[For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreation
We’ve put together a collection of brain-training puzzles and simple exercises that you’ll want to actively incorporate into recreational activities.
It’s easy to get bored with the same types of puzzles and games, right?
Let’s liven up your recreation time with puzzles you haven’t tried before, or some quirky and fun challenges and exercises!
If it’s difficult, try allowing more time to think or offering hints so everyone can enjoy it as they go.
We’re also introducing plenty of activities that can make people laugh and lighten the mood, even if they don’t know the answer.
Feel free to use these as a reference and put them to good use!
- [For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mind Exercises
- [For Seniors] Fun and Lively! Recommended Quiz Questions
- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- [For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! A Collection of Tricky Quizzes You’ll Definitely Get Stumped By
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- [For Seniors] Find daily brain training. Today’s recommended brain workout.
- [For Seniors] A Brain-Training, Crowd-Pleasing Word Search Game
- Fun Brain Training! Memory Games for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Lively Wordplay Game: Fun Recreation for Elderly Care
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- [Brain Training for Seniors] Recommended Hand-Play Recreation for Dementia Prevention
[For Seniors] Fun and Lively Brain Training Recreations (111–120)
What is the letter that exists only once?
Among the same words lined up, there is one that differs by just a single character.
Try to find it.
You can check them one by one or take a bird’s-eye view—choose whichever approach you prefer.
By firmly remembering the characters and their meanings, it becomes easier to spot the differences, and doing memorization and discrimination tasks at the same time provides good stimulation for the brain.
Because it’s simple and enjoyable for both individuals and groups, it’s also recommended as a recreational activity in senior care facilities.
Find the theme words
Find answers that match a given theme from jumbled letters.
The themes include fruits, flower names, vegetable names, animal names, food names, Japanese events, and greetings, and both the number of answers and how many you need to find gradually increase.
In the latter half, the number of letters grows, and combined with the time limit, the difficulty rises.
It’s important to stay calm and read the questions carefully.
Watching as a video works well, and turning it into a whiteboard or printed activity makes it fun for both small groups and larger groups.
It’s also recommended for recreational activities at senior facilities.
A wordplay rebus using the characters “ri,” “u,” and “n”
Let's focus on each character's distinctive features and think! Here's a wordplay puzzle using the characters “り,” “う,” and “ん.” You can see a blue “り,” a black “う,” and an “ん” that has fallen over.
There’s not much uniformity, so many people might need time to reach the answer.
The hints are that it’s a phrase describing a dangerous act, and that in addition to the blue “ri,” the “n” has toppled over.
The answer is “あおり運転” (aggressive driving/road rage tailgating).
Once you hear it, you think, “Oh, that’s what it means!”
A wordplay character using ‘ri’ and numbers
Let’s think by combining characters! Here’s a wordplay puzzle that uses the character “り” and numbers.
You see the string “り234り6.” Without a hint, many people might find it hard to reach the answer.
The hint is that the numbers “1” and “5” have been replaced by “り.” The correct answer is “strawberry picking.” Some of you may have had the experience of picking and eating strawberries at a strawberry farm.
This was a puzzle that makes you crave sweet strawberries!
A wordplay character using “riken” (vested interests) and the katakana “mo.”
Let’s think it through with a relaxed, free mindset! This is a wordplay riddle using “riken” (利権) and the katakana “モ.” Inside the characters for “利権,” a blue “モ” is displayed.
The hints are that the ‘モ’ is blue and that the answer is the name of a prefecture.
With those clues, many of you may have had a flash of insight.
The answer is Aomori Prefecture.
It’s a unique puzzle that combines the blue “モ” (ao + mo) with “利権” (ri + ken) to form Aomori-ken.
It’s so satisfying once you figure it out!
Witty calligraphy using the characters ‘parent’ and ‘se’
After taking a quick breather, let’s give our brains a little workout.
Here’s a wordplay riddle using the characters “親” (parent) and “せ.” You can see the character “せ” placed between the two parts that make up “親,” right? The hints are that it’s a word meaning to cause someone trouble, and that “せ” is inside “親.” With those hints, many of you have probably figured it out already.
The answer is “oyanakase” (a child who causes their parents grief).
Oyanakase refers to behavior by a child that causes their parents distress or makes them lament.
Proverb Quiz
A proverb that every Japanese person has probably heard.
This time, we’re introducing a “proverb quiz” where you think of the sentence that fits inside the parentheses to complete the proverb.
You might be thinking, “It’s just filling in one sentence, right?” but once you try it, you’ll be surprised at how tricky it can be.
You may even come across proverbs you’ve never seen before.
If you can, try not only filling in the sentence but also thinking about its meaning.
The characters and their content are called semantic memory, an important kind of memory that makes up our knowledge.
We recommend using it regularly while enjoying a bit of brain training.