Shiritori

thumb|right|200px|A game of shiritori progressing from right to left Shiritori (; ) is a Japanese word game in which the players are required to say a word which begins with the final kana of the previous word. No distinction is made between hiragana, katakana, and kanji. "Shiritori" literally means "taking the end" or "taking the rear".

==Rules== There are various optional and advanced rules, which the players must agree on before the game begins. ===Standard rules=== Two or more people take turns to play. Only nouns are permitted. A player who plays a word ending in the mora "N" () loses the game, as almost no Japanese word begins with that character, except for some loanwords and proper nouns such as (N'Djamena). Words may not be repeated. Phrases connected by no (; meaning roughly "of") are permitted, but only in those cases where the phrase is sufficiently lexicalized to be considered a "word".