[For Seniors] Recommended for Brain Training! Ultra-Difficult Quizzes and Riddles

Care Worker Initial Training Certification ObtainedNakajima Junko
Leveraging my experience working as a care worker at a day service, I am currently active as a writer in the caregiving and welfare fields. Beyond writing, I hope to expand my work into web design and illustration. I am a mother of three who has begun studying to become a certified social worker.

Quizzes are an easy activity to join and are one form of recreation that can help stimulate the brain.

Many senior and welfare facilities probably incorporate them as well, don’t they?

One of the great things about quizzes is that you can enjoy learning new facts and gaining new knowledge.

So this time, we’ve prepared a “Super-Difficult Quiz for Seniors” that’s a step up in difficulty from the usual quizzes!

In addition to quizzes, we’ve also gathered tough riddles and kanji problems.

These quizzes are on the challenging side, but solving them should give a real sense of accomplishment.

If the answers don’t come easily, try offering hints and have participants think their way to the solution.

Please make good use of the “Super-Difficult Quiz” and enjoy a fun time!

[For Seniors] Recommended for Brain Training! Ultra-Difficult Quizzes and Riddles (1–10)

Fortune teller

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fortune-telling

It’s a riddle-like tricky question. If an elderly person is overthinking the answer, it might help to add, “This is a riddle.” The idea is to change “won’t sell it to me” (utte kurenai) to another phrasing, “won’t sell” (uranai). Then change “won’t sell” (uranai) to “fortune-telling” (uranai), and you’ll arrive at the answer.

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Nakajima Junko

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What is the fish that has five holes?

This time, I’d like to introduce a riddle about fish.

What fish has five holes? If you slowly read the question out loud, you might figure out the answer.

The answer is hidden in the question, so don’t give up and think it through! The answer is “anago” (conger eel).

The phrase “five holes” (ana ga go) contains the answer! Anago is a type of marine fish in the eel family, and it’s a familiar ingredient in Japanese cuisine.

It’s also highly nutritious, so it’s a great food to include in your diet!

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I drank an expensive wine costing 10 million yen per bottle at a restaurant. However, when it came time to pay, the wine was priced at 10,000 yen. Why was that?

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Because the stopper came off.

When you open a bottle of wine, you pull out the cork—a ‘stopper,’ right? Here’s a wordplay puzzle that links the stopper (栓, sen) with the ‘sen’ (千) in ten million yen. If you take sen (1000) out of 10,000,000 yen, you’re left with 10,000 yen. By the way, the famed Romanée-Conti, considered a top-tier wine worldwide, can cost as much as 10 million yen for a single glass, depending on the bottle.

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Nakajima Junko

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[For Seniors] Great for Brain Training! Super-Difficult Quizzes and Riddles (11–20)

Hanako made four bouquets with her friend. If you add the two bouquets that Hanako made by herself, how many bouquets will there be?

This riddle also tests your Japanese language skills.

First, focus on the beginning: “Hanako made four bouquets with her friend.” From this, you can see there are four bouquets.

Next, look at the latter part: “If you add the two bouquets Hanako made by herself.” Here, it seems there are two bouquets in addition to the four, so you might think 4 + 2 = 6—but that’s not correct.

No matter how many bouquets there are, when you put them together, they become a single bouquet.

Therefore, the answer is 1.

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yamamoto

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There is a symptom known in German as a “witch’s shot,” where a certain part of the body hurts. Which part is it?

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lower back; waist; hips

Some people hurt their lower back when lifting something heavy or bending their upper body forward. In Japan, we call this a “gikkuri-goshi,” but in Germany and other countries it’s known as a “witch’s shot.” Perhaps people thought it was the work of a witch because someone who was fine a moment ago can suddenly be in such agony that they can’t even walk. By the way, “gikkuri-goshi” isn’t the official term. The proper medical name is “acute low back pain.”

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Nakajima Junko

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For some reason, there’s a certain prefectural road in Aomori Prefecture that cars can’t use. It’s not due to snow-related road restrictions. Why is that?

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Because it is a staircase

The “Staircase National Route 399” is the only national highway in Japan that cars can’t use. There are various reasons why a pedestrian path became a national highway. The plan was to upgrade it as a national highway, including the staircases that existed from the start, but it was never improved even after it was designated, and that remains the case today. It’s said that the roughly 70-meter elevation difference and the densely packed settlement made road development impossible. It has now become a tourist spot, so some older people may have visited it as well.

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A turtle swimming in miso soup—what kind of turtle is it?

Here’s a riddle about food that will make you crave miso soup.

A turtle swimming in miso soup—what kind of turtle is it? When you think of ingredients for miso soup, what comes to mind? Maybe this is the very first ingredient many people think of.

Of course, it’s not a reptile turtle! The answer is wakame (seaweed).

The word “wakame” contains “kame” (turtle in Japanese), so some of you may have figured it out right away.

Wakame is rich in minerals and dietary fiber, making it a food you’ll want to include in your diet.

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