1. Let's Enjoy 'fuku-warai'

about fuku-warai: Around the New Year Day, many Japanese kids play 'fuku-warai'. This game is lloved by Japanese children. It is interesting. In Japanese, the word 'fuku' means 'happiness' and 'warai', 'to laugh'. So we laugh happily when we play this game.

preparation: two large sheet of paper
on one sheet, we draw an outline of a human face
We cut the other sheet into smaller piece in order to make parts of a face like eyes, nose, mouth, ears, eyebrows and so on.

towel for blindfold
how to play: This game is played by more than two people.
First, the first person put on a blindfold of towel. Then another person hands the cuts of parts of a face to the first player. The first person tries to put the parts on the outline of a face on the sheet, guessing the right positions. Other people give the player some pieces of advice, like "Up" or "Down".
When the first person finishes arrainging the cuts, he or she puts off the blindfold. Maybe the player will be surprised at what a funny face the player has made.

2. Hyaku-nin issyu
This is Hyaku-nin-isshu. This is a traditional Japanese card game based on one hundred famous tankas, or Japanese old short verses. 'hyaku-nin' means 'one hundred poets' and 'issyu' means 'one poem or verse.'

Now we explain about this game. The game is played by more than three people. One player has one hundred cards; each card has a verse on it. He or she reads a verse written on a card with no picture on it one by one. The player doesn't show the card to the others.

And there are also 100 cards scattered on the table. Each of the cards has a beautiful picture of the writer of the verse and the verse on it. When the very first part of the verse is read, other players try to get the card with the verse read. The player who gets most is the winner. This is also a good way for kids to learn about the Japanese classic verse.

Do you understand it? We are glad to show you a deep-interest in Hyaku-nin isshu'. Thank you for your reading.

by Eri and Momoyo

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