"What do you have new this year, Maki?," many visitors asked. Godfather of Sudoku joined the Cherry Blossom Festival at Brooklyn Botanic Garden on April 26th and 27th. It has been four consecutive years since Maki started sharing the dynamics of Nikoli puzzles. Maki was greeted with many familiar faces.

Nikoli presented its original "find errors" picture puzzles to the visitors. On a two-feet-wide picture puzzle, children and adults raced to find errors comparing two pictures. Another popular activity at the event was Edoku, a picture version of Sudoku, created by Osami Okamoto. Osami presented the ipad version of Edoku where you can solve Sudoku by drawing Sushi pictures and animals. Many children found so much joy drawing pictures while solving Sudoku. "I don't like numbers, so this picture Sudoku is perfect for me," one teenager said. A number of parents requested to receive online book sale and ipad application information in the future. “This would be such a fun way for children to learn logic without knowing it!,” a parent said.

The third Sudoku Championship was held in Kuala Lumpur, the Capital of Malaysia on December 1-2, 2012. It was organized by Malaysia Sudoku Society. Nikoli provided the prize as a sponsoring company.

The tournament was divided into three categories of student, senior citizen and open. Ten winners from each category competed at the final tournament.

More than 300 people registered for the competition. It was held at a shopping mall complex in the suburb, and a large number of crowds joined as spectators and shared the excitement. This year, attractive prizes from eight sponsors ranged from gift certificates to air conditioner and washing machine. McDonalds gave away free coffee coupons to all the participants.

Nikoli's 150 puzzle books were sold out in two hours. Maki was busy signing the autograph. "It is great to meet the Sudoku fans in Malaysia. I had a great time even though I had no time for smoking," he said.

More Championship photos

Brazil is no exception for Sudoku craze, and Nikkey Shimbun Press hosted the first Sudoku tournament in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Sep. 29th, 2012. The youngest contestant was four years old, and the oldest was 86 years old. Even a pregrant woman who was due on the tournament day joined the event. Sixty enthusiastic Sudoku fans shared excitement and joy one another.

Maki was invited as a guest speaker and gave a talk on the history of Sudoku and the technique on solving them. The Nikkey Press plans to host the second tournament next year on the same day.