Japanese Numbers Puzzles

Japanese number puzzles are amazing. I learned about one when my mom got hooked on it, then I learned about two more when I ran into the game Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water's Edge. And I completely fell in love with one of them. Let's do a count-off, shall we?

Renograms. This is the one with which I am the least familiar. There is a sheet of squares - some with numbers in them, most blank. The player's job is to connect the smallest number to the greatest number in an unbroken chain of numbers - in numerical order, too, of course. ;D If I were to ever try playing this on my own, it would probably be boring and addicting at the same time. But then again, I've never played it myself, so I don't know.

Sudoku. This is probably the most popular of the three. You have squares within squares: one big square broken into nine smaller squares, each of which have nine more squares. Just like with renograms, some squares are filled but most are empty. In Sudoku, the player has to fill each middle-sized square with the numbers 1-9, but there's more! In each row, and in each column, the player also has to have the numbers 1-9. No repetitions in any of those three regards. I personally found this a bit too challenging to be fun, but my mother and grandmother both love it.

Nonograms. Now we get to my personal favorite! This one also deals with multiple squares, but unlike the other two, this one isn't usually partially filled in when the player gets ahold of it. And instead of numbers going in the squares, there are numbers on the left of each row and at the top of each column. The player's goal is to fill in the squares (just completely darken them out) according to the series of numbers. It's sort of complicated to explain, but once you figure out the basics, it flows more smoothly - and you often get a fun picture in the end! Depending on the level of difficulty, the puzzle can be as small as 5x5 squares, 10x10, 15x15, or however big you want it. I learned by mastering the 5x5's, then moving up to 10x10's, and so on. Now I can do stuff like 40x35 and whatnot.

The best part about each one of these puzzles? They're Japanese, but anyone can learn how to do it! Are numbers universal or something? So far in my experience, it looks that way. I mean, English, Spanish, and French all do the same 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,... Even if we call it something different (one, uno, un), it's still the same 1.

Anyways. Japanese number puzzles. Purely amazing.

My recommendation: Try out at least one puzzle, preferably one of each (though I can't push that one too hard since I have yet to try renograms), and see if any of them catch your fancy. ;)