"Wow, look at all that amezaiku! I miss it so much! Oh yes, they used to call it 'ame-fusen' in the old days…"
It is usually fathers and mothers who have seen amezaiku as children.
'Fusen' is, of course, a balloon, which is a candy balloon made of candy that is inflated with air.
What was interesting about this candy balloons was that the children were given a round piece of candy attached to a stick, and they had to blow on it with their own breath to make it big. It is a kind of game in which if you can make it so big that it does not pass between two upright sticks, you will receive a magnificent piece of amezaiku as a prize. Even though it is a game, the children are very serious. The prize is a magnificent piece, which is usually too expensive for children to afford.
Even now, I sometimes play this game.
It takes a certain amount of skill to make the candy balloons big enough to keep them from tearing and from hardening. (It's a secret at first!) No one can do it well from the beginning, but once they get used to it, some of them make candy balloons so big that we are amazed at their size. (You have to let them cool down a bit!) To brighten the children's eyes, I have some gorgeous prizes for them. (Point it down!) That's where I show my skills. It's a game. If I lose, I will use all my skills to make the prize even better than the last one.
I can't play this game every time if I don't have a little time to spare, but it's another one of the most enjoyable parts of the traditional amezaiku.