Play with your food.

These beautifully packaged snacks are designed after a Japanese card game called caruta. 100 cards are laid on the floor. The second half of 100 different poems are printed on each card. One person starts to read the first half of a poem and the two players have to find the card which has the second half of that poem written on it. The first player to pick up the correct card gets to keep that card. The player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. To have any chance of winning this game, it is necessary to memorise all 100 poems. Valerie has memorised them all - many of the poems are still posted on the wall of the toilet and bathroom - and she was the best player in her class.

We had a lovely day at the photo studio. I had hoped to use a photograph I took of Kazuko and Mum outside the photo studio - for obvious reasons you are not allowed to take photographs inside the studio - but it wasn't very good. So, these snacks are a last minute substitute.