[For Seniors] Take on the World's Hardest Riddles! A Collection of Ultra-Challenging Wordplay Puzzles to Twist Your Brain

Earth

The emergency number for the fire department is 119. If you read 119 as digits in Japanese, it’s pronounced “ichi-ichi-kyū,” which can also sound like “ichii, chikyū” (meaning “first place, Earth”). In other words, there’s a pun at the fire department that equates “number one” with “Earth.” This wordplay creates a riddle: if you ask someone at the fire department what their favorite planet is, they will always answer “Earth.” It’s a challenging riddle that humorously plays on Japanese sounds.

candle

The correct answer is “a candle.” A candle emits light while it’s burning, but it grows shorter as it burns down and eventually goes out. Also, a candle’s flame can be easily extinguished by a breath. For these reasons, the three conditions—“it gives off light while alive,” “it gets shorter as it ages,” and “it dies from a breath”—all apply to a candle. From this perspective, it’s a riddle that really makes you think and can be surprisingly hard to solve.

I won’t hide it.

This riddle involves a play on words. “You mustn’t keep secrets” can be interpreted as “kakusanai” (not hiding). Spoken aloud, “kakusanai” sounds the same as “kakusa nai” (no disparity). In other words, from “not hiding” you get “no kakusa,” meaning a country without economic disparity (no wealth gap).

blue

This riddle is a wordplay-based puzzle. In terms of primary colors of light, “purple” is made by mixing “red” and “blue.” The phrase “image change” in the problem implies becoming more refined—in Japanese, it can be read as “remove the red.” When you take the red out of purple, what remains is blue. Therefore, the answer is “blue.” It’s a riddle that combines wordplay with the composition of colors.

xylophone

The answer to this riddle is “xylophone.” It breaks down the word suidōkan (water pipe) by sound. If you forcibly divide suidōkan as sui-do-kan, and take kan to mean “interval,” then it becomes the interval between sui (Wednesday) and do (Saturday), namely Thursday (moku) and Friday (kin). Put together, they form mokkin, which is the Japanese word for xylophone.

"Toro" and "Squid"

The answer is “toro” and “ika.” When you combine the popular sushi toppings “toro” (fatty tuna) and “ika” (squid), you get the word “toroika.” In Russian, “troika” means a three-horse carriage, but in Japanese, “toroika” also works as a wordplay sounding like “toroi ka” (“a slow mosquito”), making it the solution to a riddle about turning into a sluggish insect. This riddle shows how combining familiar words can create new meanings and fun wordplay.

classmate

This riddle is a wordplay that focuses on the sound of the phrase “living with a niece” (mei to kurasu). When you read “mei to kurasu” continuously, it sounds like “meitokurasu,” which can be rearranged to form the word “classmate” (kurasumeito). Therefore, a person who lives with their niece (“mei to kurasu”) becomes a “classmate,” making this a high-level riddle that hinges on phonetic wordplay.