Hanafuda - My New Passion

My new passion is Hanafuda cards, which means I'm either an old Japanese man or a member of the yakuza. Because apparently nobody uses Hanafuda cards anymore except for the above groups. More specifically, I've learned how to play the game, Koi Koi, which can also be found in Clubhouse Games for the DS. I first read about Hanafuda over on High Dynamic Range Lying, a blog mostly about games by someone in Japan. Then, I realized, "Hey. I'm in Japan. I like card games. I bet I can find some of those." Then, of course, I felt like I saw references to these little cards everywhere. Most recently, Brian Ashcraft at Kotaku is giving two decks as prizes for a Funde Razor in Denver and New York. Just like the ones I purchased, they're made by Nintendo, although they must be a different quality or edition. And now that I've mentioned it, Nintendo, that giant video game company, is also one of the few companies that still makes Hanafuda cards, which is how the whole company started in the first place.

I'm going to try to find some different decks to be able to take home as souvenirs. What's most surprising is how really small the cards are compared to a regular deck of cards. They're kind of hard to shuffle and feel weird to hold. So far, I only have my girlfriend to play Koi Koi against. Luckily, she thinks it's fun too.