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today I played "Nihonjin Mitai"

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

A good friend has produced a card game called Nihonjin Mitai. In it, each player is a gaijin living in Japan. You start with zero skill cards, and until you have a credible hand of those you shouldn't draw any challenge cards, which you otherwise want to collect. Each challenge card has a difficulty rating and you need various skills that match the stated needs on the card. The first person to 40 points wins.

Each round you draw either a skill card or a challenge card. Since most of the challenges require 2 or 3 skill points in categories like "way" and "language", and because you can only retain five skill cards, you usually want to have 2 of one skill and 3 of another. You "win" a challenge whenever you have enough skills to match the stated needs on the card. If you're short, you can roll a die to see if you can add enough points to win.

I quite enjoyed it. The name of the game means, "You're like a Japanese person." To hear this means you've arrived, as a foreigner.