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Hide-and-seek game to be held on snow-covered mountain in Japan seeks 100 players【Video】

Casey Baseel Feb 4, 2025
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Temperatures expected to be far below freezing at event that welcomes kids and senior citizens too.

Shakotan is a small, rural community located at the northern tip of Hokkaido Prefecture’s Shakotan Peninsula, and to say it gets chilly during the winter would be a severe understatement. The daytime high temperature are expected to get up to 1 degree Celsius (33.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on only a few days this week, and much of the town spends winter covered by a blanket of snow.

So when you hear that the Japan Hide-and-Seek Association is getting set to hold a huge hide-and-seek game in the town later this month with over 100 participants, you might be wondering how on earth Shakotan, which has only around 2,200 residents, could have an indoor athletic facility large enough to host the event. The answer, though, is that it doesn’t, and this giant hide-and-seek game is going to be played outdoors, in the snowy mountains of the JT no Mori Shakotan nature preserve.

If the name of the Japan Hide-and-Seek Association, or the concept of insane hide-and-seek venues, sounds familiar to you, you might be remembering the event the organization recently held on a deserted island. However, while the island didn’t have any modern creature comforts, that game was at least played in Nagasaki Prefecture in autumn, a part of Japan and time of year with much more hospitable weather than Hokkaido in winter.

And yet, the Japan Hide-and-Seek Association is still looking to recruit 100 participants for Hide-and-Seek in the Snow 2025. That “2025” part of the name does indeed indicate that this isn’t the first time for the organization to stage a game under these conditions, and the video below shows that snow was actively falling during last year’s gathering.

This year’s game is scheduled to take place on February 23, when temperature may be as low as -5 to -10 degrees Celsius (23 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit). The association says that participants should dress in appropriately warm attire. Anyone over the age of 6 is welcome to take part, and last year the oldest participant was 60.

There are, of course, some safety precautions put in place to account for the potential dangers of playing a game where the goal is be out of sight but not to become lost in a blizzard. For starters, all ticket-buying participants will be hiders, with the team of seekers to be made up of members of Japan’s Hide and Seek World Championships, experienced Antarctic on-site researchers, and rangers from the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Rather than remaining hidden for as long as possible, the hiders goal will be to avoid detection by the seekers while making their way back to the starting base within three minutes of the start of the game. The short run time allows for several rounds to be played, with a ticking-clock element adding tension and excitement not found in longer, slower-paced versions of hide-and-seek.

The event lasts from 12:45 p.m. to 4 p.m., with participants gathering at the local community center at noon before traveling together to the game venue. Standard tickets are priced at 3,000 yen (US$19) for adults or 1,500 yen for kids, and there are also 16 overnight package plans, priced at 15,000 yen regardless of age, which include dormitory accommodations, access to a local hot spring and sauna, and a dinner party. Tickets can be applied for online here.

Related: Hide-and-Seek in the Snow 2025 official website
Source, images: PR Times
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[ Read in Japanese ]