Hanafuda Tournament . . .

. . . at Manoa Library. These display strings show the individual cards - aren't they beautiful - ones used are about 2 x 3 inches size, solid black on reverse. This is an old-fashioned card game originating from Japan, you need to match the cards within a month (variations of same motif) and also try to get cards with numerical values. There are 12 suits, named for the months of the year (November suit has a wild card, played differently depending where it shows up), 7 or 8 cards in each suit (I forget) and at the end of the game, certain combinations of cards have an additional score if they are in your won cards, which is then deducted from your opponent's score! And if he has, likewise deducted from your score. So if you are winning in card add up (say 90 vs 40 points), you might well lose if your opponent has certain groups of hi-scoring cards.
Don't explain it very well, but then again, I only played 3 hands!
Then, my 8-year old "teacher" showed me how to play Hanafuda solitaire - that was great fun.
The showdown was going to be the elders vs the youngsters. Elders 94 and 98 years and the youngsters as low as they could go. I was told 5-year olds pick it up easily. This tournament was organized by Helen Nakano and current interest is being spiked by the Boy Scouts, who play it when Wi-Fi, I-phones, tablets, etc. are banned out in the woods. People of all ages were there; I wish I had been able to spend more time observing, but had to be somewhere else. Unfortunately, by the time I returned, everyone and everything was gone. Hope the story is in the papers tomorrow ! And hope it comes again, I'll be there.