Super ball scooping at a Japanese festival

I've been sharing the various games you can play at Japanese festivals over the last few weeks. Here's another: super ball scoop, pictured above. This one is really for children, although I have seen young adults do it too! No shame! 

Super ball scoop

Super ball scoop / scooping is a bit like goldfish scoop, but much easier. Thus, it is a popular festival game with young children. You get a ladle and a bowl and the objective is to scoop as many balls into the bowl as possible. You just get one chance, or occasionally two depending on the vendor, so the key is to time it right! If you don't lift the ladle out of the water it doesn't count as a scoop.

The attraction of the game is that you get to bring home whatever you've scooped. They usually have a range of different sized balls. If you aim for a large ball its unlikely that you will be able to scoop more than one, but if you aim for the smaller balls you can end up with quite a stash. When my kids were smaller they like the super ball scooping stalls that also had some mini rubber ducks in the mix too!

Have you ever tried super ball scooping at a festival?