Every riddle has four options and exactly one correct answer. After each round you will find the reasoning behind each answer, in order. If you would rather not see the answers early, solve the questions first and read the explanations afterwards. If you would rather not see the answers early, solve the questions first and read the explanations afterwards. The kanji round suits a quieter setting, while the trick questions and wordplay work well with a big, noisy group.
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Trick questions: the first answer that comes to mind is usually wrong
Trick questions, 6 riddles
At most, how many Sundays can there be in one year?
How many months of the year have 31 days?
Which of these prefectures borders the sea?
Compared with standing on two feet, what happens to the reading on a bathroom scale when you stand on one foot only?
Which of these years is NOT a leap year?
The 1st of a certain month was a Monday, and the last day of that month was also a Monday. How many days did the month have?
- Question 1: 53. A 365-day year is 52 weeks plus 1 day, and a 366-day leap year is 52 weeks plus 2 days. If a leftover day is a Sunday, that year has 53 Sundays.
- Question 2: 7 months. Only February, April, June, September and November have 30 days or fewer. The other 7 months have 31.
- Question 3: Kyoto. The north of Kyoto faces the Sea of Japan. Nara, Shiga and Gifu are inland prefectures with no coast.
- Question 4: It stays the same. A scale measures the total weight you put on it. Even if it all rests on one foot, the total is the same, so the reading does not change.
- Question 5: 1900. A leap year is divisible by 4, except years divisible by 100, which are leap years only if also divisible by 400. So 2000 is a leap year and 1900 is not.
- Question 6: 29. If the first and last days fall on the same weekday, the number of days is a multiple of 7 plus 1. Within 28 to 31 only 29 fits, which is February in a leap year.
Wordplay for adults: reversals, anagrams and homophones: reversals, anagrams and homophones
Wordplay, 6 riddles
Which verb can follow all of these (with を): go (the board game), an injection, soba noodles, a nod of agreement, a heart? (碁・注射・そば・相づち・心)
Read backwards, which vegetable becomes the word for someone who works under you at the office?
Remove one kana from さかなや (sakanaya, a fish shop) and you get a shop that sells sake. Which kana do you remove?
Remove every ん from the name of one of these vegetables and you get the word for the seven-colored arc in the sky after rain. Which vegetable?
Rearrange its kana to spell いかす (ikasu, "to put to good use"). Which food is it?
Which word is pronounced "kanpai" and means losing completely?
- Question 1: うつ (utsu). 碁を打つ (play go), 注射を打つ (give a shot), そばを打つ (make soba by hand), 相づちを打つ (nod along), 心を打つ (move someone's heart). All use 打つ (utsu).
- Question 2: かぶ (turnip). かぶ (kabu) backwards is ぶか (buka, 部下, a subordinate). ねぎ becomes ぎね, and だいこん and にんじん make no real word when reversed.
- Question 3: な (na). Without な you get さかや (sakaya), a liquor shop. Removing any other kana gives かなや, さなや or さかな, none of which is a sake shop.
- Question 4: にんじん (carrot). Take both ん out of にんじん (ninjin) and you get にじ (niji, a rainbow). れんこん becomes れこ, ほうれんそう becomes ほうれそう, and ごぼう has no ん.
- Question 5: すいか (suika, watermelon). Rearrange す・い・か and you get い・か・す. The other three cannot be rearranged into いかす.
- Question 6: 完敗 (a total defeat). 完敗 (kanpai) means a complete defeat and sounds exactly like 乾杯, a toast. 完売 is read kanbai and 完食 kanshoku.
Kanji riddles: shapes, parts and readings
Kanji riddles, 6 riddles
Put 音 (sound) inside 門 (gate) and you get a kanji for a place with no light where nothing can be seen. Which one?
Which kanji contains the shape 口 four times?
How is 強ち read in the phrase 強ち間違いではない ("not necessarily wrong")?
Subtract 一 from 百 (hundred) and you get another kanji. Which celebration of long life uses that kanji?
焚 is 火 (fire) under 林 (woods) and means to burn wood. Which is its kun reading?
Which of these kanji has the radical りっしんべん, the heart (心) stood upright?
- Question 1: 闇. 音 inside 門 gives 闇, read yami (darkness). 閉 has 才 inside the gate, 間 has 日, and 開 has 幵.
- Question 2: 器. 器 has four 口 around the 大 in the middle. 品 has three, 呂 has two and 哲 has one.
- Question 3: あながち (anagachi). 強ち is read あながち and means "not necessarily" or "not altogether". たちまち, すなわち and まちまち are written with other kanji.
- Question 4: 白寿 (hakuju). 百 minus 一 is 白, one short of a hundred, so 白寿 marks the 99th birthday. 還暦 is the 60th, 古希 the 70th and 傘寿 the 80th.
- Question 5: たく (taku). The kun reading of 焚 is たく, as in 焚き火 (campfire) or お風呂を焚く (heat the bath). あぶる is written 炙, こがす 焦, and さます 冷 or 覚.
- Question 6: 情. All four share 青 as a part, but only 情 has the heart radical. 清 has the water radical, 晴 the sun radical and 精 the rice radical.
Lateral thinking riddles
Lateral thinking, 6 riddles
At an izakaya, what arrives at your table without you ordering it, and still shows up on the bill?
On ambulances in cities such as Nagoya and Yokohama, the word 救急 (emergency) is printed in mirror image on the front. What is the main reason?
On a hot day, in a closed room with no air conditioning, you leave the refrigerator door open for several hours. What happens to the room temperature?
You can heat water over a flame in a paper cup without the cup burning at once. Why?
Place one 10-yen coin on a table. How many other identical coins can you lay flat around it, without stacking, so that each one touches the center coin?
In a heated room in winter, on which side of the window pane do water droplets (condensation) form?
- Question 1: お通し (otooshi). お通し is a small dish served before the dishes you ordered, and it is normally charged like a table fee. The towel, water and chopsticks are usually free.
- Question 2: So it reads correctly in a rear-view mirror. A rear-view mirror flips what is behind the car left to right, so mirror-image letters read correctly in it.
- Question 3: It rises a little. A fridge pumps heat out into the room. With the door open, the electricity it uses keeps adding heat, so the room slowly warms up.
- Question 4: The water draws the heat away. Water soaks up the heat and boils, and it cannot get above 100 degrees Celsius. The paper touching it never reaches the temperature at which it would catch fire.
- Question 5: 6. Joining the centers of the middle coin and two neighboring coins makes an equilateral triangle, with a 60 degree corner. Six of them fill the 360 degrees exactly.
- Question 6: Inside. Warm, humid room air touches the glass, which the cold outside has chilled, and turns into droplets. If a window chilled by air conditioning meets humid outdoor air, droplets can also form on the outside.
Number and logic riddles
Numbers and logic, 6 riddles
If today is Wednesday, what day of the week is it 100 days from now?
At every station, half of the people on a train get off and nobody gets on. After the third station, 5 people are left. How many were on the train at the start?
Each of the 5 fingers of one hand is either raised or bent. How many different hand shapes are there in total?
A, B, C and D ran a race with no ties. B finished right after D. D was not second. A was not last. C finished ahead of A. Who came first?
A, B and C are each either an honest person who only tells the truth or a liar who only lies. A says "C is honest", B says "A is a liar", and C says "Exactly one of A and B is honest". Who is honest?
A knockout tournament with no draws has 32 teams. How many matches are played in total before the champion is decided?
- Question 1: Friday. 100 days is 14 weeks and 2 days. After 14 weeks it is Wednesday again, and 2 days later is Friday.
- Question 2: 40. The 5 left are what remains after the third halving. Going back: 10, 20, 40. So there were 40 at the start.
- Question 3: 32. Each finger has 2 states, so 5 fingers give 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 32 shapes. The fully bent fist counts as one.
- Question 4: C. B is right behind D and D is not second, so D and B are 1st and 2nd, or 3rd and 4th. If 1st and 2nd, then A and C take 3rd and 4th; A is not last, so A is 3rd and C is 4th, which breaks 'C ahead of A'. So D and B are 3rd and 4th, C is 1st and A is 2nd.
- Question 5: A and C. If C is honest, A's claim is true so A is honest; then A is the only honest one among A and B, which matches C, and B lies. If C lies, A lies too and B is honest, which makes C's statement true, a contradiction.
- Question 6: 31. Each match eliminates exactly one team. All 31 teams other than the champion lose once, so there are 31 matches.
Tips for parties, year-end gatherings and team events
- Start with the trick-question round. Everyone gets caught at least once, which loosens up the room.
- For the number and logic round, ban calculators and phone searches and allow paper and pen only. A 30-second huddle with your neighbor makes the whole table buzz quietly.
- After revealing each answer, always read out the reason. The fun of a riddle is less the moment of being right than the moment of seeing why.
- Pick one person per table to answer on their phone. Discussion turns into team play, and people from different departments end up working together.
- Serving all thirty questions at once runs too long. A round of six takes about ten minutes, so choose two or three rounds to fit the evening.
- When people are drinking, put short riddles that are easy to read aloud first. Latecomers can join midway by entering the PIN.
- Prizes can be small. People remember laughing about "that one was unfair" longer than they remember the ranking.
How are hard riddles for adults different from children's riddles?
What is the hardest riddle in the world?
How many questions suit a party or a team event?
How many people can play?
Can I make my own riddle quiz?
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