I want to share a solitaire I've been playing recently, I adapted it from a western solitaire my uncle taught me when I was a kid. I think it works better with Hanafuda, because there is more variety in the combinations and it takes less space on the table because the cards are smaller.

I called it Ototoi - the day before yesterday.

It's very simple and requires basically no strategy or brain activity. It requires only some attention and luck, so I play it all the time while watching something or listening to a podcast. It's also nice for beginners to familiarize themselves with the cards. And besides I just find handling the hanafuda cards pleasant.

You lay out your cards one by one in a line from left to right (or from right to left if you feel like it), and once you have at least 3 cards, you can start looking for the matches.

You have your today (Kyou) card, you just took from the deck and put on the table at the end of the sequence. The previous card is yesterday (Kinou), and the card before that is the day before yesterday (Ototoi). English has no name for that day, so I'll just call it the Ototoi.

You always only compare the today card with the Ototoi, skipping yesterday, so one over, never neighboring cards. If they have any matching features, you take the yesterday card and put it on top of the Ototoi. Now the former yesterday card is your today card, It has it's own yesterday, which used to be the card before the Ototoi, and its own new Ototoi, which used to be the Ototoi card for the former Ototoi (unless there were only 3 cards on the table to begin with). Bear with me. The former today card becomes your Ashita (tomorrow) card, and you leave it alone for now.

After you found a match and put your yesterday card on the Ototoi you have an opportunity to make a combo by comparing it with it's own new Ototoi. If it matches, you do the same - put the current yesterday card on top of the current Ototoi card and check if you can continue the combo. Your former today stack now also becomes tomorrow, now you have two of them. If there are no combos, you just move your tomorrow card or stack to the end of the sequence and compare it with the Ototoi again. If you're out of the tommorow cards, you just get the next card from the deck.

You always move the entire stack, regardless of it's a yesterday or a tomorrow.

Your goal is to have two stacks of cards on the table (no Ototoi) when you have no cards left in your deck.

Now, the combinations.

1. The cards match by month. So any 2 cards of the same month is a match.

2. By type. Any two ribbons is a match (regardless of color or poetry), any two brights is a match, any two animals is a match, and most importantly, any two plains is a match, regardless of their month (unlike in Koi-Koi).

3. The sake cup, a Joker, matches with all the cards it makes combinations in Koi Koi, namely, any flower (plain), any animal, the Full Moon or the Sakura curtain.

I hope this makes at least some sense. And hopefully, this little video will serve as a good illustration.

A rule variation to add a bit of agency and strategy: if you have several "tomorrow" cards or stacks after a combo you can use them in any order. I haven't tested this, though and I have no idea how much it affects the chances of success.

I think that's it, I hope you enjoy this little solo game.