EEducation in Japan

Where in Tokyo can I shop for games like Scrabble/Scattergories?

I’m a new Eikaiwa teacher struggling to make my lessons more fun. I’ve seriously been to so many hobby stores, Donki’s and board game stores in search of western games that can be used to teach English and come up totally dry. I’m near Omiya. Does anyone have any leads? Akihabara? I’m the only English speaker at my school during the day, and the stores my bosses have been suggesting never have anything.

17 comments

  1. Spot it or Dobble is really good for kids and vocab. Scrabble is usually too difficult.
    Uno is good for colors/numbers too.

  2. Boggle might be good? Just find a generator online and project it on the board, you don’t even have to make or buy anything.

  3. Get *Bananagrams* instead of Scrabble. *My First Bananagrams* is good for kids.

    Honestly, Uno isn’t really ideal for JHS kids. They aren’t learning anything particularly useful with the in-game vocabulary. You have to be smart how you use it, so it just doesn’t turn into a 5 to 10 minutes skive at the end of class.

  5. I know the Azabu import store in Tokyo has English board games there, but they’re a bit pricey. I’m sure those games are there.

  6. ‘Hedbanz’ and ‘guess who’ for es kids. I did a lot of prep and drilling for the kids to be able to play Hedbanz but it was worth it. I made a big poster of all the adjectives and verbs they can use. This was for ES grade 4-6 at an Eikawa I did once every Saturday. There is a card game called ‘bigger than’ which was also good, it’s basically the same as ‘daifugou’. It was refreshing to do Eikawa because doing alt work during the week as a tape recorder gets pretty stale after a while.

  7. Scrabble is less than ¥3000 on Amazon, Scattergories is ¥5000. Lots of other ones. A lot of third party sellers with high or astronomical prices on there to avoid.
    As someone else mentioned a lot of games on Mercari but since you’re only a month in Japan could be a harder learning curve than Amazon.jp

  11. ‘Taboo’ is a good vocabulary based game and is available on Amazon.

    There are different levels, based on age. You may well have played it unknowingly without the set itself.

  12. Hedbanz is a great vocab game you can adapt for different levels. The rules on the box say the player must ask yes/no questions with an hourglass timer, but for lower levels you can drop the timer and give hints instead of making them ask questions.

    https://amzn.asia/d/bNrbdP8

  13. Those kinds of games aren’t necessarily good for learning. What you need to do is use games that enhance and supplement learning, and review and recycle language you have taught in class. You can’t do that with Scattergories or Scrabble. Those games are fun, and can be creative, but honestly are mainly just that – ways to waste a bit of time in class having fun.

    Is this a kids class, or adults? I can point you at a good number of publications that can help you with games for adult ESL. (I don’t have any ideas for young learners since I’ve never taught them.)

    PM me if you want anything for adult classes.

  15. If you don’t mind cutting out a bunch of stuff you can find printable versions of some of these games. Your school will probably let you print infinitely and they may even let you laminate the pieces so kids don’t lose them. I had like 10 sets of apples to apples printed and stored in envelopes to take to my classes

  17. I started teaching ESL in 2003 and my one school had “ game day” every Friday.

    This list of games was my saving Grace. You don’t need a computer.

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