Fun and Card Games with JAW

We played two fun Japanese card games at the first JAW event of the new year this week.

One was a variation on a traditional New Year's game. When the Japanese play this game, the object is to match 100 poems with their first lines. They skipped the poems in deference to our illiteracy and invented a new game of chance using just the face cards, the two stacks in the top of the box pictured above.  The cards are beautifully illustrated and are the same size as American playing cards but about ten times as thick. 

The other game was played with round cards scattered face-up on the table. The object here was to be the first one to grab the card with the correct rebus when an adage was read aloud. This game was trickier, i.e., I didn't come close to winning a round.

Some of the sayings were familiar - "a fly in the ointment" and "all roads lead to Rome" - but many were not. At least five new wrinkles are etched across my forehead compliments of "gold is an orator" and "the furthest way about is the nearest way home". The contestants seated in the center of the rectangular tables could reach the cards faster than those of us seated on either end and I happened to be seated next to a 28-year old American who made me believe reincarnation is a distinct possibility since her competitive glee bore an uncanny resemblance to my mother's. It was quite incredible really.

We - Mimi, Carmen, Cathy, and I - are hosting the next JAW event.  A year ago I swore I would never again host a theme party but . . . it's simply a price I'm willing to pay in order to co-host one last party with Mimi before she moves to North Carolina.