Nazo, Nazo! (Riddle, Riddle!)
Monday, February 20th, 2006Learn advanced Japanese with JapanesePod101.com. Today we introduce you to Japanese riddles! This is sure to boggle your mind. Not only did we bring you a great riddle, we brought in a true pro to do the reading! You don’t want to miss this chance to get used to a type of voice you probably don’t get to hear everyday.
Answer in the comments! Good Luck!
Posted by JapanesePod101.com in Lesson Specific |
February 20th, 2006 at 7:55 am
The question: 宇宙の中で一番小さいものはなんだ？（うちゅうのなかでいちばんちいさいものはなんだ？
What is the smallest thing in the universe (うちゅう）?
As this is a riddle and a play on words…..
The Answer : The question is a play on the word うちゅう, and the smallest thing in this word is the small ゅ. So the answer is the small ゅ
A popular riddle over here!
February 20th, 2006 at 8:17 am
He he h
I love this.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Sakura-san, there you are
February 20th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Peter-san, Sakura-san,
This is great! I love it! I did understand the first speaker
I have to admit, I didn’t get the answer you were looking for, but maybe you’ll like the one I did come up with 
Mine was based on a play on the word as well… the smallest “thing” in うちゅう would be a kiss! ちゅう!
February 20th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Pii-gu-san, Sakura-san!, Nathan-san!
ok, cutest voice ever. And the kids voices were pretty cute too! haha.
I couldn’t understand it though. Very beginner here 
Nathan a kiss isn’t the smallest thing in the universe, it’s the best thing! Well.. almost the best thing..
so did i learn
uchyuu = universe
and
chyuu = kiss
today?
February 20th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
Jay-san,
Hai!
宇宙／うちゅう／uchuu = universe
ちゅう／chuu = kiss (this is colloquial)
And about the story from the other post… sure the monkey was a jerk, but boy did they take care of him! That was some vivid imagery for a children’s story! About mischievous, I think this would work:
悪戯好き／いたずらすき／itazurasuki = mischief-liking (mischievous)
February 20th, 2006 at 3:28 pm
もう 一つ! もう 一つ!!
February 21st, 2006 at 5:36 am
That was great….I only understood a little…But I hope you keep it a regular item.
Oh!and I did not get the answer
I also want to mention the monkey story was great.
February 21st, 2006 at 3:57 pm
I have to ask, where’d you hear about the monkey story? is that in Japanesepod?
February 21st, 2006 at 7:01 pm
JP-san,
I could be mistaken, but I believe he is referring to a link I gave in a different post. It is a traditional Japanese children’s story. You can read it here:
http://www.his.atr.jp/~ray/stories/sarukani.html
ピーターさん、
I tried this riddle on my 日本語の先生 today! She loved it! I was sure she would have heard it, but she hadn’t. She’s even going to use it in class on Thursday! Please give us more of this so that I can score more brownie points in class
February 22nd, 2006 at 2:15 am
Sorry.
Yes JP-san, Nathan-san is right, I was referring to the link he posted. And as for the smallest thing in the Universe….surely that’s my brain??? Hehehehehe :lol
February 22nd, 2006 at 3:37 am
February 22nd, 2006 at 7:13 am
drove me crazy! It was fun.
Question, I never figured out what the child was repeating that sounded like:
jyaga dica……..
I got hang up on that phrase.
February 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Oh My God !
That was so Kawaii !
February 22nd, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Michael-san,
While I am not completely sure of this, I am fairly certain it is 擬声語 (giseigo), or onomatopoetic words that represent sounds (as opposed to 擬態語, which represent something like a state or feeling). That said, it is basically the equivalent of asking a question and then singing the Jeapordy song. Unfortunately, I can’t find any usage of the words (or variants of what I think I’m hearing) he is using to verify this.
Hopefully someone will chime in and enlighten us!
February 22nd, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Make that Jeopardy
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:12 pm
Ok, here is the answer to your question Michael-san.
The first part of the name of the candy probably comes from “jyagaimo” potato. Im not sure about the last part, but Peter-san is currently calling the company that makes the snack to check this out.
What he says is じゃがりこ(Jyagariko), and he is imitating a commercial for a type of candy here in Japan. It doens`t have much meaning in this context, but you know kid
Jonas
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:19 pm
Our research department (Peter) just got off the phone with the company!
It seems like the “riko” part comes from the name “Rikako”. This is the name of a female friend of the person responsible for developing this candy. When she tasted the candy for the first time, it looked like she enjoyed it so much, so they made “Rikako” into “riko”, and named the snack “jyagariko”
Jonas
February 22nd, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Jonas-san, Peter-san,
Thanks so much for the information! And even calling the company - now that’s service!
Wow, I guess I was way off on that one!
Maybe I can make up for it a little bit though… I found the actual commercial! You can watch it here:
http://www.calbee.co.jp/cm/asx/jagariko_30s_300k.asx
And here’s a little bit about it (in Japanese):
http://www.calbee.co.jp/cm/main36.php
February 23rd, 2006 at 2:14 am
Odd advert…pretty woman. Nothing else to say on that
Apart from next time I pay a visit to Oriental City I will buy some Calbee.
February 23rd, 2006 at 6:42 am
Potato!! One of my attempts to solve it had jyaga as potato…
Then I went on plug it into an online dictionary I tried solving the riddle with jaguar!
I was in an alternate universe…….
February 25th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Oh, Nathan-san! That was so VERY VERY funny!! Thank you for sharing!
Back on topic, I had no idea what the answer was. I’m such a beginner!!!
February 25th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
Kristina-san,
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Japan definitely has some interesting commercials
March 1st, 2006 at 5:10 am
Okay, dumb question: in 「うちゅうのなかでいちばんちいさいものはなんだ」, I would expect に rather than で (ie 「うちゅうのなか＞に＜いちばんちいさいものはなんだ」). It seems like a simple location marker, without the sense of action I associat with で. But I’m a novice.
March 1st, 2006 at 5:30 am
He said it soooo fast!!!
March 12th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Hi Floppy,
That’s an interesting comment you made. Grammatically, what you said can work too but the meaning is different and is not what is intended in the riddle. “uchuu no naka ni,” as you said, refers to a location inside the universe. But “naka de” does not refer to a location. The phrase means “among” and refers to THINGS within or among… in other words: “among all of the things in the universe.” Another example: Kono naka de, futatsu erande kudasai. (Among these things, please choose two.)
March 31st, 2006 at 9:29 pm
I’ve got a riddle:
世界の動物の中では、どれが一番頭のいいのでしょうか。
(Of all the animals in the world, which one is the smartest?)
It’s a word-play riddle, so don’t say dolphin or anything.
–
Answer:
カバ (hippo)
Because カバ is the opposite of バカ (stupid).
–
March 31st, 2006 at 9:47 pm
If you’re interested in Japanese word-play riddles (and there are A LOT of them), then you might want to check out the following TV shows:
IQ Sapuri (meaning IQ Suppliment)
http://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/iqsupli/
and
Sarudie (meaning Monkey Wisdom, otherwise known to gaijin as “that monkey show̶
http://www.ctv.co.jp/saru/
For intermediate and advanced students of Japanese, IQ Sapuri is perhaps the greatest show of all time.
From IQ Sapuri:
犬が二匹います。一匹は「白」という白い犬で，もう一匹は「黒」という黒い犬だ。一匹はよく吠えるけど、もう一匹は名が呼ばれても静かにする。吠えない犬はどっち？
Just as a hint, as is standard for this show, you have to think about the kanji.
April 6th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Okay, maybe I missed it, but how do you give the answer in Japanese? In other words, 日本語で「ゅ」は何ですか？ How would you pronounce it?
April 7th, 2006 at 2:48 am
Gary-san; The ゅ is usually refered to as 小さい「ゆ」(Chiisai yu) in Japanese.
Jonas
April 7th, 2006 at 3:03 pm
Thanks, Jonas. That makes sense.
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:03 pm
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!! RENE’S PUZZLE IS ANSWERED HERE!
謎々が好きです!
I have always loved puzzles, and I actually watch IQ Sapuri regularly here in San Jose, CA (a local channel shows it), even though my Japanese is low-intermediate level. My favorites are the 漢字合体 (kanji construction, where they give simple kanji and ask you to combine them) and モノサプリ (puzzles involving matches, pen and paper, or other objects). Very few of the puzzles require deep knowledge of Japanese culture. If it’s too fast for you (it usually is for me), then try recording it so you can pause it and think about it more!
And now, the answer to René’s puzzle above (though I’ll bet you know it already):
「黒」. Why? 静かにする (be quiet) = 黙る (だまる, be silent). Notice the kanji combines 黒 and 犬.
また今度!
November 15th, 2006 at 5:04 pm
I got one for you, but it’s not so hard, I thought about just now.
What two animals are stupid only in Japan???