Liven up the Respect-for-the-Aged gathering: A roundup of recreational activities everyone can enjoy.

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🍈Word Scramble Quiz🍈 Brain-training game for seniors! Rearrange the hiragana characters to complete the words [Dementia Prevention]

If you’re looking for games everyone can enjoy at a Respect-for-the-Aged gathering, brain-training games that are both fun and good mental exercise are a win-win.

How about trying a letter rearrangement game with various characters—hiragana—randomly placed? Players rearrange the characters to form words that make sense.

Start with four or five characters, and gradually increase the number to raise the difficulty so it stays engaging without getting boring.

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utatane

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Casual Ball Curling

[Easy-to-prepare and exciting recreation] [Day service activity] Simple circle-style ball curling

Curling became well-known through the Winter Olympics, so many of you may already be familiar with it.

It’s a team game where you compete to see which team can get their balls closer to the center ball.

Preparing this recreation is as simple as getting a few balls ready.

That’s all it takes to create a fun activity that helps participants interact more with each other.

Since it can be played while seated, it’s also appealing because it can be enjoyed in a way that suits the physical and mental conditions of older adults.

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Nanaka

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ring toss

Colorful Ring Toss! (Day service recreation)

Ring toss is a classic game often seen at festivals—anyone can enjoy it since you simply throw rings at a target.

You can arrange it in various ways, such as aiming to win prizes or competing for points written on the targets.

Because you throw from a set distance, it can be played while seated and is easy on the body.

It’s considerate to make the targets and rings larger for visibility, and it’s also important to judge how to adjust the difficulty so the game stays exciting.

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kappamaki

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pole toppling

Knocking down the stick with beanbags (≧▽≦)

A recreation adapted from a childhood sandbox game often called “Yamakuzushi” (mountain collapse).

You place beanbags on a table, stand a stick in the middle, and take turns removing the beanbags so the stick doesn’t fall.

Unlike playing in a sandbox, it doesn’t get messy and can be enjoyed while seated.

It may seem like a simple game for older adults, but carefully pulling out irregularly shaped beanbags surprisingly requires fine nerves and concentration, so people of all ages can enjoy it.

It’s a crowd-pleasing game that offers a different kind of excitement than physically active games.

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Hoshino Takashi

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Kiyoshi’s Zundoko Song

[Kiyoshi no Zundoko-bushi] “Respect-for-the-Aged Gathering”

Let’s perform a celebratory dance to Kiyoshi Hikawa’s signature song, “Kiyoshi no Zundoko Bushi.” The fact that it’s a gentle enka number is a big point—it can help not only the dancers but also the audience feel relaxed as they watch.

Since the song doesn’t have fixed choreography, deciding what kind of movements to use is important; imagining something like a Bon Odori style might make it easier to understand.

Put care into the costumes as well, and make sure to convey both the joy of matching movements to the song and the spirit of celebration.

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kappamaki

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kusudama (decorative paper ball used for celebrations)

Respect-for-the-Aged gathering: did the kusudama succeed or fail?

How about using a festive kusudama to really liven up a celebratory event and highlight the joy? The classic contents are a banner with a message and confetti, but the fact that you don’t know what’s inside until you open it heightens the sense of anticipation.

Pulling the string with a countdown and having the message burst onto the scene is exciting even when you already know the result.

It’s important to think about how the message will be written and what kind of decorations will flutter out, so you can create a kusudama that makes the moment even more fun.

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kappamaki

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loach scooping

Elderly Appreciation Gathering: "Loach Scooping"

Dojo-sukui is a dance that can be called a traditional performing art, performed to the folk song “Yasugibushi” from Yasugi City in Shimane Prefecture.

With comical movements that suggest bending low at the waist to scoop up loaches, it expresses a sense of fun.

The costume is important for creating its distinctive atmosphere—wear a tenugui headcloth and a coin-shaped nose piece (modeled after an old one-mon coin), among other details.

While the loach-scooping motion is the classic motif, there are actually no fixed steps, so the performer’s ad-libbing is put to the test.

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kappamaki

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