Just another day in the office as our Japanese-language staff prance about the place, jumping other things no-one else can see.

We like to think we have our finger on the pulse of Internet shenanigans, bringing you the latest in viral videos, cat photos, and epic challenges, and so here we are again with another challenge, the Invisible Box Challenge that is sweeping the net. A challenge so arduous we had to take our slippers off.

According to Twitter Moments, the craze seems to have started in America with Anderson University American football player @thecvmevp, his video proving a fine example of how it should look and something to compare to our questionably successful attempts. Then again, trying it in socks on a carpeted floor makes for a much more extreme version of the challenge. The dangers we embrace for your, and our own, entertainment.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/898554150480470016

▼ More recently, it’s also been performed by Manvel High School cheerleader @arielo1220.

https://twitter.com/arielo1220/status/936825731371241473

The idea is to hover one foot in the air as though it’s resting on an invisible box, and then keeping that foot as still as possible, launch your other foot across so that it looks as though you leapt from a box no-one else can see:

▼ Step 1: Place your foot as though on an invisible box.

▼ Step 2: Take flight! Jump off your opposite leg while keeping the hovering leg as still as possible.

▼ Step 3: Land on the leg you used to jump, keeping the raised leg as though still on the box. Throwing your arms in the air, gymnastics-style, is optional.

Put that all together and what do you get? Mixed results, that’s what. It may sound simple enough but actually managing it is trickier than you think.

With our Japanese-language reporter Seiji Nakazawa making the best stab at it in our preliminary trials, Mr. Sato decided he needed to try something different, and after an unknown amount of time practicing, and who knows what types of strange alternatives, a star was (re)born by switching the leg he used to jump.

Hopping about like loons can be hard work, but we need to do something besides diet to keep our svelte figures after eating mountainous servings of food in the name of quality journalism. Mr. Sato has thrown down the gauntlet with his effort at the Invisible Box Challenge, can you do better?

Photos: ©SoraNews24
[ Read in Japanese ]