[For Seniors] Get Excited by Knowing the Answers! Tricky Quiz

same

An uphill and a downhill are the same slope; the difference is just the direction you look from. For example, if you look from the top of the slope, it’s a “downhill,” and if you look at the same slope from the bottom, it’s an “uphill”—they’re the same number either way. By the way, there’s also an organization called the National Sloped Cities Liaison Council, whose members include 12 cities known for their hills, such as Nagasaki, Hakodate, Atami, and Onomichi.

Grandfather and grandmother

The first companion Momotaro chose for the demon-slaying was the monkey. However, the first ones he actually met were the old man and the old woman. By the way, there’s a reason the animals were chosen as his companions. If you arrange the twelve zodiac signs clockwise starting from the north, the oni’s gate (the inauspicious direction) is northeast. It was thought that the power of the ura-kimon (the opposite gate) was needed to defeat the demons, so the companions became the monkey, the pheasant (the bird), and the dog, which correspond to that direction.

The sun has set.

It’s the question where we mistakenly think the toy shop gave Jiro something because he kept staring at what he wanted for so long. In reality, Jiro didn’t receive any item at all. He watched for so many hours that the sun set, it became evening, and night fell.

kindergarten

If you look closely at the question, only the kindergarten is a building. Among the items in the question, the largest one is the kindergarten. If the question were something like “Which is older in age?”, the kindergarten would be excluded. By the way, it seems that most universities in Japan list “18 years or older” as an admission requirement.

First, I lit a match.

It’s a trick question that makes you look for the answer among “kerosene for the stove, a candle, coal in the fireplace, and a newspaper near the fireplace.” If you think carefully, the first thing you do is light a single match. By the way, if you’re in snowy mountains, dig a horizontal hole in the snow or build a snow shelter like a kamakura while it’s still light and take refuge. Preserving body heat and conserving energy are also important, I hear.

5 animals

Ordinarily, you’d think, “Out of the four fish, a seagull grabbed one in its beak,” right? From there, you’d likely proceed to think it’s 4 minus 1, so 3 fish. But the trick is in the verb: if it’s ‘kuwaeru’ meaning ‘to add’ rather than ‘kuwaeru’ meaning ‘to hold in the mouth,’ then it’s 4 plus 1, making 5 fish. Before giving this to older adults, it might go more smoothly if you explain that it’s a trick question first.

3 people

Out of the seven children, three have been found, so it seems there are four remaining. Hide-and-seek is a game that even older people have played at least once. Let’s recall the rules of hide-and-seek. There are “hiders” and an “it” who looks for the people who are hiding, right? The correct answer is three: from the remaining four, subtract the one child who is ‘it’.