747 – Tokaido Unboxing

Transcript of Episode

Scooter: Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, friends of the [inaudible 00:00:04] and Patreon peeps, it's time for the podcast who keeps its eye on urban oranges so you don't have to. You know, considering I can find the sleepy side of anything. It's time for Sleep With Me patrons. The podcast that puts you to sleep.

Scooter: Hey are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep? Well welcome. This is sleep with me. The podcast that puts you to sleep. We do us a bedtime story. All you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights and press play. I'm going to do the rest. What I'm going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you can sit aside whatever's keeping you awake. Whether it's thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, changes in time or temperature. You know, anything going on that's keeping you awake. It could be anything.

Scooter: Like you could be remembering someone that's drumming their fingers during a meeting today. It happens to me. This could be thoughts, “Why didn't I say anything about the freaking drumming of the fingers that old Barry was doing.” First of all I was having an imaginary meeting, which is my own set of issues. You know, conference meeting with someone named … I said, “What are we here … I can't focus on … ” You know, I didn't have the wherewithal to say, “Excuse me Barry. I'm here to have an imaginary meeting with … Who's in this meeting? Oh thank you. Point of order. Go ahead. Oh I'm in the middle of a podcast intro? Secondary point of order. We're not using Robert's rules of order? Correct. I'm not a fan. Too many rules you know. Point of order number three. Over at the beginning of the podcast intro. Oh boy.”

Scooter: Sorry about that new listeners. Went right off topic really early. Hopefully I'll get back to that meeting. But whatever's keeping you awake. I'm here to keep you company and take your mind off of stuff. What I'm going to do. What I'm going to do is send my voice across the deep dark and use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, with pointless meanders, with superfluous tangents, which you just saw a few of them. I'm here to help. It's a nice cozy safe place. Now I'll give you the news up front. If you're new I'm glad you're here and heres a couple of things to know. This podcast is very silly and goofy and counterintuitive. So see if you can kick back just like you're at the meeting, but you're not invested. Whatever meeting that was.

Scooter: I mean maybe there is a part of me … Is this duality? I don't know. Or I could be listening and enjoying Barry's … Or Maybe I could empathize with Barry and say, “Huh maybe after the meeting I can check in with Barry and see what's up with the finger drumming.” But for now I gotta focus on this meeting. Because I don't even know who called it. Also, yeah there is the underlying tension of yeah, this meeting is going on within my … Okay. So this podcast goes off-topic a lot, but it's here to just help.

Scooter: Now it doesn't work for everybody but give it a few tries. Another thing that doesn't always work for everybody but kind of see how it goes is that the podcast has this long intro, which in a weird way, in the central part of the show, unless you skip it. If you skip it that means it's not essential for you. You could skip ahead to 18 minutes. But I really don't want you to miss out on this part, because this is the part where people start to wind down. Also this is the only thing where you never know what's going to happen, but you know you could sleep through it. I don't think that phrase has ever been uttered before in the history of … You know, first for humanity.

Scooter: Tonight on Sleep With Me, during the intro, anything could happen but nothing you'll need to be awake for, or you'll be like, “Holy cow what did I miss?” Because you say, “Well Honey, what did I miss? I fell asleep last night during the intro. I thought that was the wind down, you know? I brushed my teeth. I got into bed. I prepped and puffed my pillows. I started just feeling the cross brezze we have going and Scoots was talking. I was planning on just easing into bed and then maybe falling asleep at some point. But next thing I know I was asleep. What happened?”

Scooter: “Well Honey, actually I don't know. I was asleep too. I'm pretty sure he invented a new musical instrument called the finger drum, though it may not have been a finger … I think he was talking about … Or maybe he was talking about a meeting of finger drummers. Or something.”

Scooter: “Huh that's interesting. I remember a conference table. Then I pictured it so comfortable and I was sleeping on it.” So that's … Okay. Anyway. Excuse me couple. I'm sorry. I don't know if you checked out our sponsor Solo yet. Excuse me I was just talking to another new listener. I didn't mean to interrupt your breakfast.

Scooter: “Oh hey Scoots. Thanks for putting us to sleep last night.”

Scooter: Ain't no problem. I was just trying to give an example. I've never actually interviewed a couple. I've only replayed your conversations for listeners. But I've never had a chance to … You two look lovely. I've never seen two people look so radiant before at this time in the morning.

Scooter: “Well Scoots, it's because you put us to sleep so good.”

Scooter: Well great. You mind explaining kind of what the intro is for the new listener?

Scooter: “Well it's intro, you know? Hey new listener, it's me. I'm a regular lunchbox tote and Sleep With Me listener here and I just wanted you to know, the intro, it seems like a drawn out purposeless thing. But it's actually, strangely enough … I don't think it's a technique that Scooter uses. No offense, Scooter.”

Scooter: None taken, lunchbox toting member of the Sleep With Me community.

Scooter: “Thanks Scooter. But yeah it's really, he explains what the podcast is, but he never gets there. But it's kind of fun. It adds some levity to bedtime. I think that's the main goal. Let's you know that it's important you're listening, but there's a community of other listeners there. Hun, what else does Scooter do during the intro?”

Scooter: “Well thanks Sweetums. I'm actually a brown bag toting member of the Sleep With Me community. No lunchbox for me. But you know, I make my own lunch. And he explains this structure of the show where it starts off with a few minutes of business, then there's the intro, which we're talking about right now. So that's pretty meta. And the intro is around 12 to 14 to 17 to 16 to 15 minutes or so. A show within a show. In between the intro and the story is some business too. That's what keeps the podcast free for everybody. Then after that there's a story. I think after that, they're called Tuesday style stories, even though the podcast doesn't come out on Tuesdays. So it could be about anything, but we know it will be nice and soothing and stuff. Then there's some thank yous at the end. That's the structure of the show. Sugar Cakes, why don't you tell them a couple of the rules of the podcast?”

Scooter: Oh thanks Sunny Pie.

Scooter: “No Scooter I was talking to Sugar Cakes. Not to you Scooter.”

Scooter: Oh okay.

Scooter: “Oh thanks Honey Poo. Sorry Scooter, we have pet names for each other because we're in a relationship. You're just our bore friend, our Bore Bae.”

Scooter: Oh that's perfect. Thanks Honey Buns.

Scooter: “Scooter.”

Scooter: No, no I wasn't making fun of your pet names. It's just an instinctual thing for me. I call my dog Sugar Pot Pie sometimes. And it doesn't …

Scooter: “Oh Scooter, I might use that one. Okay so then … Oh what were we talking about? Oh the rules. No need to listen to the podcast. I think we've made that pretty abundantly clear. But just expect Scooter to go off topic and that's part of the fun part. But it's also hard to follow. So ideally it's interesting enough to take your mind off of stuff, but you say, “Well I don't really need to listen to Scooter.” As much as we love you Scooter, that part … There's no pressure to fall asleep. That's what I really like. A lot of things say they're sleep solutions or sleep cures. Scooter's just your sleep buddy. He's there to be there for you while you fall asleep. Rubber Ducky-poo what do you … “

Scooter: “Oh thanks Washcloth of My Dreams. He also lets you know that you deserve a good night's sleep. But he's there to just walk at your side as you drift off. As you can listen. The other important thing is, if you can't sleep, he's there at the very end. He and there's a bunch of other episodes ready to go. So it's not so much a sleeping podcast as a podcast to listen to as you fall asleep, I guess. Scooter, you have anything to add about your own podcast?”

Scooter: Well thank you both so much. That was lovely. I don't think I could have done a better job if I needed to. Except I don't know if Washcloths of My Dreams … I may have changed that. Oh wait, this is also in my imagination? Wow. Okay that's interesting. I think those are real listeners to be honest with you. Or, you know, a very good … Okay, I guess some part of my brain. You know what Barry? You can drum your fingers all you want. I'm here to help you too Barr. You know Barry, I think drumming your fingers is a bit of a metaphor for the podcast. Just as those listeners said, it gives you something to do while you're doing something else. Maybe the physical drumming of the fingers takes your mind off and allows you to focus on the meeting.

Scooter: And you know what Barry? Maybe it just feels good for you. You know, that's really my goal, is to make bedtime feel a little bit better. I mean I strive to make it feel good, to make you feel safe and distracted, ensconced in lulls. But if I just get close, you say, “Well it's pretty decent having Scoots around at bedtime to take my mind off stuff.” So that's what I do. That's why I'm here. And if you're just checking the show out, I really appreciate it. I know it can help. I know it doesn't work for everybody. This show is not everybody taste. But I do know that we have a lot, a lot of loyal listeners who said, “Yeah it took two or three tries of me first not liking the podcast … ” And I know it's strange. I'm not trying to sell you on the podcast. I only hope it helps you.

Scooter: But a lot of people say, “Give it two or three tries, and if it … then move.” There's Libra Vox. There's Sleep Whisperers. Slow Radio is a new one. I'm Sleepy. So there's other stuff out there. Plenty of other stuff. Oh Mind Oasis is another one I've been playing with lately. So give some of those a try too. And I'm here to help you. Mind you, those are all free mentions. Because even if this podcast doesn't work for you, I still believe you deserve a good night's sleep. And I really desire that for you, where you can go out tomorrow and flourish. The reason I say this is because I've been there. That's why I work so hard on this show, and that's why I yearn and I strive to help you fall asleep, and that's why I say thank you again for coming by.

Scooter: By the way here's a couple ways we keep this show a-going. Okay everybody, tonight's a style of episode we've only done a few times, but it's one I really enjoy making and really fun. It's a board game unboxing. And tonight we're going to be doing a game called Tokaido. T-O-K-A-I-D-O and it's a board game. I don't know too much about it. I have a little bit of personal history with it, I was under the impression, and I didn't even … Okay this is a bit of Sleep With Me here. I thought I had bought it last year, so the holidays of 2017, so last, last year for someone as a gift. But I may have only placed it …

Scooter: You know, heres what happened, it maybe have been even two or three holidays ago, I intended to buy it for my brother, because I had heard about the amazing artwork of this game, and that it's very unique and very enjoyable to play. But I think ended up putting it in my shopping cart and then realizing that there was an out of print book I wanted to buy for my brother Ken. Because I'm pretty sure he would have been the one … He's the one that does the art for the show, so he's the one I would have wanted to give it to. And then this year, sorry Ken or Judy if you're listening, I purchased the game, it was a holiday gift with the intention of giving it … A good thing about board games, especially for adults but maybe for kids too … I mean this in this situation ends up for kids. Is that you have the option of who to give the gift to.

Scooter: So you can kind of buy a board game with one person in mind, but it gives you options. So this year I bought … Well Santa Clause was also involved with this. When I conferenced with Santa Clause, I said, “Okay what board games are you going to have the elves create and which ones should I purchase?” So this is after my consult with Santa Clause, AKA Roberta Clause. I just wanted to … Backing myself into multiple corners. So with the two of us, and the team of elves consulting, between those we had Tokaido, there's a Harry Potter card building game … Which I didn't do an unboxing on that, just because part of the game in unboxing. So if I unboxed the game, it would have interrupted my enjoyment of the game play. So sorry about that, but you can check out that game as well.

Scooter: And then also a game that I'll rewrite a name for it called … Let's see, it's called Pan … It's a Pan game about Dems … and this was just a card game version. I think there's a version of those games called Legacy, which I would like to play. But that game Ken and Judy got. Because they said, “Am I feeling like for Sophia the Pan game or Tokaido?” So this is when you hold a gift … I call this a reverse Kondo, where I say, “Whom will this bring joy to?” Maybe we could patent that, or maybe we can work on it. Work with Marie. We could do a set of cards where I get like 80% of the money, Marie gets 20%.

Scooter: You know, they're holiday cards with just this message. Or we could write, instead of a book, we could sell pamphlets. I don't know if that's something that's profitable, but it's something I'd be into, is you hold a gift that you've bought … I guess this is not the kind of best format. You say, “Whom would this … ” Actually, no that's how I bought a lot of gifts. I thought this was going to be about … This is just a pro-tip idea. You can have plenty of months to plan this, but you can also do it for birthdays, or any other gift … You know, showers you're going to. You just go into a Goodwill or a 99 cent store and you pick stuff up and you hold it, and you say, “Will this bring joy … ” I mean a Goodwill or a flea market is good, say, “Who would this bring joy to?” And then you gift it to them.

Scooter: That's for your … I don't know. And then 99 cent store is kind of the same thing. But you should, just to be clear first, “Would this bring joy to someone?” And then, “Who would that bring joy to?” So after my consults … this is how Tokaido ended up in my lap instead of Ken/Judy's. Also I'm still not sure I didn't give them the gift at some point. So I didn't want to, right before the holidays be like, “Did Roberta Cross or I give you Tokaido as a gift within the past few years and I forgot? Because that's what's wrapped up down there just in case.”

Scooter: So that's how I ended up with Tokaido, and I'm looking forward to playing it with my daughter. So just to paint the picture with you, it is a large box. I don't know how many … Definitely maybe 24 inches by 24 inches, and about six inches thick. No, maybe four inches thick. It's a heavy box. The box, the background color is just white or might be an eggshell. It could be a linen, but that might be my lighting talking. It has the names of the creators on there. [00:18:50]Antoine Bauza and Nadia. I think those are the correct pronunciations, I'm not sure. Then in the center of the top of of the box, underneath in writing, that seems like it was written in some sort of Japanese style brushwork, “Tokaido”.

Scooter: Inside the circle I think are some Japanese characters. Inside the second “O”. Then there's a beautiful piece of art which includes the whole art is set on a lake or pond. I don't know if this is art from the game, so I don't want to describe it just yet, but really, really a lot of details. Just a lot to look at, and beautiful. Then each side of the box says “Tokaido” on it. So if you have it on a bookshelf or a board game shelf, you can easily find it. Then on the back, just to tease it out here and get you ready for what we have in store, on the back, again, it says the names of the creators, then “Tokaido”. The trademark is registered.

Scooter: in the top left corner it has what looks like some sort of cards that are probably used in the game, then it has some sort of coins that look like they're used in the game. They're circular coins with a square hole in them. To the right is a gentleman smoking a pipe, wearing a robe, and on his back is … Oh these, again, might be characters from the game. But he's got a lot of things on his back that he's carrying, including a cool paper lantern and he's smoking a pipe.

Scooter: Then on the bottom left there's another character, also she seems to be in a … She's in a flowing robe. Also the colors are just amazing. I wouldn't even know .. her robe is shades of magenta and purples. There's a lot in the hair. Then on the other side he's someone … he seems to be dressed like a samurai, but again, he also has a lot of colors. He's holding a fan with a painting on it. Then on the back it says, “Welcome traveler! Welcome to Tokaido, the legendary East Sea Road connecting Kyoto to Edo. Here you will begin an extraordinary journey during which you will discover 1000 marvels for the first time. Be sure to take the time to contemplate the sumptuous vistas before you, the majestic mountains, the peaceful coastland and the vast rice paddies. Let the brush strokes of nature be an anchor for your memories. Appreciate the beneficial stopovers that punctuate your path … ” Beautiful language here.

Scooter: ” … the restorative tranquility of the hot springs and the countless culinary delicacies that will astonish your palate. Bundled together with your belongings, delightfully unexpected souvenirs, from the most modest to the most sophisticated, that you gather from your surprising encounters that may change the course of your travels. Time will be your best means to remain clear-sighted, methodical and patient, so that you don't miss anything on this unique route, but instead can fully savor the experiences Tokaido has to offer.”

Scooter: The contents we will discover, but they're listed here. It says the game takes about 45 minutes, two to five players. Then it also has a “8+”, I think that means age. Then it says no on babies. It says 0-3. Also the UPC code, just in case you're wondering, it says “Tokaido-fifth”. So I don't know if that's the fifth edition to the game. It says “July 17” and just for legacy's sake, it says 37700156543. You can visit them on the web it said, www.funforge.fr and they have the company's logo there, FunForge. So I'm going to … you won't notice, but I'm going to be opening the box here.

Scooter: Okay so I have the box open and the first thing I'm seeing is a pack with cards and things in it. Very picturesque. Then the how to play instructions. It looks like there's also an app version of the game, or an app to compliment the game, so there's an ad for that that is also beautiful. And I put the instructions aside. Then there's a big cardboard square and the first one has coins. It has one, two, three, four times one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Which is easy math, so 40 coins to punch out.

Scooter: Then one, two, three, four, five circular tokens that look like kind of a watercolor flower and one is, again, a color that is … I would say it's like a violet/light purple, then one that's like a yellow-orange, like the edges of a sunset. Then one that's not like forest green, though it has some forest green in there. I don't know if there's a color verdant green, which is different from spring green or loamy green. Maybe a mossy green. Then there's a gray-scale one, which is beautiful. Then there's another one. Initially I would say it's blue, then I would say whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's like a cyan or cyan and blue and a little bit of gray mixed together to create something in shade of blue.

Scooter: Then there seems to be character cards, which actually have a hole where you can punch out. So I don't know where that's for. And again, I don't … there's a coin symbol in the top right corner and says “X times the number of coins” so I don't know if that's like the game of life, how much they earn. Then there's a drawing and a painting of the character. Each character's a little bit different. Maybe we could run through those when we get to them. Then underneath the character … Oh there's different symbols on different cards, which must be a part of the gameplay. Just have to figure out exactly what they are. Maybe this is what they get to do on each turn.

Scooter: Like one of the characters from the back cover, his name is Zen-Emon, E-M-O-N and there's a picture of something that looks like a house or a something and then an arrow, then it has one to a card and then a coin. Then the next character was also on the back cover. Was Sasayakko, S-A-S-A-Y-A-K-K-O. Or Sasayakko. That one has the same picture of a house and it has one card, then it has another card with a cion, but the coin is X'd out and it has a grayed out card. So it's already titillating and the mystery of the gameplay.

Scooter: Then there's another character. So there's four character cards on this sheet. Hirotata, who earns eight coins, or has an eight coin thing. Now Hirotata has a different symbol underneath Hirotata. It's not a house. It looks to be some sort of mountain type sanctuary or something. Then it has an arrow going to a pile of coins. Then it has an arrow of a coin going into a grayed out coin topped by a gate. So again, I'm like, “What … ” and also under, there's a circle that's meant to be punched out in the top left.

Scooter: Underneath that is a banner with Japanese characters on it. The last character on here is Omegae, O-M-E-G-A-E and this character has long hair, a painted face, a fan and then I can't quite see what else is being held in their hand. Like a really layered outfit in shades of red and maroons. Even the fan has exquisite details on there. There's a painting with look like flowers and maybe a setting sun or a moon. Even the textures of the dress. It's a dress with almost like folds, almost like an accordion. I don't know what those kinds of dresses are called. The dress kind of seems to be flowing.

Scooter: Also I didn't realize this, in the background of each one is a very light gray-scale painting of … it kind of looks like they're on some sort of regal stage. Okay, so that's one set of character cards. Then the next big cardboard punch out card has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten … 10 more coins. So we have 50 coins in play it looks like, then it has six more characters. All with much different symbols. Okay so four of these six characters have what looks like a food symbol underneath them, and then an arrow to some sort of card based activity.

Scooter: Maybe the characters are all holding something that symbolizes them. All of them have different coin values. There's Mitsukuni M-I-T-S-U-K-U-N-I. This seems to be some sort of mystical character, maybe, because a long beard, a long staff that at the top has natural branches coming off it with pink blossoms on it. But then there's kind of three serial characters on there, then also on the shoulder of this character is another ethereal type … I don't know a sprite-like character and wearing a beautiful green robe with a yellow tie. What do you call it when you tie your robe? You know you cinch your robe with that thing.

Scooter: Then different cards and a staff symbol. The next characters was from one of the covers, Yoshiyasu. Y-O-S-H-I-Y-A-S-U. Earns nine coins. This seems to be some sort of samurai type character in blue, like I said holding a fan that maybe has some sort of phoenix like character bird on there. But also has underneath a circle with someone in shades of pink carrying things, which leads to two cards with a “?”. The next character seems to be a younger character, Satsuki. S-A-T-S-U-K-I and what I like about Satsuki is the character is looking right at us. I don't know if any of the other characters are making eye contact. Then the right lower side of Satsuki is a little character, some sort of pet. I can't tell if it's a cat or a small dog. Then again, just a massive amount of details. Also you can go into the details of the face and stuff.

Scooter: Really impressive artwork. Even just layers and layers going into the clothing. This is just a really rich game. Then under Satsuki is what looks like a plate of food with chopsticks, and then an arrow to a card with a “?” that has the card on the back. It has a plate of chopsticks. Then a coin with an “X” out. The next character is Kinko. K-I-N-K-O. Kinko has a mysterious something covering Kinko's head. If you watch Legion, it's evocative of that TV show for me. The second season. A very simple, like a blue shaded robe. But some wind flowing, so the robe is actually flowing in the wind. Underneath Kinko is, again, a plate of food with chopsticks going to a card with a plate of food and chopsticks and one coin. Kinko also have an “X7” for the coins.

Scooter: This next character is named Chuubei. C-H-U-U-B-E-I, or Chuubei. Also has the symbol with food and chopsticks with a red circle with a down arrow on it, and an arrow to a pink card that Yoshiyasu had and the coin multiplayer is “X4”. Then Chuubei is carrying … has a piece of … what is that called? The wheat between their mouth or some other form of grain. A very determined look with the eyebrows and is in mid-stride, a pole over the shoulder, carrying a bundle of something with some Japanese writing on it. A jacket that is somewhere between orange and red with a lot of details underneath the jacket. Also has some sort of … they also have some sort of something around their neck. They have longer shorts, or shorter pants. There's even some design in the calves.

Scooter: And the last character here is Hiro Shige or Shige. H-I-R-O S-H-I-G-E. “X3” coin multiplayer, the same as Chuubei. Food plate with chopsticks in food and a circular arrow with a down symbol. But an arrow pointing at a two toned card we haven't seen yet. Then Hiro Shige is really richly, richly designed. Holding a giant paint brush tipped with red. It looks like the character just painted a circle around them. Really flowing clothes with a bunch of different scaling of colors. They're painting with their left hand which is good news for people like me. Some sort of bat, but like a carry-all on the back also holding what could be the paint in some sort of jar. Really amazing. And even looking at the backs of these.

Scooter: Okay the backs are plain though. Okay so the next thing I'm going to do is open up this bag and take a look at what's in this bag. Okay so I open the bag and it has … I guess these are cards that maybe become paintings. Wow. That's what it seems to be. They're cards that you separate and then become paintings. If that's the case this is really, really amazing. Holy mackerel. So what are these called? Like a three … The first set of paintings is a three panel painting. The second set in how many versions?

Scooter: So there's three cards for each painting and there's probably like … one, two, three, four, five sets of the paintings. So five times three is 15 cards. Then the next painting is four cards, or a four panel painting. There's probably … I'm really making a bit of a mess here. But I think there's probably five versions of that. Then the final one is a five panel painting.

Scooter: Okay. So let me start with the three panel painting here. On one side is … so it's three panels, and each panel has it's own number. One, two, and three, against what looks like a stick with a pack. Like a bundle on it. So I'm assuming you acquire it during your journey. The first painting, it's a three panel painting, it's very verdant. It's green. It has some flooded fields and in the middle panel and the right panel there are two people harvesting or working with some grasses in the field. So I don't know what exactly they're harvesting. But the level of detail is just amazing because the water is green, but it's also reflecting the sky. You can kind of see some of the clouds.

Scooter: To the left on one of the lane borders between the fields is what looks like two bird houses and some rock and some grasses. In the top left corner is some trees and then above that is like a land which looks like maybe a main road is on there. Someone is standing there. There's even some mountains and as you move right you see some birds flying and some more mountains, and a cloudy yellow sky. Someone running on the road pulling a cart. The cart even has motion, kind of drawn into it. There's a lantern kind of moving. As you track further on the right on the road part, at the top background of the card, there's some road markers and there's two people just standing on the road kind of chatting or catching up or giving … Fellow travelers giving one another directions.

Scooter: So just really rich, and then on the other side of the card is a greenish print. Kind of a textured looking print, and then a circle in the middle with another painting. Which kind of catches a different version of what … like a further out, zoomed out version of some tiered flooded fields with a house or a building at the top of the fields. Again, there's the motif of sky and clouds, then another set of tiered fields in the distance with another house.

Scooter: On the four paneled card painting, again all the panels are labeled from left to right, and this one is a winter scene with a volcanic style mountain, which would probably be reminiscent of Fuji or those of you that have seen Shasta in Northern California. So it's always impressive. A lot of these mountains are rising right from sea level, so they just really look amazing. This one looks very amazing because it dominates the two center panels on either side and it's covered in snow and it's surrounded by a pink sky. So I don't know if it's dawn or dusk. Feels like a dawn. There's these wispy painted clouds that are almost ribbon-like. Maybe even some birds in the sky.

Scooter: On the furthest left and right panels we get a little bit more of a foreground detail of some trees that are snow covered. A bridge and a gate and some rocks. On the right side of the panel are some travelers soaking in the mountain. Around the base of the mountain there seems to be some sort of lake or flooded area, but it's just snow covered. There's snow covered rocks. It's also very amazing.

Scooter: Then on the backside it's a gray-scale kind of look with a print that has somewhere between a snowflake and a flower, then a shot of the mountain in a different way, where the wind is really … it's a wispy winter wind. You can see the mountains, and the trees, and the snow. The five panel painting, it is amazing. It's like a water/sea shot from a shore to sea, and on the left side seems to be kind of some seaside village that's built on the base of a mountain. So there's trees and buildings in the mountain kind of rising up behind it. There's clouds and kind of placid water.

Scooter: Then as you move to the next panel, you see the clouds and sky and birds, then the ribbon-like wispy clouds. You see mountains in the background. You see a fisher-person working with a net. As you move to the next panel, you see a boat and the seas are getting a little bit more wavy. It's a boat with the sail up, and it seems to be moving towards the village. You just see some of the design in the water.

Scooter: As you move to the fourth panel, you see the water is getting even rougher and darker. There's some rocks, there's some darker clouds, then spiraling up out of the water is a tall, kind of cylindrical rock and built on top of it, there's a building. There's a tree. So kind of fantastical in some way. Like you say, “I'd like to live up there.” And you can see there's some flags in front of the house. You can see that the wind is blowing and waves are crashing at the base of the rock. Then the fifth panel is just like a mighty sea shot. There's a lot of gray and black clouds and very, very big waves with these finger-like breaks in the foam of the wave. So very, very, very beautiful. Just so much to look at.

Scooter: Then the other side is a print that looks like something evocative of the motion of water. But also with prints of leaves in the water too. Then in the center painting is a more placid view of two boats in the water with a mountain rising up on one side and an island on the other, and a lot of big sky with nice calm cool clouds.

Scooter: Yeah. So that's the painting card portion. Okay, so in the next layer of the box we have the board. The game board and wow some extra bags. So I guess bags to keep those cards in. Then a bag with five wooden character symbols. One in turquoise, one in darker yellow, one in a forest kind of green, one in a gray and one in a purple. Then also, five pips that match the characters in color, like a round circle. These seem to be made of wood or hardy plastic. Really tactile. They're definitely wood as I'm looking at it in the light. It's a really nice touch there. Then there's also a box of cards, a packet of cards which I'll open up off mic and take a look through at least.

Scooter: Okay. So I open the bag of cards and it's a really thick stack of cards. Like if you're thinking about a regular playing deck of playing cards, it seems to be equivalent of two decks of playing cards. They are a quarter, maybe half a size or 60% less size than a normal deck of playing cards. On the back of the cards are different … like as we go back to those characters, there's different things on each side of the card. So some of the back of the cards have a back print on them, then in the circle painting in the center is a building that's lit up at night with a black tiled roof. Another card has a yellow kind of shining sun print and a lucky cat in black, waving.

Scooter: Another back of a card has a blue print with kind of river rocks and river or stream in it. Very picturesque. Then we have that food, that bowl. It's actually a bowl, because it has liquid in it with what looks like a lot of different vegetables. Maybe a radish, some other things in appearance that is kind of evocative of fish without being fish. Then there's a purple card with a person … Like a purple, maybe a dark pink print on it, and the purple person in kind of matching tones carrying a big pack on their back. I think that's all the backs of the cards.

Scooter: So let's see the fronts of the cards. Let's see, the first card is Koma, K-O-M-A. And it has, again, it has on the bottom left it has one coin. In the bottom right it has a circle with a fan in it. It looks like some sort of top or something. Like a spinning top you would play with. Then it has a pack with the numbers, I think they all do, one, three, five, seven. Maybe they all have that. Not all of them do though.

Scooter: So that's that card. Then the next card is a musical instrument. It's three coins, then in the circle it has what looks like could be a dowel. I'm not sure what the symbol is. This is Shiamisen. The next one seems to be a robe, a yellow striped robe. I'm assuming these are some of the things you would buy. It's a two coin symbol, then in it's circle it has a robe and it's Yukata, Y-U-K-A-T-A. Yukata.

Scooter: This next card must be from a different background. It's Annaibito, A-N-N-A-I-B-I-T-O. And it's a character with a staff, maybe a grimace on their face as if they're exerting effort. Then below them is an X with a blue backed card. This is a pink backed card. This next card is Koge or Kuge, K-U-G or K-O-G-E. Again, it's another character. Their arms are clasped underneath their robe and it has an X with three coins.

Scooter: this next one must be food. It's Nigirimeshi, N-I-G-R-I-M-E-S-H-I. Nigirimeshi. It's a one coin, it has a six symbol with a pack on it. It's two triangular pieces of maybe tofu or something made from some sort of flower, with what looks like some sort of nori wrapper maybe, on the bottom of it.

Scooter: The next one, Tempura. It has leafy greens and it looks like maybe it's tempura fish, or it just has what looks like small fish like herrings or sardines. It's a two coin symbol, and then a number six with a pack on it. The next one is fugu, and this one has a wooden serving board with some slices of fish, a couple limes it looks like. Maybe some sort of green vegetable, and then some slices of onion or garlic or something else. It has three coins and a six thing symbol.

Scooter: This one's interesting. It's that river-type scenery. Maybe it's a spring and it has a two pack symbol. It's the same as the spring on the other side of it. Then the next card is the exact same picture, it just has two monkeys in the spring, and that one has a three pack symbol on it. They seem like they're chilling there. The next one is Hashi, H-A-S-H-I. It has what seems like two chopsticks. It has a single coin symbol then on the other side it has a circle with a fan symbol in it.

Scooter: Geta, G-E-T-A is two set of wooden … What's it called? That you wear around on your feet. The wooden shoes with the extensions on the bottom. Slippers, I guess you'd call them? Or clogs? And that has a two circle coin symbol, then the black circle with a robe in it. So I guess that stands for clothing. Haori is the next one. It's another robe in a kind of blue, similar to what the samurai was wearing. That has two coins and then the clothing symbol.

Scooter: Then it's a repeat of Annaibito, the character that's grimacing. Maybe they all start to … yeah. Oh no, there's other ones. Let me skip the ones we've seen. There's another one that's Soba, which seems to be soba noodles. Again, this is very detailed painting. One for sashimi, looks like salmon. There's more springs. Let's see if we've got anymore characters in the springs. There's another one with two boats against the water, that costs three pack.

Scooter: Uchiwa, U-C-H-I-W-A, that's a fan. It's a one coin symbol. It looks like the fan has … oh man, the color again. Is that a pink? No it's not. It's like a pink meets a magenta and it has what looks like maybe a bird or a rabbit painted on it. The next one seems to be a wrapped package, we don't know what it is. Furoshiki, F-U-R-O-S-H-I-K-I and it's a striped package or bundle tied up at the top in these different hues of blues. That's two coins and it has a clothing symbol.

Scooter: This next one is some sort of three dumplings in a bowl. Manuu, M-A-N-U-U or Manju, M-A-N-J-U. That one is a one coin, then it has a new symbol, which is a circle with what look like four rolls in it. Then we have Onabeto, another character card. Miko, and she's kind of standing and she kind of has a similar coin underneath her and a coin going into a gray-scale gate.

Scooter: The next one is Dango, D-A-N-G-O and it has three circular … I assume it's food, on a skewer, and three sets of those so it looks like it might be a sweet to me, but I'm just assuming. It has a single coin then a six pack symbol. Donburi, which is a bowl with some eggs and some meats, and what looks like maybe some soy. That's a three coin and a six pack symbol. Washi, which it looks like some material, like a bolt of clothing folded up in a piece of linen. That's a one coin symbol.

Scooter: Ukiyoe or Okiyoe. O-K-I or U-K-I-Y-O-E. This is three coins. It seems to be some sort of painting or print. Very beautiful, very beautiful. The next one is a Konpeito, K-O-N-P-E-I-T-O. It looks to be some sort of sweets in purple, pink, yellow, green, and blue on a plate. Kind of just … I don't know what you would call them. They look like the shape of everlasting gobstoppers in the original movie. That's a one coin symbol and a four roll symbol.

Scooter: There's Tofu in here, there's Taimishi, which is a fish and rice dish it looks like. There's those verdant flooded fields we talked about on the other card. There's a card with that. There's a card, Kanzashi, K-A-N-Z-A-S-H-I, which seems to be a few things for your hair. Sake, with a nice picture of that. That's two coins. Ocha, O-C-H-A, which is a bowl of greenish liquid. Misoshuri, which is a bowl of miso type look. M-I-S-O-S-H-I-R-U, oh, Misoshuru. Dongo, Tofu, Unagi.

Scooter: Oh here's another spring shot. It's a little bit different. It has two monkeys in the spring, but there's also blossoms where the other spring was in more of a winter shot. Daifuku, which it looks like some sort of pink food or desert with a dark, dark, burgundy center to it. That one is two coins. Natsuke, it's N-A-T-S-U-K-E. This one is a really … it's two coins. It has a rope being poured out of what looks like some sort of brass sculpture. I don't know. I should know more about that.

Scooter: Komaboko, which is a pink roll with a light pink inside, which is sliced. So wow, I mean this are just … Yakatori, Sushi. So some of these, let's see … There's one card that has every single dish on it. So that must be lucky if you get that one. Here's one that's just a blue bowl or vessel. Unomi, U-N-O-M-I. There's another one that looks like a piece of art. Sumi-e, S-U-M-I-E or Sume.

Scooter: There's another character card, Shokunin, S-H-O-K-U-N-I-N. Samurai, that's one. That costs three packs. There's also a card that has all the kind of store items you might buy. Gofu, which seems to be almost an envelope on the end of a red string. The envelope's gold. Another vessel beautifully, beautifully painted reds, dark reds with a fish on top and waves. Some sort of vase or … Yeah, just a decorative vessel.

Scooter: Shikki, S-H-I-K-K-I. Again, let me just keep running through this. I mean I'm still … I'm only halfway through these cards. There's one card that has all of the characters. Sandal Gasa, that's a hat. There's a collection of boxes. Wow, yeah. We could go through all of these all day long. So again, just the level of detail. This is one more set of the game. But I'd be remiss if I didn't go through the game board at least for a little while. We won't go through the instructions. This will be just interesting. This definitely seems like a game to add to your collection, because it's got great reviews, and it seems to be a game about being in the moment. Yeah, and the game board doesn't really reveal too much about the gameplay.

Scooter: I know you're going … You can go in either direction I believe, from Edo to Kyoto, or Kyoto to Edo. But the first, it's a three section game board and the most left section … Wow it has numbers at the top. First it has, there's two rows of numbers. The first are all the odd numbers and the second row is all the even numbers. So on the bottom row it goes zero, two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32 all the way up on the last board to 100. On the top obviously it goes odd numbers, one, three, five. But some numbers have … IF you count by fives all the other numbers are in kind of a brownish gray-scale, maybe not quite a sepia, more of a gray-scale sepia.

Scooter: But every fifth number is done in a maroon. So 0, 5, 15, 20 all have a maroon color and then on the first thing is like a mountain top building with a gate leading up to it. The sun is blazing behind it, either setting or rising. I guess it seems like it's rising. Then there's that … This must be where you figure out the coins to the pack ratio. Because it says a coin, and then I don't know if that's an “equals one pack”. So maybe one coin equals one pack. But then there's also those flower symbols I was talking about. I don't know if that represents your character. So there's kind of a cyan-pink, orangish-red, verdant green, a gray-scale and then a turquoise. Then it says one coin equals two packs, three coins equals four packs. I don't know how many coins equals seven, or how many coins equal 10. I can't quite focus that closely.

Scooter: So maybe you can buy more packs with more coins. It must be what you can carry. Then you kind of have this map rolled out with different stops on it and different symbols that seem like they correspond to different cards. But again, there's paintings and there's symbols. Then on the food-based things, there's even deeper … There's these squares that go out below it. So even like … I don't know if those are the courses of the meals or what. And again, there's just so much color here. Even on the background there's even some prints. It's a mostly white background, but then there's different prints. So that's just on the first board. Let me go to the second … Let me open up here. I'm in the second and third.

Scooter: Okay so then they have probably like a card pile, like places to place your cards, to pull from. So they have the house at night, lit up at the night. They have hot spring cards. They have the person that's in pinks and magentas carrying something cards. They have the food based cards. They have the verdant harvesting cards. Oh here's for the paintings. So they have it for the verdant harvesting cards. The mountain, winter mountain cards and their paintings, then the beautiful sea scenery painting. There's just so many …

Scooter: I don't know how many different stops you could make. Starting at the end, there's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50. Around 55, but you know my maths usually are not off. Then they have the different symbols. Let's see, if they correspond to cards. Yeah. And each stop has a symbol corresponding the to food card, the night house, or some of them correspond to the painting cards.

Scooter: I guess the idea is these are all stops you would make to enjoy the journey. So I guess you're stopping for food. I don't know exactly … I guess maybe the night house is like a hotel where all the travelers meet one another. That must be what that is. Then there's a golden colored symbol. I don't know if there was cards corresponding to that. Maybe that's where you go shopping. The spring where you go chill out. Well one of them must be for shopping. Then there's the food one. Maybe the night house is where you go shopping and the person in the pink is like a fellow traveler that you meet. Yeah that might make more sense. Then it's just maybe collect coins.

Scooter: There's one yellow like house, or it looks like … Again, it looks like there's some sort of, in the foreground, a couple grazing animals. But that has three coins above it. So I don't know if you stop there as you get coins. There's also some of them that are further away from the board. So I don't know what those symbols mean. But really, clearly a game that has a lot of detail and a lot to … So I highly might recommend … You know, I'll be playing it soon. But there's just enough obviously to enjoy and look at. And that's Tokaido. So check it out at your local game store ideally. Or wherever you purchase your games. Goodnight.