This 81-Year-Old Japanese Woman Just Released Her First iOS App

The app economy is alive and thriving, thanks almost entirely to the multitude of young and vivacious, computer-savvy developers from around the world, who’ve collectively given rise to millions of fun, useful, and practical mobile apps. While the majority of these developers, however, may be highly-skilled in the art of navigating Swift or Xcode — and though they may be younger, more ambitious and entrepreneurial constituents of the general population — today it has become clearer than ever before that it’s never too late to start learning, living your dreams, and churning out apps of your very own — regardless of how old you are.

Allow us to introduce Masako Wakamiya, a Japanese native who, at the ripe old age of 81-years-old, just released her debut app for iOS.

Just last week, the Octogenarian woman released ‘Hinadan’, which is meant to honor the ages-old Japanese tradition known as Hinamatsuri. For those unfamiliar with the event, which is known elsewhere in the world as ‘Doll’s Day’ or ‘Girl’s Day’, it is an annually held celebration in Japan — taking place on March 3rd of each year. The tradition is meant to honor the Emperor, Empress and other notable Japanese figures by displaying intricately crafted ‘hina’ on a boat, which is then sent down a river and into the sea, taking with them, according to custom, the troubles and bad spirits that roam the land.

The app is essentially a game, which was designed to help teach players the proper way of organizing their doll displays to take part in the festival. ‘Hinadan’ is a mash-up of the words ‘hina’, meaning doll, and ‘dan’, meaning tier, and is based around the concept of placing the traditional 12 dolls in their respective positions — as they would appear in the festival — on a tiered, three-by-four grid. The game is finished when all 12 dolls have been correctly placed on the grid in their respective spots.

Interestingly, Wakamiya is said to have begun using computers at the age of 60 — just 21-years ago; however, through persistence and a can-do attitude, she has clearly been able to learn much, much more about them than your typical modern granny.

By the way, creating apps isn’t the only thing she is known for. In addition, perhaps the most tech-savvy grandma on Earth runs her own blog, where she not only shares stories about her personal travels, but also teaches people how to create art using Microsoft Excel.

If you want to learn more about Masako Wakamiya, feel free to check out her eye-opening TEDx Talk below, in which she shares her thoughts about the process of aging amidst an increasingly digital landscape.

And if you want to play around with Hinadan for yourself, feel free to download the app on your iPhone or iPad by clicking this link.

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