By David Bodycombe

In Japanese, hitori roughly translates to 'leave me alone', and you'll
understand why when you pick up the rules to this puzzle.

To complete the puzzle, every row and column must not contain the same digit
twice. You'll notice in In Japanese, hitori roughly translates to 'leave me alone', and you'll
understand why when you pick up the rules to this puzzle.

To complete the puzzle, every row and column must not contain the same digit
twice. You'll notice in the example given here that there are repeated
numbers, so it's your job to shade out just enough numbers to satisfy the
master rule.

However, there are a couple of twists. First, shaded squares cannot touch
sides. Therefore, if you shade in a square, you know that the square above,
below, left and right cannot also be shaded. In addition, the completed
puzzle must consist of only one chain of unshaded squares. That is, all the
white squares must stay together as a group; don't cut them into two or more
unconnected islands.