Hasami Shogi

Hasami shogi is one of the variant of Japanese chess, Shogi.


It is much easier to play Hasami shogi than to play normal Shogi.


My son sometimes play it with my husband since when he was 5 or 6 years old.


Yesterday, my sons were playing Hasami shogi and I felt like playing with my older son.


I was going to make allowance to let him win, but soon I found it difficult.


He took my pieces one by one, and I couldn't.
When I moved my piece, he took it away.


It didin't take him long to beat me.


In one hand, I was a little bit shocked、and the other hand, I was very happy to notice that
my son got clever enough to beat me by a game.



It is good to play board games like chess and Othello with children.



Please take a look at this website if you are interested in Hasami Shogi.


http://www.chessvariants.com/shogivariants.dir/hasami.html

The Doll's Festival called "Hina matsuri"

It is the third of March today and we celebrate the Doll's Festical in Japan.


Family with young girls displays a set of beautiful dolls, lanterns and other decorations.
They have family parties to pray for girl's
happiness.


When I was a small girl, I decorated the doll set with my sisiter at the beginning of February,
and sometimes played with those dolls and celebrated the festical day with special cake and sushi.
I loved those dolls.
We still have the set at my parents' house, although we don't put it out any more.







I have two sons and no daughter, so we don't have Hina doll set at my house.
I miss it, but I have no reason to buy the set and even celebrate the Doll's Festival.
But I am going to make party suchi and buy Hina arare, colorful rice crackers for the festival
just for fun.



Our Hina doll set is similar to the picture above.
Nowadays, many people live in a condominium
and don't have space to display a big set of dolls.
A smaller set is popular.
I loved to decolate dolls by my self,
and if there were only two dolls,
I would not be quite happy.



One of my friends got a daughter and
she selected the small size one , but it
has all the dolls.
It is the work of One-knife carving,
which is Nara's traditional art.
It is lovely, I like it a lot.