Four members of Japan’s men’s national volleyball team, including Takahashi Ran (高橋藍), will take on 1,000 students from Hamamatsu Shugakusha Junior and Senior High School in Shizuoka in a game of hide-and-seek. Making their first appearance in the program’s public event, the players will hide in extremely difficult locations prepared by the program’s art team, with all of them aiming to remain hidden until the end.
The 1,000 students of Hamamatsu Shugakusha Junior and Senior High School in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, faced Japan’s men’s national volleyball team members Takahashi Ran (高橋藍), Onodera Taishi (小野寺太志), Takahashi Kentaro (髙橋健太郎) and Otsuka Tatsunori (大塚達宣) in a midsummer school hide-and-seek special on Fuji TV’s variety show “Atarashii Kagi.” To showcase the national team’s serious approach to hide-and-seek, the program showed the construction of hiding places and a strategy meeting by the hiding team.
The players worked on creating hiding places that would take advantage of their differences in body size and eye level, while the hiding team revealed that it had prepared highly challenging locations described as “extremely difficult.” Takahashi Ran (高橋藍) said, “I came here intending to become the world’s best at hide-and-seek,” while Onodera Taishi (小野寺太志) showed his fighting spirit with the joke, “I don’t think they’ll find me, so I’ll try not to fall asleep.” Otsuka Tatsunori (大塚達宣) declared, “I’ll definitely stay hidden until the end.”
A showdown featuring the biggest guest lineup in the program’s history unfolded amid huge cheers from the students. The hiding team struggled with how to conceal the 4 tall players, then expressed confidence after the hiding places were revealed, saying, “They won’t find us” and “It looks like we can stay hidden until the end.” Takahashi Ran (高橋藍) described his own hiding place as “extremely difficult,” building anticipation among viewers. The article does not mention the result of the contest, leaving the outcome to be seen in the program’s future developments.