[For Adults] A Collection of Recreation and Game Ideas to Liven Up Hanami (Cherry Blossom Viewing)
With the warm spring weather, many of you are probably planning hanami cherry-blossom outings.
Simply eating and drinking while admiring the sakura is fun, but since you’re at it, wouldn’t it be great to include some group activities that really liven things up? There are actually plenty of games perfect for hanami—friendly competitions that adults can enjoy, as well as activities that bring out your inner child.
In this article, we’ve gathered a wide range of recreation ideas to make adult hanami even more enjoyable.
Try them out and get closer with your friends!
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[For Adults] A Collection of Recreation and Game Ideas to Liven Up Cherry-Blossom Viewing (31–40)
Tag (or Tag, holding hands)
In a regular game of tag, the person who gets touched by “it” switches places, but in this hand-holding tag, everyone who gets touched becomes “it.” Captured kids hold hands with the taggers and chase the remaining runners together.
As the number of taggers grows, the area you can move in gets smaller and it becomes harder to escape, but the taggers can’t turn quickly and move more sluggishly, so try to catch them off guard and survive until time runs out.
For this game, it’s recommended to set a rough play area in advance.
Taggers should be careful to avoid injuries.
Ice tag
In Freeze Tag, when the tagger touches a player, that player can’t move.
However, if a teammate touches them, they can move again and keep running.
The game ends when the tagger has caught all the players.
It’s also fun to set a time limit or define an area where players can run.
If you’re tagged, crouch so it’s clear you’re frozen and wait for a teammate to free you.
Since it’s hard for one person to catch everyone, set multiple taggers.
It’s a game where teamwork is the key to winning.
High Tag
Let me introduce “Taka-oni,” a tag game where you can’t be tagged when you’re in a high place.
The basic rule is that one chaser (the “oni”) pursues the others (“children”), and whoever is tagged becomes the new oni.
In Taka-oni, there’s an added rule: if a child escapes to a high place, they can’t be tagged.
However, being up high doesn’t make you safe forever—each child can stay in the same spot for only 10 seconds.
After 10 seconds, the oni is allowed to tag them, so the child should run away or move to another high place.
Rhythm 4 Game
This is a game that became popular from the variety show “Let’s Go to School,” which V6 used to appear on, and has since become a staple party game.
It’s commonly known as “Rhythm 4 Game” or “Minorika Rhythm 4.” To make it easier to keep the beat, participants shorten their names or nicknames to two syllables.
The flow is: someone calls a name and says a number; the person called then says their own name that many times; then it passes to the next person, continuing in rhythm.
You can also mix in other words or optional rules to increase the difficulty, making it an even more fun game.
Impromptu Guess-the-Character Game
It’s a game where you improvise and guess a person’s name from given hints.
You create a parody song that includes a celebrity’s signature phrases, traits, or gags, and the respondent has to guess who it is.
Since everyone participates improvisationally, unexpected mishaps and unique turns of phrase can pop up.
The key is to sing rhythmically in time with the music.
Besides celebrities, movie or TV drama characters also make great prompts.
Try adding this no-props-needed, high-energy game to your cherry-blossom-viewing gathering.
[For Adults] A Collection of Recreation and Game Ideas to Liven Up Hanami (41–50)
Who am I? game
As the prompt ‘Who am I?’ suggests, this is a game where you ask lots of questions to figure out who or what that ‘I’ is.
The great thing about this game is that you don’t need any props at all.
You can even throw in a few tricky questions—use your creativity to liven up the atmosphere!
Prisoner’s Dilemma
Are you familiar with the game theory concept called the Prisoner’s Dilemma? Imagine two prisoners: if both confess, they both receive a sentence; if one confesses, that person gets a lighter sentence while the other gets a heavier one; if both stay silent, it’s treated as insufficient evidence.
This forms the basis of the game.
Two people team up to answer questions, and the way they answer changes the score.
In a normal game, coordinating means you win—but this one is a psychological battle.
You have to answer while considering what the other person will do.
It’s a bit tricky, but it really gets exciting.