a miniature tako, or kite. They call this particular kite a Yakko tako.

The packaging explains: “In old days Hikeyoshi started his life as a “YAKKO” (foot-soldier) and finally succeeded to attain the rank of the Premier, highest rank accessible to subjects after tireless efforts. In Japan boys fly “YAKKO” kites wishing to be as lucky as he was.” The instructions also indicate that if you want to play with the kite indoors, that an electric-fan is the key!

These brightly colored disks are a game called menko.

To play, one player’s card is placed on a hard surface. Then another player throws down his card, trying to flip the other player’s card (the one on the hard surface) by striking his card against the other card, or with the movement of air caused by the card coming down onto the hard surface. If he succeeds, he takes both cards. The player who takes all the cards, or the one with the most cards at the end of the game wins. The pictures on these cards reflect the popular culture of their time (today you find many menko cards depicting popular baseball players, for example). I think mine are “recreated vintage”, as they depict samurai, which were popular images in the Edo period.

These are called taketombo (means “bamboo dragonfly”).

To play, the stick is spun between your palms to propel the dragonfly into the air like a little helicopter.

This top (as we know it) is called a koma.

There are many types of tops, all using different methods of spinning them such as using your fingers or pulling a cord. This particular koma is a nagegoma. It is spun by throwing the top using a cord wrapped around the base of it. It is very difficult to do, though one of the guys at work made it look easy!

This game is called sugoroku. There are several different forms of this board game. This particular form is similar to Chutes and Ladders. You start out as a homeless person and you work your way up through the ranks of the sumo world with the goal of reaching the center, or becoming a yokozuna (grand champion–the highest rank in the sport of sumo). You may have setbacks or good fortune along the way, all depending on how the dice is rolled.

And finally, this is a kendama.

The basic idea is to throw the ball upwards and try to get the ball to land on one of the concave dish parts of the “hammer”, as well as landing the ball on the spike. There are more advanced techniques which involve things like combining different moves and having the ball land in harder positions. I am told that this is actually quite the competitive sport, with tournaments and everything!

I had a wonderful time learning about these fun traditional Japanese toys. Thanks guys, I loved it!