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In Tokyo, the sakura are in full bloom now, though it’s been rainy the last few days, which dampens the possibility of having a little hanami picnic. But this time of year always makes me think of playing hanafuda with friends in a park.
I don’t talk about my cards as much as I’d like to. So this season is a good reminder to remind you about them!
Hanafuda are Japanese flower cards. They’re traditionally smaller and firmer than poker cards you might be familiar with, but years ago I made a radically-new interpretation which has a Japanese family crest motif on western-size poker cards printed by The United States Playing Card Company. (You know them from Bicycle cards!)
Junior Hanafuda is super easy to play with, and you can easily carry around a deck in your pocket or bag wherever you go, whether it be your friend’s place, a cafe, or a park!
Koi-Koi is the most popular 2-player game, and it’s easy to start, but challenging to master. At first, it will seem like the goal is just to match the highest-value cards, but since the win conditions are for yaku (specific sets of cards), you’ll quickly discover it’s better to learn the deck and what suit contains the cards you need to complete a set.
Why not pick up a deck or two and learn a new game?