A stroll from Palaceside Building: Kitanomaru Park too is turning autumn and nuts are coloring. Acorns a colleague shot a few days ago near the meteorological observation field = photo = — Typhoon 18 came in between; have they already fallen?
When you say acorn you first picture brown ones rolling on the ground, but I found a site where children who pick acorns on a Kitanomaru outing can play again after taking them home.
“Asobi Kyoshitsu Homepage” (http://45web.net/donguri_koma.htm) is a link-free site that shows old children’s play in drawings and photos.
How many acorn games did you know as a child?
Easy first: stick a toothpick in and make a top. The top with the pick in straight lasts longest. Several friends make acorn tops, shout “yo-i
don,” and race whose top stays up last.
An acorn whistle = photo above = can also be made with only an acorn and a toothpick. Rub a hole on concrete, scoop out the inside with the pick. When you have patiently finished, hold it to your mouth and blow hard — a high “hyu.”
Three acorns make a yajirobei = photo middle. The mouse doll in the lower photo is a bit advanced.
Thinking back, I had done every acorn play on that site. If you pick acorns in Kitanomaru, please go back in time with your child (or grandchild) and make them.
(Photos of the whistle, yajirobei, and acorn mouse are borrowed from Asobi Kyoshitsu Homepage.)