Japanese festival games

But a few rare designs will end the game as there are no more moves available. Source: Japanexperterna. In this game made of wooden pieces, a cylindrical Daruma head sits atop five stacked pieces of wood in primary colors. The aim is to get to the Daruma without toppling the stack.

You could liken it to Jenga but with a lot more emphasis on collision. Source: Joseph Choi. In , New York-based Dell Puzzle Magazines published the number puzzle under the name Number Place where it started to gain some popularity slowly.

The puzzle took off like wildfire from there and was once more exported around the world but this time under its current name, Sudoku. Small changes have been made to the rules over time but the premise remains the same. The aim of the game is to fill out an square grid divided into nine blocks of nine squares each with a number from 1 to 9. Each number must appear just once in every column, row, and block.

The game starts with some squares filled out and you must fill in the rest by using a combination of logic and speed, and, missing those, then just plain luck. The game has since turned into a global craze with the advent of formal competitions and even famous competitors solidifying its status in the world of puzzle games.

These are just some of the many traditional games that have a special place in the hearts and memories of Japanese people. The fact that you can find variations on these games all over the world is a testament to their long lasting popularity.

Toggle navigation Trip-N-Travel. Where to go? Source: Kusakabe Kimbei Japan has a rich history of traditional games which date back over generations. Source: WT-shared 2. Janken Rock, paper, scissors Source: Michael Smith Pretty much everyone the world over will be familiar with this game. Pump your fists three times to the chant. Keidoro a game of tag Source: Reginald Pentinio Keidoro sometimes called dorokei is a variation of tag played outside among Japanese schoolchildren where half the kids are police and the other half are thieves.

Beigoma Spinning top game Beigoma is a traditional spinning top game which peaked in popularity in the 20th century during the Showa period. Menko card flipping game Source: Nesnad Menko is a card flipping game popular since the Edo period and played by children. Most matsuri festivals run annually or semi-annually by a shrine and can last anywhere between a single day to an entire month. While there is no definitive data detailing exactly how many matsuri occur in Japan every year, estimates suggest that it could be as many as ,!

Other common practices include group dances, effigy burning, parade floats, and performances with traditional instruments. Often surrounding these festivals are pop-up stalls selling food, drinks, souvenirs, toys, and more. Locals will dress up in kimono or yukata to watch the parade while relishing festival treats , including chocolate bananas, karaage fried chicken, okonomiyaki pancakes, yakisoba noodles, and more.

Tanabata, also known as the Star Festival, is an important Japan-wide seasonal celebration taking place on July 7 and lasting until mid-August depending on the area and region. Streets, shopping arcades, homes, and stores will display decorations of colorful streamers and bamboo leaves, weaving together an energetic, enchanting atmosphere.

The festival was originally based on the Chinese Qixi Festival and celebrates the legend of Orihime and Hikoboshi, star-crossed lovers represented by the stars Vega and Altair who are separated by the Milky Way. Once a year, during the seventh day of the seventh lunar month according to the lunisolar calendar, they are allowed to meet, marking the beginning of Tanabata.

During this time, the light shining from Vega and Altair is said to be at its brightest, leading to the belief that the two deities were finally together. During this time, the entirety of Sendai and surroundings become engulfed in a tapestry of dazzling handmade Tanabata decorations, including bamboo, origami, tanzaku paper, drawstring bags, and streamers.

Many are made to be huge and extravagant, with the thick meter-long streamers hung on huge sticks of bamboo being the most eye-catching. The Nebuta Matsuri is celebrated simultaneously in almost every region of Aomori Prefecture during early August, with popular places to witness it being Aomori City, Hirosaki, and Goshogawara.

While most of these festivals see small lanterns gently gliding down rivers, those in Aomori have evolved into massive sculpture-like nebuta lanterns reaching up to 5 meters tall and 9 meters wide. I mean, unless you want them, I guess. Because you'll be preoccupied with walking a lot and looking at all of the festival-y things, if you eat something, it needs to be convenient. And what's more convenient than eating things on a stick? Because you can put almost anything on a stick, you'll find random things like cucumbers, pineapple, candied fruits, hot dogs, meat, meat and more meat, Bluth's frozen bananas and more shoved onto sticks and sold for a couple of yen coins.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite festival food, but last year I had a cold cucumber on a stick with miso that I can't forget. What are your favorite festival foods? Let me know on Twitter! Go hang out, catch some gold fish, chat, play some booth games, or just hang out! Most people say that the best way to enjoy a matsuri is to just walk around and look at everything. Carnival games and toys are available among the things to see and do too.

Kids and adults who want to look like anime characters can buy plastic masks of their favorite characters to terrorize small children with. When you're not wearing it on your face, wear it on the back of your head and no one will be able to tell which side is your real face! But, one particular Japanese carnival game can win you a real-live animal.

With kingyo sukui , or goldfish scooping, you pay for a flat net to try and scoop up fish into a bowl. That sounds easy enough, right? Well, the net is made of paper and will dissolve and break if you use too much power or leave it immersed in the water too long. Does it sound so easy now? Usually you can catch a fish or two if you're not completely inept. Good luck keeping it alive in the days after, though! Even if you're not in Japan, you can still re-create the matsuri feel by sitting in a bathrobe, eating noodles, and watching firework displays on youtube.

But if you actually have the chance to go to a summer festival, definitely take advantage of it and go, go,go! Then, it might really feel like summer! Tofugu Japanese View All Japanese. View All Japan.

The Big Festivals Although I suppose you could just have a festival for the sake of having a festival, there are also a few cultural and religious reasons to put up the takoyaki stands and flaunt your yukata. So What's So Special?

Okay, let's find out what makes the Japanese festival so different from other countries. The lanciform leaves attached to the straw rope in this picture, are those of a laurel-like shrub called yuzuri. This plant has been adopted as the symbol of a long united family because the old leaves cling to the branch after the young ones have appeared.

Other objects with specific meanings are often attached to the rope, the most common being paper cuttings gohei which represent the offerings of cloth made to the gods in ancient times. Occasionally tied to the rope are little bundles of charcoal sumi which, because of its changeless color, symbolizes changelessness. Her face was reflected in a mirror which they had hung upon a tree.

Never before had she gazed upon her own beauty, and thinking it the countenance of a rival, she stepped forth. She was prevented from returning by a fellow deity who stretched a straw rope across the opening of her retreat. During her retirement all the earth had been in darkness. As she emerged, the warm light of the sun spread over the world and joy returned to the people. A survival of the belief in this legend is to be seen to this day at a certain spot on the shore of Owari Bay.

They are joined together by a straw rope which some say represents the bond of conjugal union. Others see in it a hindrance against the entrance of the Plague God. However, these rocks are popularly thought to represent the cave into which the Sun Goddess retired. Two such objects are illustrated in Fig.

Those on the stand at the left are large, flat and round, in shape representing the mirror into which Amaterasu looked when she came forth from the cave. Again they symbolize the sun, the yo or male principle, and the moon, the in or female principle. They are adorned with two fern leaves, a folded paper arrangement called noshi and a bitter orange daidai to which are attached two yuzuri leaves. The Japanese are devoted to puns on words. Dried chestnut kernels kachiguri are often added to the arrangement, for the name suggests the happy thought of victory kachi.

The second stand which holds rice puddings is surmounted by a branch of pine, one of the well-known emblems of longevity. The pine, bamboo and plum are arranged together for this occasion and are known as sho-chiku-bai.

At the base of the pine in Fig. On account of the bent back and long tentacles it typifies a life so prolonged that the body is bent over and the beard reaches to the waist. A lobster or crayfish is often seen hanging to the center of the straw rope.

In the background of this picture, a set of bows and arrows used for indoor practice may be seen leaning against a basket filled with square rice cakes. In the foreground, a woman is seated before a chopping board on which she cuts the rice cakes into small pieces.

A companion who holds up a picture of the Sun Goddess, is seated near a lantern, on the base of which rests a waterpot.

An offering of rice is sometimes first thrown into the well. With the tea is served a preserved plum umeboshi , which, because of its wrinkled skin, suggests the hope of a good old age. In addition, there is always served on this festive day a fish stew known as zoni , and a special spiced brand of wine called toso. In some households the first day is devoted entirely to family devotion. Before the ancestral shrine offerings of tea, mirror dumplings, zoni and toso are placed, and then each living member is served in order of age with the same viands.

The pine on the left has a red trunk and is of the species akamatsu pinus densiflora ; that on the right has a black trunk and is the kuro-matsu pinus thunbergii. Fancy has attributed to the lighter pine, the feminine sex, while the black pine is thought to represent the masculine.

Between these kadomatsu is usually hung the straw rope previously described. The two plants, the pine and bamboo, have no religious significance but are emblematic of longevity and fidelity. It is again a case of a similar pronunciation of two Chinese characters: setsu meaning fidelity and setsu denoting the node of the bamboo.

A kado-matsu is pictured in the fourth illustration where in the foreground two boys, bound together with a rope are testing their strength. This common pastime for boys is called kubi hiki. A third child, acting as umpire, holds in his hand a kite in the shape of a bird. Kite-flying is perhaps the most conspicuous sport, for kites of many shapes and sizes are sent up by all lads on these days. In Japan kite-flying is not only more picturesque than with us, on account of the use of such fantastic forms as double fans, birds, butterflies, cuttlefish or huge portraits of heroes in brilliant colors and unusual proportions, but it is also apt to be a very exciting sport.

Competitive kite-flying is accomplished by covering the first ten or twenty feet of the kite string with fish glue or rice paste, and then dipping it into pounded glass or porcelain. On hardening, this portion of the string becomes a series of tiny blades which when crossed with another string at high tension can soon saw away the kite of the adversary. It is also customary to attach a strip of whale bone or a bow of bamboo to the large kites, so that on ascending a loud humming is produced which adds to the excitement of the flight.

Only boys and men fly kites in Japan. The girls, dressed in their best costumes, are picturesque as they play with a hand ball and at battledore and shuttlecock. The battle boards are of a white wood called kiri and are often elaborate affairs, adorned on one side with the portrait of a hero made of colored silks.

The shuttlecock is composed of the seed of the soapberry, to which bright feathers are attached. On a surimono in this exhibition two girls are at play upon a red mat spread beneath the blossoming plum tree. To one of the branches is clinging a nightingale, the bird which heralds the approach of spring.

Young maidens carrying flat bamboo baskets make excursions into the country to gather the seven spring grasses nanakusa. This one occurs on the seventh day of the first month. The writing of poems at this auspicious time is almost universal, indeed, the composing of poetry and the mastery of caligraphy are considered as necessary accomplishments for the cultured person.