Many games are more fun when you just watch rather than participate. I can’t think of any right now, but for this to work, I have be like a cannibal and go with my gut. (If I started eating my own flesh would that make me a mannibal?)

My new good friend Danny Choo writes from Japan that it is great fun for the Japanese to slap each other. Totally unprovoked, Japaneseans will whap each other in the face and then just fall over laughing.

Whap!

Not just a pat on the cheek like Nancy does to me. She will walk up behind me in  the recliner and pat my face and walk away as if to say “you poor dumb man.” You might call it a love pat, but it’s the giggling as she walks away bothers me.

No these are wind up and Ker-blammo open handed, turn your face red slaps.

In Japan these are part of the Autumn Festivals.

Here we see folks crowded around a (name-of-thingy-goes-here-because-I-forgot) which has a handle on the side – you turn the handle and a ball will drop out of it. Depending on the color of the ball, the player gets a certain prize. If the color of the ball is brown, the player will get a slap in the face. (emphasis mine.)

Next International Festival, I am going to help a Japanesean set up this booth. I know it will be a hit. (har) I bet I can get away with it for the entire duration of the festival if a Japanesean is doing the slapping. I’ll get a bunch of crap from Oriental Trading for prizes.

I wonder how much they charge to play this game? I’m thinking of making the fee height dependant. If you are under three feet, it will be free, because smacking a small child is reward itself.  I’ll work the fee up to 18 dollars for contestants up to five feet tall. If the person has pants 15 inches below belly button, it will also be free (but I’ll rig it so they get a slap – guaranteed.)

It will be called “You’re a Hit” and people will think it is American Idol satellite entry booth.

I think when Nancy reads this, I will get a pat on the cheek.