Japan

Iron-cast top. String wound, snapped, spun on a sheet.

Forty-eight cards, twelve months, a tatami room at night.

Black and white stones on a 19-by-19 wooden grid.

Japanese chess. Captured pieces re-enter, switching sides.

Hundred-poem cards. The reader chants. The hand snatches.

Wooden cup-and-ball. Three cups, one spike, one persistent ball.

Hammer the middle blocks out. Keep Daruma upright.

Blindfold pin-the-features-on-the-face — New Year's parlor game.

Slap a card down hard enough to flip the rival's.

Tiles clack. Seasons, dragons, four hands at the table.