Playing board games in Japan with no Japanese!?
Do you live in, or are you currently visiting, Japan? Do you have a burning passion or a passing interest (or anything in between) in board games? Whether you are a seasoned board game cafe expert or are thinking of trying one out for the first time, you might encounter the same problem if you don't speak Japanese: the language barrier.
Despite all our cafes being accessible to everyone, the games themselves are mostly printed in Japanese. We want JELLY JELLY CAFEs to be the best place anyone can play board games, so we’ve been working on a solution.
Events
Before we get to that solution however, we want to take a moment to tell you about our events page on Meetup. You will find a variety of events for our cafes, where Japanese proficiency is not required! If you would like to meet some new people while playing board games, please feel free to check out the link below:
Now, onto the aforementioned solution!
Language Independent Game Database
We’ve had a database for all our board games, their details, and where you can play them since the cafes started. But we have now added an additional tag that should make it far easier to find games to play if you don’t speak Japanese. With the new “Language Independent” tag, filter through games with no necessary in-game text at all! Once everyone at the table understands the rules, you’ll be able to play the game without any reliance on text.
Sounds good? Let’s take a look at how to do this!
You can access our games database from the link above. Let’s go through all the Japanese options to help you find a game to play!
Note: We have added an auto-translated function to our game list page. Please note that some game titles and text may be translated incorrectly, but it should be more than enough to point you in the right direction!
- 1. Play time
Narrow down a game by how long it takes to play.
- 2. Player Number
Search for games with a specific player count.
- 3. Game Difficulty
Display only games of a certain difficulty. The difficulty ranges from one star (easiest) to three stars (most difficult). The difficulty relates solely to the complexity of the rules.
- 4. Cafe Location
If you know ahead of time which cafe you’ll be visiting, select it from the list to only display games that cafe has in stock.
- 5. Tag
Here you can find a list of tags, genres, and mechanics for each game. Scroll down until you see “Language Independent” (it’s the only one in English!) and select it. You will only be shown games that display no gameplay relevant information in text.
- 6. Keywords/Title
While you can enter optional keywords, the text entry expects Japanese text. If you know the Japanese name of the game you want to play, enter it here.
Click the search button to display results matching the filters you set up. Each game will display the JELLY JELLY CAFE locations where you can find this game below the listed tags (if you’re not using the location filter as part of your search):
OK Great! I have a list of language independent games! Now what??
Learning the rules
Well, you still need to know the rules to play, right? Luckily, most games have their rulebooks online these days. Google (or your search engine of choice) is your best friend here. Try searching for terms such as “game name rulebook” or “game name board game rules”.
The two most common places you will find a rulebook are:
- The publisher’s page for this game
- The BoardGameGeek Files section for this game
Both of these are trustworthy sources to download a pdf from.
Now I have the rules, the game, the location… How do I reserve a table?
Reserving a table
You can reserve a table for a JELLY JELLY CAFE using our online reservation tool. Select your store location, fill out your information, and book for whatever time suits you best. The reservation tool is only available in Japanese, so let’s walk you through the process using the link below.
Note: You need to book at least 24 hours in advance; otherwise, you have to book via phone (Japanese only).
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