Traditional Japanese Mushroom Games

I was cleaning up around the place recently and I found many long-lost treasures. The best of these was the packaging for the 'Mattake Geemu' I bought for Cam last time I was in Japan. Mattake actually is short for Matsutake (Japanese mushrooms), so don't go about thinking it is anything else. I'm sure it is just a traditional game played in Japan for centuries (the invention of plastics allowed for a cleanable, reusable version, and that's when the game really took off). I'm not quite sure of the facial expressions of the characters in the pictures- in particular the guy on the right. His look says a lot more than, "Oh I seem to have misplaced my mushroom, have you seen it?".

I'm not sure what happened to my favourite inflatable phallic mushroom- Cam, have you still got it? I guess there's only so many times you can play the games demonstrated on the pack before it gets either burst or stolen when you are making off with ladies from the playboy mansion.

For those of you in Oz with Foxtel, I noticed there is a marathon on December 30 of the quality game show Takeshi's Castle (or MXC). I recommend taping it and playing it the next night. I can think of no better accompaniment to New Year's celebrations than good, clean, pain. Interesting point of note: Beat Takeshi of Takeshi's Castle fame moved on post-TC to become an acclaimed director and actor. There's no doubt his experience with people hurting themselves came to assist him when directing samurai flick Zatoichi.