Go, Shogi, Mahjong, Karuta, omikuji, kamon and the traditions behind MyRin.
Kamon in MyRin sorts Japanese family crests onto lacquer stands. How to read the crests, the rules, hard mode in gold, and the history of kamon.
Temari in MyRin sorts embroidered thread balls into bamboo tubes. The rules, the empty-tube principle, how to play hard mode blind, and the craft behind it.
Hanafuda is a deck, not a game. Koi-Koi, Hachi-Hachi, Oicho-Kabu and Go-Stop explained, plus why the 48 cards are arranged the way they are.
Crosswords test what you know. Japanese logic puzzles test what you can deduce. Why that difference exists, where it came from, and what each style suits.
How competitive karuta works: the 100 poems, the 50 cards on the tatami, kimariji, faults, the 15-minute memorisation, ranks and titles, and the skills it trains.
How to play Koi-Koi with hanafuda flower cards: the 48-card deck, card types, matching, the koi-koi decision, every standard yaku and simple beginner strategy.
Learn the rules of Go in one read: liberties and capture, the ko rule, passing, territory scoring with komi, a worked 9x9 opening, beginner mistakes and etiquette.
How a small Tokyo publisher named Sudoku and exported the logic puzzle: Nikoli's design rules, and how Sudoku, Kakuro, Hashi, Nurikabe, Slitherlink and Masyu work.
Japanese riichi mahjong from zero: the 136 tiles, how a hand is built, draw and discard, calling riichi, the yaku you need to win, furiten and scoring basics.
The complete rules of Shogi: the 9x9 board, all eight pieces and their moves, promotion, the drop rule that puts captured pieces back on the board, and a first opening.
A chapter-by-chapter tour of The Mind Games of Japan, MyRin's free ebook: complete rules for Go, Shogi, Mahjong, Hanafuda and Karuta, plus the Nikoli puzzle tradition.
MyRin's Kana Scout (Visual Search) game asks you to find the one katakana character that doesn't match the rest.
Sangaku were wooden tablets filled with geometry problems, hung at Shinto shrines in Edo-period Japan.
Three Japanese philosophical concepts, ikigai (purpose), kaizen (continuous improvement), and kodawari (obsessive craft), map precisely onto the research on.
Omikuji are fortune slips drawn at Japanese shrines and temples. MyRin uses the same six-tier system, Daikichi to Kyo, as a daily reflection mechanic.
Hashi (bridge-building) and Nurikabe (river shading) are two of Japan's most elegant logic puzzles. This guide covers their origins, their logic, and how to solve them.
Kakuro is a Japanese logic puzzle that combines crossword structure with arithmetic constraints.
Karuta is a Japanese competitive card sport played at national championships. MyRin's Rin Karuta brings the same lightning-fast poetry-matching mechanic to.
Wabi-sabi is the Japanese aesthetic of finding beauty in imperfection and impermanence. It has a direct application to brain training, and to how we.