J-Word Play #31 (Answer)

Whoops - a sparse amount of posts this month, but there's been a lot going on. I'll need to redouble my efforts.

Kudos to Cocomino for solving the last riddle, which was:

上がったり下がったりする野菜って何でしょう？

Our answer is...

かぶ (stocks, turnip)

Our December riddle asks "What vegetable goes up and down?" This one isn't so much tricky as demanding of your vocabulary skills. かぶ is the common pronunciation for both stock (as in the stock market, hence up and down) and the common turnip.

J-Word Play #30 (Answer)

I regret that I've been slow to post lately - what with the storm and a busy calendar I've been a little pressed to find the time. This weekend I'll be at a wedding in New Jersey, so I just wanted to bust out this overdue answer first.

A kudos to Cocomino (his wife this time, actually) for the correct answer.

Our riddle was:

食べると安心するケーキってなんでしょう？

(たべるとあんしんするケーキってなんでしょう？)

ホットケーキ (hot cake)

Our questions asks "What cake puts you at ease when you eat it?" Well, while「ホット」in katakana can mean "hot," it can also be written (usually in hiragana) to mean "relief" or "to be relieved" (ほっとする). Relief cakes!

J-Word Play #29 (Answer)

This one's out a little late - sorry!

Another kudos point to our riddle master, Cocomino, on this one.

夏の晴れた日に使うナビってどんなナビ？

花火 (はなび, fireworks)

This one is more straightforward than some of our recent word plays. The question asks "What kind of navigation system do you use on clear, summer days?" The trick here is that 「ナビ」 (navigation system) is also part of the reading for the word 「はなび」, "fireworks." So it's not a navigation system at all.

J-Word Play #28 (Answer)

First off, kudos to regular Cocomino for another riddle solved!

Last one was:

ナイスなスイカは、何になるでしょう？

いか (Squid)

Ok, so this one was a little tough, I think. If you change the Japanese a little, you have: 無い「す」なスイカは、何になでしょう？This riddle doesn't work in English, but in Japanese, 「すいか」is "watermelon." Figuring out what the question is asking is the main park of this one! It wants to know, "「すいか」without the 「す」becomes...what?" And in Japanese, 「いか」 is squid. So a watermelon without it's 「す」becomes a squid.

J-Word Play #27 (Answer)

Last week's riddle was:

海にもいるけど、空も泳ぐ生き物はなんでしょう？

Kudos go out to Lukas, Rufus, and Cocomino (who came up with a good alternate answer).

たこ (Octopus/kite)

Our riddle poses the question "What creature is in the sea but also swims in the sky?" The answer lies in the fact that たこ is the word for both "octopus" and "kite." Cocomino's answer was 飛び魚 (とびうお; flying fish), which I thought was a clever answer that also seems to apply.

As a side note, keep an eye out for a score chart I am going to be placing somewhere on the right side of the page to keep tally for our riddle masters.

J-Word Play #26 (Answer)

Last week's riddle was:

胡桃を逆さまにすると出てくる飲み物はなんでしょうか？

Kudos this time to Cocomino, Rene, and Vitor. I'm thinking maybe I should start a scoreboard for these...
All three of you guys mentioned how easy this one was. For those of you who didn't get the answer, here's why:

ミルク (Milk)

This riddle asks "When you turn a walnut upside down, what drink do you get?" The first time I saw one of these "upside down" riddles (can't remember which one it was), I had no idea what the answer was. The key here is spotting a Japanese riddle/language pattern. 「逆さまにする」 here means to invert or turn upside down、or to reverse. In wordplay terms, this means you need to reverse "a walnut" (literally the word 胡桃 [くるみ」). When you read it backwards, くるみ becomes みるく。ミルク. Milk.

J-Word Play #25 (Answer)

Our last J-Word Play was:

いつも何かにチャレンジしてる国はどこ？

A kudos goes out to Ollie of LinguaLift for sending in the correct answer!

朝鮮 (ちょうせん, Korea)

Our riddle asks "Where is a country that is always challenging itself?" (I think this is the smoothest translation. In Japanese people "challenge" something. In English we challenge ourselves to do something) The answer, as you might expect, is a pun. 朝鮮 （ちょうせん）means Korea; that is, the area including both North and South. The same reading with different characters gives you 挑戦 (also ちょうせん), which means to challenge or try.

J-Word Play #23 (Answer)

Last week's riddle was:

犯人に間違われた人はマンションの何階に住んでいる？
(はんにんにまちがわれたひとはマンションのなんかいにすんでいる？）

Before the answer, some kudos. We had two correct answers this time. Our winners?

First, our Riddle Master Cocomino of Life in Kawagoe. Second, Brian of Fee's List. Brian may also be a Riddle Master for all I know, but this was his first time answering, so he's gonna have to earn that title.

And now the answer.

ごかい (the fifth floor)

This riddle asks, "Which floor does the man who was mistaken for a criminal live on?" The answer is another product of some clever word play. 「ごかい」 has multiple meanings in Japanese, one of which is "5th floor" (５階). Another possible meaning is 「誤解」, which means "mistake" or "misunderstanding."

J-Word Play #20 (Answer)

Man, things are getting away from me here. It's already been a week since our last riddle?

Last week's was:

髪がいっぱいある生き物は何でしょう?

First a round of kudos to:

Cocomino's wife. Cocomino also received kudos last time, but feel free to check out his blog if you haven't yet (or even if you have). Some good stuff about life in Japan (as a Japanese, which is quite rare for an English blog).

Tokyo Five, an American living in Japan with his wife and three kids. Have a look for another cool blog for a wife variety of Japan-related content.

And now for the answer...

おおかみ (Wolf)

The riddle asks, "What creature has a lot of hair?" Ok, so we're thinking about hair words here. Yoshie answered with 毛虫 (けむし), which is a caterpillar. It combines the kanji for fur and bug, and so that's a pretty good answer, too. What we were looking for, however, was 狼 (おおかみ), wolf. This is because おお can be the reading for 多 (a lot) and 髪 (かみ) means hair. So "a lot of hair."

J-Word Play #12 (Answer)

No takers this time. Well, here's the riddle once more, and the answer:

1000枚の葉っぱがある場所はどこでしょう?

Answer

千葉(ちば)

The riddle asks what place has a thousand leaves. The answer is the Japanese prefecture Chiba, because its kanji (千葉) mean thousand and leaf, respectively.

Source: NazoNazoYama

J-Word Play #11 (Answer)

This one was a little trickier than I expected, but Joe, Yoshie, and Tokyo Five managed to pull it off. Once again:

数字だけでできている食べ物はなんでしょう？

Answer

一五(イチゴ)、八三つ(ハチミツ)、etc

This riddle asks what food is made up of only numbers. Therefore, the answer must be expressible in terms of only number kanji, which have a variety of pronunciations. 一五　(いちご) means strawberry, and can be "spelled" with the kanji for 1 and 5. 八三つ (はちみつ) means honey, and in this case is written with the kanji for 8 and the kanji for 3 (plus counter for things). There may be other possible answers out there, too.

J-Word Play #7 (Answer)

Last week's riddle read:

あるレストランの前にパロットがたくさん並んでいる。どんな料理のレストランでしょうか？

A round of kudos to Joe for giving the correct answer.

Answer

オムウレツ or オムウライス (Omelets or Omelet rice)

So the riddle says: "There's a restaurant with parrots lined up in front. What kind of restaurant is it?"

The answer here depends on connecting the word パロット (parotto; parrot) with the other Japanese word for parrot - オムウ(omuu). From there you can pun your way into either オムウレツ (omuuretsu; omelets) or オムウライス (Omu-rice).

J-Word Play #5 (Answer)

So the riddle from Monday was:

ｺｰﾗの中に隠れている生き物はなんですか?

And the answer is...

Answer

かめ (turtle)

First off, the meaning of the question. Read as it is, the riddle translates to:

"What creature is hidden inside cola?"

The solution to this one lies in the fact that コーラ, when katakana-ized like this, reads "cola." When written in hiragana, however, it is こうら(甲羅; shell). So what creatures hides inside a shell? And the answer is a turtle. I suppose anything along those lines, like hermit crabs or snails, would have been acceptable.

Unfortunately no winners this time, so no plugs.

Credit: This riddle was obtained from Nazo Nazo King.