Jubako Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Contents
• Setup
• How to Play
  • Placing Tiles
  • Scoring
• Ending the Game
• Advanced Game Options
  • Little Jubako
  • Picky Eaters
  • Favorite Food
  • Multi-Tiered
  • Peko Peko

Contents

1. 90 Delicacy tiles
   • 78 double Delicacy tiles
   • 12 single Delicacy tiles (used in advanced scoring games only)
2. 4 double-sided jubako boards (5x5 grid on one side, 4x4 grid on the other)
3. 4 Victory point markers (red)
4. 20 Victory point tokens (5 each of 50, 100, 150, 200, including 1 replacement set)
5. Rulebook

The Delicacy tiles show pairs of Japanese food items, including: yude tamago (hardboiled egg), tobiko (roe), ika (squid), broccoli, maguro (tuna), tamagoyaki (omelet), nori (seaweed), avocado, gohan (rice), kyuri (cucumber), tomato, and tako (octopus).

Setup

1. Give each player a jubako board, Victory point marker, and set of Victory point tokens (one each of 50, 100, 150, and 200).

   Each player should turn their jubako board so the 5x5 grid is faceup, and place their Victory point marker on "0" on their Victory point tracker.

2. Shuffle the 78 double Delicacy tiles facedown. Without looking at them, remove a number of tiles depending on the player count and return them to the box:

   • 2 players: remove 28 tiles (play with 50 tiles)
   • 3 players: remove 12 tiles (play with 66 tiles)
   • 4 players: remove 2 tiles (play with 76 tiles)

3. Stack the remaining tiles into multiple piles in the center of the table, then turn four random tiles faceup and place them in the center of the table.

4. Give each player two tiles from the pile in the center of the table. The tiles are not to be shown to other players. Once drawn, keep them facedown in front of you.

How to Play

The player who most recently visited Japan (or traveled closest to Japan) begins. Play proceeds in clockwise turn order.

On your turn, you must do the following:

1. Take either one of the four faceup tiles from the center of the table or one facedown tile from one of the piles. You now have three tiles.
2. Place a tile (see Placing Tiles).
3. Score: After placing your tile, you immediately score Victory points.
4. Replace tile: If you took one of the faceup tiles from the center of the table, replace it from one of the facedown piles at the end of your turn.

Then, play proceeds to the next player in clockwise turn order.

Placing Tiles

You may place tiles:

• On any two empty spaces. The tile does not have to be adjacent to any other tiles.
• By aligning half of the new tile with a Delicacy printed on the jubako board, matching the Delicacy on the overlapping half.
• On top of one or two tiles already on your jubako board, as if you were packing a second box tier! At least one of the Delicacies of the new tile must match the Delicacy underneath it.

Scoring

After placing a tile, you immediately score Victory points. Choose one of the Delicacies on the tile you placed. Then, count all Delicacies of the chosen type that are visible on your jubako board. For each of these Delicacies, including the one you just placed, you gain 1 Victory point. Move your Victory point marker that many spaces (see Example 1).

Bonus Points: If you placed the new tile across the top of two tiles and both Delicacies match the ones below it, you gain an additional 5 Victory points (see Example 2)!

Example 1: You placed the Delicacy tile with kyuri (cucumber) and gohan (rice). You choose to count all visible kyuri and gain 3 Victory points.

Example 2: Next round, you place the Delicacy tile showing maguro (tuna) and kyuri (cucumber). Again, you choose to count all kyuri and gain 3 Victory points, plus 5 bonus Victory points for placing both maguro and kyuri on matching types, for a total of 8 Victory points.

During your turn, if you can't place any of your 3 tiles (sometimes happens during the later turns of the game), you must remove one of them from the game face-up. You lose 1 Victory point.

Note: If your Victory point marker passes the "0" space, use your Victory point tokens to help keep track of your score. For example, after passing "0" the first time, place the 50-point token near your track; after passing "0" the second time, swap out the 50-point token for the 100-point token, and so on.

Ending the Game

Continue playing until all Delicacy tiles from the center of the table and the 2 remaining tiles of each player have been used (or removed from the game). The player with the most Victory points has created the most beautiful jubako and wins the game. If there is a tie, the player with the most room left in their jubako board's first layer wins the game. If there is still a tie, you share the victory.

Advanced Game Options

Below are various advanced game options for Jubako. Once you have mastered the base game, try these new ways to play and score.

Little Jubako

To make the game more difficult, play with the 4x4 grid.

Picky Eaters

Choose the number of Bonus points earned for stacking matching Delicacies. For example, instead of gaining 5 Bonus points you may agree on less (e.g. 3 Bonus points), or more (e.g. 7 Bonus points). This will change the strategy of the game.

Favorite Food

At the beginning of the game, give each player one of the single Delicacy tiles facedown. Don't show this tile to the other players! When the game ends, a final round of scoring occurs in which the players now reveal their extra tiles and count the number of matching Delicacies visible on their game board. Add that number to your Victory points. For example, if you started the game with the tako (octopus) tile, at the end of the game you will gain an additional Victory point for each visible tako tile on your game board. If you want, you may also distribute two or even three of these extra tiles! Each additional tile makes the game more challenging. All tiles will score at the end of the game.

Multi-Tiered

When the game ends, a final round of scoring occurs. Each player gets additional Victory points for each of their layers, starting with the first layer. For each layer, only count the Delicacies that have been placed on that layer.

Choose one type and multiply it by the number of the layer. You may choose the same type on multiple layers.

Example:

Layer	Delicacy	Multiplier	Points
Layer 1	1 tobiko (roe)	x1	1 point
Layer 2	2 kyuri (cucumber)	x2	4 points
Layer 3	—	—	0 points
Layer 4	2 tobiko (roe)	x4	8 points
Layer 5	1 broccoli	x5	5 points

Sum: +18 extra points

Peko Peko

At the end of the game, score all 12 Delicacies with the help of a facedown pile of the single Delicacy tiles.

Turn one single Delicacy tile faceup. Now, each player counts the number of Victory points they gain for this type of Delicacy. Count the number of visible Delicacies of that type, then multiply it by the number of the highest layer where that Delicacy can be found on your board.

Then turn the next extra tile faceup. Again, each player counts the number of Victory points they gain, etc., until all 12 extra tiles have been turned faceup and scored.

Example:

Delicacy	Layer	Multiplier	Points
tamagoyaki (omelet)	Layer 2	x1	2 points
yude tamago (hardboiled egg)	Layer 4	x2	8 points
nori (seaweed)	—	—	0 points
tomato	Layer 1	x1	1 point
gohan (rice)	—	—	0 points
avocado	—	—	0 points
ika (squid)	—	—	0 points
maguro (tuna)	Layer 5	x2	10 points
tako (octopus)	—	—	0 points
kyuri (cucumber)	Layer 2	x3	6 points
broccoli	Layer 5	x3	15 points
tobiko (roe)	Layer 4	x4	16 points

Sum: +58 extra points