[For Seniors] Liven Things Up with Trick Riddles You Answer!

What fruit appears when you ring the bell five times?

Here’s a simple riddle about fruit.

What fruit appears when you ring a bell five times? If you think of a common fruit, you might figure it out.

Hint: Try expressing the sound of a bell as onomatopoeia, and you’ll get closer to the answer! The correct answer is “apple.” The key is the bell going “rin-rin” and the number “five” in Japanese.

Apples are familiar to many people—not only can you eat them as they are, but you can also enjoy them as juice, jam, pie, jelly, and more.

What fruit is good at judo, kendo, and karate?

Let’s try a riddle that hinges on words that sound the same but have different meanings.

Which fruit is good at judo, kendo, and karate? If you take the sentence literally, it seems impossible that a fruit would do judo, kendo, or karate.

The hint is to think about what you call judo, kendo, karate, and similar disciplines collectively.

The answer is “grape” (budō).

It sounds the same as the fruit “grape” (budō), but judo, kendo, and karate are collectively referred to as “martial arts” (budō) in Japanese.

It’s a fun riddle that plays on different meanings of the same sound.

What animal is represented by “chi-tsu-te-to?”

Next, let me share a riddle about animals.

What animal is represented by “chi-tsu-te-to”? Pay attention to the sequence “chi-tsu-te-to.” If you add one character, it should follow the standard gojūon order, right? The answer is “tanuki” (raccoon dog).

The “ta” is missing from the ta-row sequence “ta-chi-tsu-te-to,” so the animal is “tanuki.” It feels satisfying once you get it, doesn’t it? Tanuki are small animals with a cute appearance and have long been familiar figures in folktales and old stories.

Some of you may have even seen a wild tanuki before.