So we decided to have ourselves a Japanese Sunday, since the weather was pretty lousy. So, I dressed up in my kimono (which I find most comfortable to wear!), we prepared some Japanese tea, and made a Japanese noodle soup for lunch. And of course we had some of the delicious plum liqueour we’d purchased as an aperitif. Brought back all those great memories from Japan… No sake this time, we’ll save that for a special occasion.
After our lunch we continued our Japane theme by playing a bit of Hanafuda – the flower card game. We’ve become big fans of this game, so I thought I’d dedicate a few lines in my blog to these cards. Hanafuda cards evolved over the centuries from a mixture of western and eastern card games, and were finally “commercialised” in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi founded Nintendo Koppai (yes, that is indeed the very same company which produces games concoles these days). The card set (containing 48 cards) is divided into 12 suits, each representing one month (each month has a flower, depicted on the cards of the suit, associated with it). Each suit has 2 “common cards” or dregs (worth the least amount of points), one poetry strip or animal card (worth a bit more points than the dregs). Some suits also have a “light” card, which are the most valuable. What’s interesting about Hanafuda is that there are loads of variants of the game which can be played with the cards. Not only are the cards used in Japan; they are also popular in South Korea and Hawaii. The basic rules are pretty standard; but what typically sets the variants apart are the combinations (these are usually what wins the game) – in Japan we played the “Shimizu family variant”. We’ve tried a few versions, until we eventually settled upon a particular one, which we like.
Hopefully, our Hanafuda cards, the sake and my kimono will get me going until our next visit ;-).
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