There’s a game that Japanese children play while singing a song. You can listen to the song below :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0ORBTjNf8o

かごめかごめ 篭の中の鳥は(Kagome Kagome, Kago no naka no Tori wa)

 [Kagome Kagome bird in the cage]

いついつ出やる (Itsu Itsu deyaru?)

 [When will you come out?]

夜明けの晩に (Yoake no ban ni)

[In the evening of the dawn ]

鶴と亀と（鶴と亀が）滑った (Tsuru to kame to (Tsuru to kame ga) subetta)

 [a crane and a tortoise slipped]

後ろの正面だあれ (Ushiro no shoumen dare)

 [Who stands right behind you now]

To play this game, hold hands with the person next to you and walk around in a circle. There will be a child in the middle of the circle with his or her eyes closed. When the song ends, the child in the middle will have to guess who is standing behind him. If he guesses correctly, then the person he named will switch places. Otherwise the child in the middle will continue to be in the middle. The “kagome” or the child in the middle is the bird in the cage.

 In Japanese culture, cranes and tortoises symbolize long life. Therefore when the song mentions that the crane and tortoise “slipped”, it’s saying that life has been cut short. Some Japanese scholars argue that this song was a cryptic telling of the historic betrayal of Akechi Mitsuhide (明智 光秀). Mitsuhide was a samurai who betrayed Oda Nobunaga (織田 信長) and Nobunaga lost his life because of it.