[For Seniors] Brain-training quizzes for January: Let’s have fun with New Year and winter trivia

Spring Seven Herbs Quiz

From a large variety of grasses, select the 'Seven Herbs of Spring' and complete the proper 'Seven-Herb Rice Porridge'!

Nanakusa-gayu, a rice porridge made with the seven herbs of spring, is loved as a dish that soothes the stomach after the indulgences of New Year’s.

Let’s think about what those seven herbs—iconic ingredients of January—actually are.

It’s common to memorize them in a tanka-like rhythm, so some people might be able to recite them in time with the chant.

Many of them also have alternate names—like “suzushiro,” which is another name for “daikon”—so let’s learn what each one refers to as well.

In addition, there are the seven flowers of autumn, considered a counterpart to the spring seven herbs.

It could be fun to learn about those too.

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kappamaki

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[Cake Day] What is this food?

[Daily 15-Second Activity] [January Quiz Video for Seniors] Activity for the 6th (Cake Day) supervised by a Certified Recreation Care Worker! [Question] 'What is this food?' [Answer] 'Custard cake'

This is a video quiz where the camera moves in so close that you can’t tell what you’re looking at, and then gradually pulls back to reveal the answer.

The idea is to have participants guess before the full picture is shown, with quicker correct answers earning higher points—a flow that should be easy to understand.

Even with everyday foods we normally eat, we rarely get the chance to observe their surfaces up close, so it’s surprisingly hard to have the answer pop into mind—that’s part of the fun.

Pay attention to the gap between expectation and reality, like when something seems smooth but its surface is actually unexpectedly bumpy.

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kappamaki

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Winter Vegetable Quiz

Surprisingly tricky?! Winter Vegetable Quiz ①

How will you spend the long winter break? For older adults and others, it can be hard to go far from home.

In times like these, why not try some fun games and recreational activities you can do at home? How about enjoying a “Winter Vegetable Quiz,” where you look at photos or illustrations of vegetables and guess their names? It’s enjoyable both as the quiz master and as a participant.

You can learn new names and share the knowledge you already have.

Spend your winter recreation time with this fun quiz that also gives your brain a workout.

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nikki

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Kanji quiz related to the New Year

[Kanji Quiz] 10 Kanji Reading Questions Related to New Year!

A brain-training game where you answer how to read New Year–related kanji! You don’t often see the New Year’s sacred shimenawa rope written in kanji as “注連縄,” do you? In addition to commonly written words like 初詣 (hatsumōde) and 雑煮 (zōni), let’s energize the brain by quizzing ourselves on terms we know as words but whose kanji are hard to recall, such as すごろく (sugoroku) and お屠蘇／おとそ (otoso).

If many participants are very knowledgeable and find the readings too easy, we recommend flipping it around and giving problems that convert hiragana into kanji instead!

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yuri

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Winter Flavors Kanji Quiz

[Winter Flavors Kanji Quiz] 10 Questions☆ Easy!! [Brain Training for Seniors] Please provide the readings for the following kanji.

How about a kanji quiz in January? Kanji quizzes are a classic among classics, but by choosing “winter flavors” as the theme, it becomes perfect for January! When written in kanji, words like “nishin” (herring), “oden,” and “karashina” (mustard greens) can be surprisingly hard to recognize.

Older adults might be familiar with these characters, but nowadays many of these terms are typically shown in hiragana or katakana.

You may actually know the words but find it hard to recall the kanji—there might be more of those than you think! Give it a try as some brain training and answer the quiz!

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sasashina

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