The best games by Hisashi Hayashi 🇯🇵👨 2026

Players create subway networks by filling in station fields on their individual game boards. Using the numbers revealed on the cards, they mark their subway plans while making tough decisions about the limited number of stations they can add to each line. Points can be amassed by completing stations with many crossing lines, and bonuses are awarded for being the first to finish routes. The game ends when all indicator fields are filled, and the player with the highest score wins.

Trains is a strategic deck-building board game that combines railway development with elements of capitalist competition. Set against the backdrop of the industrial revolution and the subsequent railway boom, players take on the roles of capitalists managing private railway companies in Japan. The game offers a fascinating blend of historical railway development and modern strategic gameplay.

String Railway is a unique railway game featuring colored strings, game pieces, station tiles, and a scoring board. Players start by laying a large circle of string on the table to define the game area, along with smaller circles for mountains and a string for rivers. On their turn, players draw and place a station tile, aiming to connect their stations with railway strings to form their own train network and earn victory points, with the game ending after five rounds.

In Yokohama, set during the Meiji era's transformative period, you step into the role of a merchant in the rapidly modernizing city of Yokohama. As the city evolves from a quaint fishing village into a bustling trade hub, you are at the forefront, capitalizing on this economic boom.

Sail to India transports players back to the Age of Discovery where you, as a noble backer of Portuguese explorers like Vasco da Gama and Bartolomeu Dias, strive to find a sea route to India and establish profitable trade routes.