The V-League players got out of the gym and hit the sand this past weekend.

The Japan Volleyball Association and Japan Volleyball League Organization hosted a four-on-four men's beach volleyball event called the V-League Summer Festival featuring players from Japan's top circuit in Tokyo on Saturday and Sunday.

It was an experimental attempt by the hosts to promote the league, whose popularity is said to have declined in recent years, and to show the unity of the entire volleyball circle in Japan.

Despite intermittent rain showers on both days, the specially installed site at Odaiba beach was filled with enthusiastic volleyball fans, and the players went all out even though they couldn't play as well as they usually do on the hardwood floor and tripped frequently on the sand.

"We tried to desperately keep the ball alive, and I think that excited the fans," said Yusuke Ishijima of the Sakai Blazers, who ended up winning the 10-team tournament by defeating the JT Thunders in the championship match on Sunday afternoon.

"It was a different, harmonious mood out there, that we usually don't have in our indoor game," he said. "But we still wanted to win badly and realized anew how fun volleyball is."

Kentaro Asahi, a former national team player for both traditional volleyball and beach volleyball, is the de facto founder of the event who came up with the idea of having the V-League players play beach volleyball.

The 39-year-old, who competed in beach volleyball at two Olympics, was relieved that the event was a success.

"Many of the V-League players and fans were saying that it was a lot of fun," Asahi said with a smile. "I believe that it was the first time to watch a beach volleyball game for the majority of the fans, and they said they really enjoyed it. That pleased me so much."

Asahi added that he hoped volleyball officials, including himself, would help generate more volleyball fans and boost the popularity of the sport.

"We have the traditional six-man game played in the gymnasium and have this beach volleyball," Asahi said. "And putting those together, we're going to have a bigger pie overall. That's what I'm expecting and personally I want to commit to that."

Again, the two games look a lot different. But Ishijima said he has learned so much from beach volleyball and thinks it can help improve his indoor game. He insisted that he would want to keep playing the beach game as well as traditional volleyball.

In fact, Ishijima, a former Japan national team player, hinted that he could transfer to beach volleyball if that would give him a better chance to play at the Olympics, just like Asahi did (Olympic beach volleyball is a two-man game).

"I've been thinking of that for the last few years," Ishijima, 31, said of his potential transition to beach volleyball. "I would like to eventually play whichever gives me a better chance of playing at the Olympics, and the transition wouldn't be a big obstacle to me."