A man in a plaid shirt plays checkers on a sidewalk in Yangon

The men were sitting facing each other on the edge of the sidewalk. Both of them were staring at the checkerboard in front of them with serious faces. They were playing checkers at the edge of the sidewalk.

Checkers is not a major game in Japan, but when I travel around Southeast Asia, I often see people playing checkers. It seems that the game is popular in many countries, and those countries where it is a minor game, like Japan, seem to be in the minority.

Here in Myanmar, there is a chess-like game called Sittuyin, but I never saw anyone playing it in town. On the contrary, I saw men playing checkers here and there. At least in Yangon, checkers seems to be more popular than Sittuyin.

The man in the checkered shirt was still thinking about his next move. Only time was passing quietly. I don't mind this kind of time that I encounter when traveling. I felt as if I was experiencing a different way of time flowing than in Tokyo.

In the meantime, the game was over and the two casually exchanged money. At the end, I realized that the serious look on their faces was not only because they were obsessed with winning or losing the game, but also because money was at stake.