Play Time!

Koma

Children in Japan seem to have a freedom that we have lost in North America. Japan is a very safe country and you see many young children walking to school by themselves (from about age 5) as well as traveling on the trains and buses. You also see lots of young children playing in the streets, school playgrounds and communities centers unsupervised by adults.

Children often leave the house early in the morning not arriving home sometimes until late. They get themselves from a very young age school to club activities, only returning home at the end of the day. Although children in Japan must work very hard at school, specially when writing their entrance exams for senior high school and university, they also make time to get together with friends whether it is at a club activity, hanging out together or playing games.

Menko

Japan has many traditional games that children still play. Most of the traditional games are simple and inexpensive allowing children to purchase them themselves. Although the toys and games may look simple, it could take years to truly master the skill needed to play the game well. Toys such as the spinning top are challenging at first. Once the basic skill has been mastered, there are many other techniques they can learn.

Some of the traditional toys include the kite (tako), spinning top (koma), bamboo helicopter-like toy (take-tombo), paper balloon (kamifusen), paper folding (origami), and Japanese stilts (takeuma).

Koma – this is a spinning top. The top comes in a variety of sizes and can be made out a different materials. Children spin can spin the top using their fingers or a string. Children can play a game using multiple tops. They start their tops spinning. When one tops flicks the other tops, the tops stop spinning and knocks them down. The top still spinning is the winner.

Kendama

Kendama – this is a cup and a ball. The Ken has three cups on it – a large one, a middle on and a small one. The dama is the ball connected to the ken. This simple toy has over 1,000 techniques children can learn and the children enjoying preforming the many different tricks. Many of the tricks has a song that they sing while preforming the technique.

Menko – Menko is a game using small circular or rectangular cards or circles. Children slap on one card at a time on the ground to turn over their opponent's card. There are many different variations to this game.

Otedama – this is a juggling game using small cloth bags that are filled with sweet-beans. It is a game that girls often enjoy very much.

Daruma-otoshi – this is a traditional game made out of wood. Several wooden thin cylinders are stacked on top of each other with daruma doll at the top. The object of the game is to hit of the thin cylinders one at a time from the side without knocking off the daruma.

Daruma-otoshi



Although Japanese children spend many hours in front of the TV or computer, it is wonderful to see them running and playing outside, often playing games that have been passed down through the centuries.

Otedama