A very popular
party game played in
Japan mostly during
summer and outside, especially at
beaches - a trip to the beach is not complete without a round of suikawari.
The word translates quite literally as watermelon splitting ("suika" means watermelon, "wari" is a nominalized form of the verb waru, "to split").
And this is how you play it:
- The watermelon is placed on the ground
- Each player in turn is blindfolded and given a stick (often a bokken)
- He or she is disoriented by spinning.
- The player then tries to find and split the watermelon, helped (or hindered) by shouted hints from the others
- Everyone gets only a single whack at a time
- When someone finally manages to split open the melon,
everyone gets a share