[For Seniors] Brain Training! Recall Quiz Collection!

In 1984 (Showa 59), a certain animal came from Australia. What is this animal that remains popular today?

One of the charms of zoos is that you can see creatures that don’t live in Japan or that you’d never encounter in the wild.

Animals coming to Japan for the first time are often featured in the news, and in 1984 (Showa 59) a particular animal drew a lot of attention.

What was the animal that arrived from Australia as a goodwill ambassador? The fact that it came from Australia is a big hint.

The answer is “koala.” Six koalas were exhibited at Tama Zoological Park in Tokyo, Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya, and Hirakawa Zoological Park in Kagoshima.

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kappamaki

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The Showa-era phrase “Atama ga 〇〇 ni naru” means “I have so much to think about that my brain won’t work.” What sea creature goes in the 〇〇?

The word that meant “a state where you have so much to think about that your brain won’t work,” which was popular around 1983 (Showa 58), is “Atama ga uni ni naru” (my head turns into sea urchin)! It’s a metaphor comparing a confused, jumbled mental state to soft sea urchin that collapses easily when pressure is applied.

You hardly hear it nowadays, and on the internet it’s called something like “a really nostalgic expression.” Indeed, cracking open a sea urchin does somehow evoke the inside of a human brain… There are plenty of other Showa-era buzzwords that aren’t used anymore, too! Just those alone could make for a solid Showa quiz.

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yuri

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On the tables of cafés and eateries in the Showa era, there were small roulette-style vending machines. What kind of vending machines were they?

Back in the Showa era, many coffee shops and eateries had small roulette-style vending machines on their tables.

And what did they dispense? Fortune-telling results! You’d insert a coin and pull the lever, the roulette inside would spin, and a rolled-up slip of paper would come out.

In the late Showa 50s (the late 1970s to early 1980s), thanks to the combined boom of horoscopes and coffee shops, annual production of these mini machines reportedly exceeded 200,000 units.

I even remember seeing them in old Chinese restaurants after the Heisei era began, but nowadays they’ve become a rare sight.

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yuri

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