Guri and Gura Karuta & Ujikoji no Daisuki Tochigi Karuta
Karuta is a traditional Japanese card game, which is played mostly during the New Year holidays when families and friends get together.
There are two kinds of cards in karuta – yomifuda (reading cards) and torifuda (grabbing cards). Torifuda has a corresponding drawing to yomifuda and the first kana is written at one corner of each torifuda card. Torifuda cards are spread on a table or on a floor. Then the game starts. One person is in charge of reading yomifuda, and other players have to find and grab the associated torifuda before anybody else does. The person who gets the most cards wins the game.
Let me introduce ぐりとぐらかるた(Guri and Gura karuta), which my family and I played this January. Guri and Gura series by Rieko Nakagawa(words) and Yuriko Yamawaki(drawings) has been popular worldwide since its debut in 1963.
My elder son is 4 years old, who cannot read kana yet. Still, he could enjoy playing Guri and Gura karuta, full of pretty drawings.

Strawberries! Yummy yummy!
Look at this;
Yomifuda : いちごが いっぱい おいしそう
ichigo ga ippai oishiso (Many strawberries! yummy yummy)
Torifuda has the drawing of many starawberris with the first kana “i” at the corner of the card.

Ujikoji's loving Tochigi karuta
How about this karuta? – U字工事の大好きとちぎかるた (Ujikoji no daisuki Tochigi kauta, Ujikoji’s loving Tochigi Karuta)
Japanese popular comic duo Ujikoji are from Tochigi. Ujikoji published this karuta in 2009, and tried to make Tochigi known to the world in funny ways.
This is an example;
Yomifuda: 富士山の 次に高いよ 男体山
Fuji-san no tsugini takaiyo nantaisan (Mount Fuji is the highest in Japan and Mount Nantai in Tochigi is the second highest!)
When you buy this karuta, yomifuda CD in Ujikoji’s Tochigi dialect is attached to it.
*U字工事の大好きとちぎかるた Ujikoji no daisuki Tochigi Karuta