Games From The Grave - Hitori Kakurenbo

Also known as 'Hide and Seek Alone', this game dates back to Japanese horror bulletin boards from roughly 2006/2007. It immediately became popular and was copied and pasted all across the internet, however, an English translation didn't appear until 2008. 

To play, you will need: 

• One player 

• One stuffed doll with limbs 

• A sack of uncooked rice 

• Nail clippers 

• A needle 

• Red Thread 

• A sharp blade (e.g. a knife or scissors) 

• A bathtub 

• A cup of salt water 

• A TV 

• A hiding place 

• Incense or ofuda 

To prepare for the game, you need to cut open the doll and replace its stuffing with the uncooked rice. Clip off a bit of your fingernail and put this inside the doll as well. Then sew the doll back up using the red thread. Rather than snipping the end of the thread here, continue to tie it around the body of the doll until you run out of length, before tying it off.  
Fill your bathtub with water and begin to cleanse the room you intend to hide in with the incense or ofuda. Once this is done, set up the TV in the same room. Then place the cup of salt water and the sharp object inside your hiding place. Finally, name your doll. Now you can begin. 

Beginning at exactly 3am, you must repeat the phrase "[your name] is the first it" three times, inserting your own name as appropriate. Then, go to the bathroom and submerge the doll in the water and leave it there. Then turn off all of the lights in your house, go to your hiding place and switch on the TV (some say it must be playing only static). Close your eyes and count to ten.  

When you finish counting, open your eyes, collect your sharp object and go back to the bathroom. Remove the doll from the water and repeat the following phrase, inserting the doll's name as appropriate: "I have found you [doll's name]", before using the sharp object to cut the thread binding the doll. 

Then say the following: "you are the it next [doll's name]", before returning the doll to the bathtub. Quickly return to your hiding place and stay as quiet as possible. 

From here, take a large mouthful of the salt water but do not swallow it. Pick up the cup with the rest of the salt water in it and begin searching for the doll. It is important to note that it may not be in the bathroom where you left it. Once you find it, pour the rest of the salt water over it before spitting the water in  your mouth over it too. Repeat the phrase "I win" three times. Once this is done and the game is over, allow the doll to dry before burning and discarding it. 

The rice inside the doll is meant to represent its internal organs while the red thread is a blood vessel. Cutting it sets the spirit you have summoned free. Do not give the doll your own name or the name of somebody that you know – it is unknown why. 

The purpose of the TV is to help alert you to any unwelcome visitors. Therefore, if it begins acting abnormally in any way at all, do not leave your hiding place without the salt water in your mouth. You must not let the game carry on for any longer than two hours. That being said, you must play the game to completion. You cannot, under any circumstances, abandon it half way through.