playing games
Today we only had four classes, rather than the typical six because today was the 百人一首大会 (the Hyakunin Isshu competition). 百人一首 (hyakunin isshu), can be literally translated as 100 people, 1 poem.
Hyakunin Isshu is a karuta (card) game based on an anthology of 100 tanka poems. The game consists of 200 cards. 100 that have a picture and the entire tanka poem, and another 100 that only have the last two verses of the poem. The 100 cards that have the whole poem are the ones that someone will read. The other 100 cards are spread out over the playing surface. So, the reader will start reading one of the cards and everyone playing the game must search for the appropriate ending.
Obvious, you have a huge advantage if you've memorized the poems, since you can start looking for the ending a good 5-10 seconds before everyone else.
Each grade level was split up into groups of five students, one from each of the homerooms for the competition. And a recording of all the cards was played over the announcement system.
Rather than sleep at my desk for the afternoon, I was wandering around chatting with kids before the competition started. Due to student absences there was a group that only had three kids so two of the kids were getting freaked out about how this was going to count in the grand total of the competition... so they say-- "A-sensei can play with us." The teacher in the classroom was like that's not really a very good solution. True, it's a game that requires a decent amount of skill and practice. When I told them that I learned to play yesterday afternoon with the special ed kids and took 27 cards, the kids kind of changed their minds about letting the AET play, but felt better when I repeated that I'd only played one time and didn't have any of the cards memorized.
In my group of four the 2 kids who were freaked about scoring had lots of the cards memorized, the girl took 44 cards, and the boy took 30. I ended with 12 cards (really, a pretty decent number) and the other boy in our group got I think 7. You've got to feel sorry for that poor kid, beat by the foreigner who can't even understand the poems.
In another group there was a girl who took more than 80 of the 100 cards. Glad I wasn't playing with her, because that really would have been no fun at all.
Hyakunin Isshu is a karuta (card) game based on an anthology of 100 tanka poems. The game consists of 200 cards. 100 that have a picture and the entire tanka poem, and another 100 that only have the last two verses of the poem. The 100 cards that have the whole poem are the ones that someone will read. The other 100 cards are spread out over the playing surface. So, the reader will start reading one of the cards and everyone playing the game must search for the appropriate ending.
Obvious, you have a huge advantage if you've memorized the poems, since you can start looking for the ending a good 5-10 seconds before everyone else.
Each grade level was split up into groups of five students, one from each of the homerooms for the competition. And a recording of all the cards was played over the announcement system.
Rather than sleep at my desk for the afternoon, I was wandering around chatting with kids before the competition started. Due to student absences there was a group that only had three kids so two of the kids were getting freaked out about how this was going to count in the grand total of the competition... so they say-- "A-sensei can play with us." The teacher in the classroom was like that's not really a very good solution. True, it's a game that requires a decent amount of skill and practice. When I told them that I learned to play yesterday afternoon with the special ed kids and took 27 cards, the kids kind of changed their minds about letting the AET play, but felt better when I repeated that I'd only played one time and didn't have any of the cards memorized.
In my group of four the 2 kids who were freaked about scoring had lots of the cards memorized, the girl took 44 cards, and the boy took 30. I ended with 12 cards (really, a pretty decent number) and the other boy in our group got I think 7. You've got to feel sorry for that poor kid, beat by the foreigner who can't even understand the poems.
In another group there was a girl who took more than 80 of the 100 cards. Glad I wasn't playing with her, because that really would have been no fun at all.