[For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mind Exercises

Witty calligraphy using the characters ‘parent’ and ‘se’

Brain Teasers: Witty Character Quiz Short 4 – Cognitive Training for Seniors, Recreation #Shorts #Quiz #DayService #Recreation

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.

Matchstick Puzzle

[Matchstick Puzzle] 7 Puzzles Where Moving 1 Stick Makes the Equation Correct: “18÷15 = 4÷5” Brain Training | Mental Exercise

This is a puzzle where you take an incorrect equation made with matchsticks and rearrange a specified number of sticks to turn it into a correct equation.

Think carefully about how the current equation is wrong and exactly what needs to be changed.

When moving just one stick, it doesn’t necessarily stay within the same digit, so be aware that two digits might change at the same time.

It’s also important to judge which digits to keep.

In the end, there’s more to think about than you might expect with this puzzle.

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Animal Memory Rec

[Senior Brain Training × Care Recreation] Memory Training 18 – Dementia Prevention and Care Prevention Video for the Elderly [Fukukuru]

For people aged 75 and over, taking a cognitive function test has become mandatory to renew a driver’s license.

Even those who don’t usually have trouble remembering things can feel a bit nervous when they hear the word “test,” right? How about livening things up with a memory-training game similar to that cognitive test? Here’s a simple way to run it: first, present 8–10 animal illustrations—or words if illustrations aren’t available—have the participant memorize them, then ask them to write them down on a whiteboard.

Adjust the difficulty by changing the number of animals or the memorization time.

If you have a whiteboard, this could be fun even outdoors.

Let’s play the Same Answer game

Recreation for Seniors – Guaranteed to Get Everyone Excited! The “Write the Same Answer on the Whiteboard” Game

A popular game also enjoyed on the variety show “Hanadai-san to Chidori-kun.” It’s really easy to play and works with both small and large groups, so it’s sure to come in handy in all kinds of situations.

The rules are simple: first decide on a prompt—for example, “red foods.” Everyone imagines something and writes their answer, and if everyone matches, that’s a success.

If most people write “apple” but one person writes “tomato,” that alone somehow gets everyone excited.

It’s a fun, brain-training recreation that livens up gatherings like parties with lots of people.

A quiz where you guess what the initials stand for

[One-Character Quiz Brain Training] What do these initials stand for? Let's have fun with a whiteboard!

It might have been the most popular variety show of the 1990s.

Even if you don’t know the show itself, you’ve probably heard the phrase “Magical Banana.” Yes, this brain-training game was a big hit on “Magical Zunō Power!” It uses only hiragana to depict illustrations—a quiz where intuition and flashes of insight are key.

You express faces or animals using only initial letters, targeting that sweet spot of “almost obvious but not quite,” making it a truly addictive brain workout.

No drawing skills required, so even people who aren’t good at drawing are totally fine!

A Quiz on Difficult Kanji Related to Food

[Difficult Kanji] Food Edition! Introducing 20 tricky kanji reading questions that are hard to read when written in kanji

When you go into a Chinese restaurant, of course there’s a menu, but many items like ramen and gyoza are written in katakana, right? It’s the same with sushi toppings—things like aji or sanma aren’t written in kanji.

Even for foods we eat often and see all the time, when they’re suddenly written in kanji, we often can’t read them.

So how about everyone trying their hand at difficult-to-read kanji? Even graduates of famous universities or former teachers might struggle quite a bit! There are lots of quizzes uploaded on video sites, so be sure to make good use of them.

Funny Gesture Exercises

Recreation (brain training): Seniors smile and do gesture exercises — recommended for day service programs.

A gesture game where you don’t speak, but watch movements and guess the answer.

Because it’s often played on TV shows and at parties, many older adults may already be familiar with it.

In gesture games, you watch the movements, imagine what they mean, and answer.

Imagining is said to help activate the brain.

What’s more, having older adults perform the prompted actions themselves boosts the brain-training effect.

Since you’re getting older adults to move, it’s like gesture exercise.

Expanding prompts from “eating a mandarin” to “peeling and eating a mandarin” also stimulates the imagination.

Adjust the difficulty to suit the older adults.

The more movements you add, the more smiles you’re likely to see.