[For Seniors] Popular Brain Training and Recreational Quizzes

When does “between meals” mean in terms of how to take medicine?

Among older adults, many probably receive medications from the hospital.

Some of you might also have been instructed to take your medicine “between meals.” So, when exactly does “between meals” mean you should take your medicine? Many people think it means during a meal, but that’s incorrect.

The answer is: between one meal and the next—for example, between breakfast and lunch, or between lunch and dinner.

Strictly speaking, the guideline is about 2 to 3 hours after eating.

If you’re an older adult and you’re given medicine with the instruction to take it “between meals,” please be careful to follow this timing.

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SAKI

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prickly pear (cactus pear)

"Rikurenkon" — you might be tempted to read it as 'riku renkon,' but that's incorrect, of course.

The kanji here refers to a summer vegetable.

It’s long and slender, and when you cut it, the cross-section looks like a star.

It’s also sticky and stringy, much like natto.

So, what’s the answer to this kanji? It’s okra! Okra is packed with nutrients that are great for your health: it can help prevent summer fatigue, cool the body, and even aid in preventing high blood pressure.

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SAKI

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The sea bream-shaped taiyaki originally had the shape of a different creature. What shape was it?

It’s hard to imagine taiyaki being in any shape other than a sea bream, isn’t it? Even for seniors who’ve eaten dozens of them, this might be a tricky question.

Here’s a hint: it’s a creature that comes in large and small sizes and is sometimes kept as a pet.

Some seniors might even have kept one in the past.

And the biggest hint is that it has a hard shell! The answer is, of course, a turtle! It was even called “kameyaki,” meaning turtle-shaped yaki.

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SAKI

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Onigiri Concentration

[Senior Recreation] Onigiri Concentration (Memory Game)

This is a concentration/memory game where you flip over onigiri cards and try to match the same fillings.

Since there are many cards for each filling—like “12 umeboshi” and “6 cod roe”—you have a relatively high chance of getting a match even when drawing at random, which is part of the appeal.

While it’s important to engage your memory—such as recalling where cards were—be sure to celebrate correct matches so everyone feels good and stays enthusiastic about the game.

If matching proves difficult, it’s also recommended to reveal all the cards and give players time to memorize their locations.

In the end, compare everyone’s hands and get excited about how each set of fillings came together.

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kappamaki

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Recipe card

Cooking Card Game

This is a card game where you pick two words from the lined-up cards and combine them to complete the name of a dish.

The key is how many dish names you can recall from memory based on the letters in front of you.

It’s also recommended to shuffle in a dummy card that forms a complete dish name on its own—it can mislead players, spark ideas, or serve as a hint for a similar dish.

It should be fun not only to come up with correct dish names, but also to invent plausible-sounding ones that don’t actually exist.

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kappamaki

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Text Color Card Game

[Senior Recreation] Rec Craftsman Series Part 132: “Colored Letter Card Game [Brain Training/Card/Game]”

This is a karuta-style card game where players focus on the reading of the characters and the colors on the cards to find the one that matches what is read aloud.

It tests your ability to decide whether the cue refers to the character or the color, and your judgment in locating it among the cards in front of you—so your thinking speed is key.

Clear phrasing by the reader is also important; be mindful to use concise expressions like “the character is red and the color is green.” The more cards with the same character in different colors are mixed in, the harder it becomes to judge the correct answer, so it’s recommended to gradually increase the number of cards as players get used to the game.

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kappamaki

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What is a ____ that starts with ____?

[What's a ___ that starts with ___?] A failproof, never-boring brain training activity [Whiteboard Recreation]

Here’s a brain-training quiz that you can enjoy with a large group as long as you have a whiteboard.

For example, let’s say you make a quiz like, “What are some ___ that start with ___?” First, you put a letter in the first blank.

Then you put a category in the second blank.

For instance, if you put “i” in the first blank and “foods” in the second, the quiz becomes: “What foods start with ‘i’?” Have everyone answer in turn.

If you say, “Let’s try to come up with 10,” everyone will think hard.

That’s what makes it a brain workout.

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Hirakawa Masako (Bōkarisuto: Sakata Mizumako)

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