This topic contains 3 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by 
-
Posts
-
This is more about culture than language, but we don’t have a culture forum D:
I’m reading Yotsuba& 4 (er… trying to read, anyway), and the first couple pages are confusing. The two characters are playing some game that starts with them saying じゃんけんぽん！ which I know to mean “rock, paper, scissors.” But then the one character puts a bucket on her head and the other hits her with a stick. They repeat this a few times, switching roles with the bucket and the stick.
What on Earth are they doing? O_o
Not from the desk of Eihiko. Eihiko's boss took his desk away from him.From what I understand it’s just an upping the ante type thing.
The way I’ve seen it, the winner of each round gets to hit the other with the stick, but you can wear the bucket to try and block the strike.
I’ve seen other things in western culture as well, like you get to slap the person when you win, and you keep going until one person can’t handle the slaps and quits.
Yeah, that’s exactly it. If the loser of the paper-scissors-rock can grab the helmet before being thwacked, it’s considered a draw. If you grab the wrong thing, you have to suffer some punishment, like givng the other person a free hit, or something.
There’s another variation which involves pointing – the winner points in some direction while the loser simultaneously turns their head in some direction. If they’re both the same direction, the loser loses… more?
There’s actually an article about it on Tofugu:
http://www.tofugu.com/2012/07/06/japans-most-dangerous-game-rock-paper-scissors/
Ooh that explains it! Thanks c: I’m surprised rock paper scissors is such an old, universal tradition. Fancy.
Not from the desk of Eihiko. Eihiko's boss took his desk away from him.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.