Has anyone else discovered these yet?

漢字道 is the one I buy from time to time, but there are a whole bunch of them.
They're published bimonthly and despite their cutesy appearance, contain some pretty tough puzzles.
The most common puzzle type is ナンクロ, a puzzle that looks like a crossword but doesn't have clues like a regular crossword. Kanji are scattered throughout the puzzle and empty squares have numbers in them.

So the end of a 4-character horizontal word
針[5]棒[3]
might intersect with the beginning of a 3-character word
[3]八車

and the goal is to figure out what [5] and [3] have to be so both are actual words. And once you figure that out, you know what all the other 5s and 3s on the board are.
Sounds tough, but entirely doable with the help of a program like JWPce, and it's a great way to learn.

I recommend any kanji learner to pick one up sometime.

Sound interesting, will check it out the next time I'm in the bookstore. What section of the store do you think they keep these in?

JimmySeal Wrote:Sounds tough, but entirely doable with the help of a program like JWPce

Wouldn't using software defeat the point of the puzzle?

suffah Wrote:Sound interesting, will check it out the next time I'm in the bookstore. What section of the store do you think they keep these in?

Almost surely in the magazine section, and as I said there are a bunch of different titles. There are two very small bookstores near me and both have several to choose from. I'd imagine if you asked for 漢字のパズルの雑誌, they'd point you in the right direction.
Then again, if you're in LA, you might have a bit more trouble, though they'd probably have it in a Japanese bookstore.

Quote:Wouldn't using software defeat the point of the puzzle?

Not entirely. It's easy for lines like the examples I provided, but if you've only got one kanji out of 4, or out of 2 or 3, you've got to do some juggling and process of elimination. Plus you're learning compounds just by looking them up if you pay attention, and some do pop up repeatedly.
And there are other puzzle types that are much more challenging, even with dictionary help.
Of course, that's not the way the puzzles are intended and it's ideal to do what you can on your own, but most of it would require a native-level vocabulary (漢検準2級 and upwards).

[ファブリス]

There is also a Kanji Puzzle Game on the Nintendo DS:

http://www.hudson.co.jp/puzzle/kanji/

There's a cool video on the about page.

Does anyone know of any websites with free online Kanji puzzles? You'd think with the gazillion Sudoku websites that there would be some for these types of Kanji puzzles as well.

Here's one:

http://homepage2.nifty.com/warai_kamosik...index.html