Amazing Race: Muddy in Japan

This week, the teams headed off to Japan where they got their vehicles out of a vending machine, showed their non-love for the cheerleaders, ran into parked cars, stole fanny packs and played in the mud in their diapers. Fun times!

After the first leg in Australia that took two episodes to complete, the teams left the land down under to head off to Tokyo, Japan. They all took an overnight train ride to Sydney from the pit stop. Then they found their clue telling them they had to fly to Tokyo and go to a rotating parking garage that was like a big vending machine for vehicles.

Airport Fun Times

The teams found out there was a direct Qantas flight that arrived at 6:15 am, but there was also a flight on Cathay Pacific that would arrive 15 minutes earlier but it connected to Hong Kong. Some teams were worried that the connection might be risky. I don’t get the real difference of arriving 15 minutes earlier so early in the leg. Also, the other flight is on Qantas, which we learned from Rainman is the best airline.

Those that decided to go on the direct flight on Qantas were the cowboys, sisters, Ron & Christina, Gary & Mallory and the Globetrotters. Those on the Cathay Pacific flight were the goths, cheerleaders, Margie & Luke, Mel & Mike and Zev & Justin. The Globetrotters and Zev & Justin found out there was only one seat on the Cathay Pacific flight, but the Globetrotters gave it up to Zev & Justin since they had helped them out in the last leg. That seemed to be the best thing to do since the Cathay Pacific flight ended up having mechanical problems and didn’t leave the airport for over an hour after it was scheduled to depart.

On a side note, the goths wore cowboy hats to show the cowboys they weren’t the only ones to sport the look, but the cowboys never saw their craziness since they were on different planes.

Vending Machine Parking


After the Qantas flight landed first, the first group of teams went to pick up their cars in the rotating parking garage. Mallory asked if chips came with the cars and Jet wanted to get a soda pop with it too. See? It does look like a vending machine. The Globetrotters pushed the button so their car would come down. Jen stepped in and pushed her button so it made the Globetrotters car keep going around and made her car come down next to drive out. She didn’t mean to do it, but took the car since it was there! Big Easy did not fit into the tiny car. He was very crouched over the steering wheel, looking very uncomfortable. The cowboys got their car next and Ron & Christina were last to leave the parking garage with Ron driving extremely slowly.

The Cathay Pacific flight landed 1.5 hours after the Qantas flight. While Zev & Justin waited for their car, they said, “No Whammy!” The goths had much hatred for the cheerleaders immediately as all the teams knew they were fighting for last place. Everyone was trying to get their car to come down first, even though they were all planning on following Mel & Mike with the map to the next stop. While yelling at the cheerleaders for taking their car, the cheerleaders pointed out to the goths that their car had already come down on the second rotating doohickey thing so they just had to get in it and go. When the cheerleaders got in, they had difficulty driving straight since they backed out crooked and ran their side view mirror into a bar. This would be foreshadowing!

While trying to find the dojo, most of the teams thought they were lost. While Ron was driving, Christina asked him to honk so she could get the attention of a lady next to them in traffic. It was at a standstill. She told them to turn left up ahead. Christina thanked the local while Ron said they might be screwed and lost due to the ineptitude of the lady. He didn’t even know if she was right or wrong! Christina told her dad to not be rude. He apologized. Amazing! They ended up being the first team at the dojo. Did he thank the random lady? Of course not!

They found that the next clue was a road block. They had to perform a Yabusame ritual, which was to shoot a bow and arrow from a wooden horse. They had to learn a ritual and perform it. After that, they were spun on a horse and tried to hit a target.

Christina encouraged her dad to do it. Once he found out what it was, he wasn’t sure since his eyesight isn’t that great. Gary decided to do it since it said it was a 1,000 year old ritual and he was born a 1,000 years ago. Flight Time and Jen showed up and decided to do it. The guy they were watching on the horse made a noise when he shot. Jen asked Gary if they had to make the noise when they shot. Gary said yes.

Ditching the Cheerleaders

The other teams were lost on the way there except for Zev & Justin. Justin arrived and decided to do it. The cowboys were still lost on their own. They were having trouble with the street signs that were only in Japanese, but they had a map and the plan to keep heading South. Mel & Mike, Margie & Luke, the goths and cheerleaders were all caravaning together, but they were lost. They had all stopped to look over the one map among the four cars when the cheerleaders got out to see if they could ask for directions. While they were out of their car, Mike & Mel convinced the others to ditch them. So much for Margie & Luke working with the cheerleaders! They all took off so when the cheerleaders got back to their car, they found they were on their own. Oops!

Jen finished the road block first. She really enjoyed the ritual the entire time. The clue sent them to find a Kintaro Statue. Justin cruised through the task too and he was the second one done. Gary finished soon after him. That left Ron & Flight Time still working on it. While they took off the caravan arrived. Mike, Luke and Kynt decided to do it. Kynt really liked the yellow outfit he was wearing. Flight Time finally finished up so the Globetrotters were on their way. The cowboys finally arrived and Ron finished.

Running Into Parked Cars


That just left the cheerleaders to show up, but they were busy running into other cars! While one of them (I can’t tell them apart) was driving, the other said she was getting too close to the cars on one side and soon after that, she hit a parked car’s side mirror. A parked car. It wasn’t moving and she hit it. Excellent! They tried to flirt their way out of it and just give the guy some money but he wasn’t having it. He called the police to report it, which annoyed the cheerleaders to no end. They figured they were out of the race since it was taking so much time. After the police arrived, it was quickly settled and they were back on the road, but they had wasted a lot of time.

Meanwhile, the sisters got lost on the way to the statue, but Zev & Justin and Gary & Mallory found it. It was a detour clue. In the prayer for purity where they had to participate in a cleansing ritual. They had to learn a prayer that is both vocal and physical. Then they had to stand in a waterfall for one minute with water that came from Mt. Fuji. It was 45 degrees. In frog of luck, they had to strip down to a diaper type outfit and then dig around in mud for a little frog doll.  The sisters and Ron & Christina showed up soon after for the detour clue. Meanwhile, the cheerleaders arrived at the road block and were thrilled they were still in the race. The cowboys, goths and Mel & Mike finished up soon after they got there so they were once again alone.

Mud & Diapers

Zev & Justin and Gary & Mallory arrived at the frog detour and found out about the diaper outfit. The sun was starting to go down while they went out into a big mud pit. Then the other people standing it, started to throw mud as soon as they got in. It was a mess! Over at the cleaner side of things, Ron & Christina and the Globetrotters showed up at the purity task.

Justin found the frog and they got to get out of the mud. They were given the pit stop clue. Luckily, they were given a shower to clean off before they got changed into their clothes again. Gary & Mallory found the frog too. When Justin saw that, he told Zev to hurry up and get in the car. He said he didn’t have time to put on pants. Justin got in the car with his underwear and shirt on. Zev said he had to put on pants since he wasn’t wearing underwear. Justin told him that was hot. Around the time they were leaving for the pit stop, the sisters were just arriving to the mud pit saying that it was freezing outside. The last of the teams showed up at the detour clue and picked the frog task around the same time the cheerleaders finally finished the road block.

Fanny Pack Shenanigans


The Globetrotters were just ahead of Ron & Christina at the purity task and Big Easy had a hard time in the waterfall. He kept falling over in the water. Flight Time and their clue holder didn’t seem to have a problem standing up, but he did. When they were headed back up the hill to change into their clothes, Flight Time mistakenly picked up the fanny pack that Christina had brought outside with her. This caused Ron & Christina to freak out when they couldn’t find it. It had her passport and money in it. They kept looking for it outside and finally went down to change their clothes. The Globetrotters realized their mistake and left the fanny pack with Ron’s clothes. This made both Ron & Christina very angry. It seemed like an honest mistake.  Ron said it “caused consternation” and it “irked” him. He is filled with big words!

Back at the mud pit, the sisters found the frog and left around the time that the cowboys and Margie & Luke got to the frog. Cord was looking for a live frog so it was a good thing they found it quickly. The goths and Mel & Mike showed up around the time the cowboys were leaving. Vyxsin found the frog, which is good since Kynt wasn’t helping. He was just walking through the mud saying “stop it!” to the mud throwers. Kynt was thrilled that his makeup held up. He said he was cold and asked Vyxsin if she was cold. She said no since she was working hard. Margie found the frog next. Mel said his muscles were going to be sore for years as he searched for the frog and the sun went down.

Mike was really worried for his dad. It was getting really cold and he thought they were last. He kept trying to convince his dad to stop. He quit so that’s the only way that Mel finally quit too. They got some medical attention for his dad. The cheerleaders showed up. They had no idea that Mel & Mike were in an ambulance nearby. They just went at it, as if they were in last place. They found the frog and took off. Mike heard the cheerleaders got the frog, so that’s when they decided to clean off and head to the pit stop.

Pit Stop

Zev & Justin checked in with Phil for first place. They won a trip to Costa Rica. They hugged each other and then Zev realized he had just hugged Justin. When Justin tried to hug him again, he said, “Don’t touch me.”  Gary & Mallory came in second place and the Globetrotters came in third place. Ron & Christina came in fourth place, but Phil started to make up rules, asking Christina why she was so upset. She explained the fanny pack situation and said that if it was an honest mistake, they should have brought the fanny pack back up the hill to where they found it. Phil agreed and gave the Globetrotters a 30 minute penalty. Wha? So that sent Ron & Christina into third place and pushed the Globetrotters into fifth place, after the sisters had checked in.

The cowboys, goths and Margie & Luke checked in next. When the cheerleaders arrived, they thought they had been eliminated. When Phil told them they were still in the race, they said, “Shut the front door!”  Mike & Mel showed up in last place and were eliminated.

Pit stop order:

  1. Zev & Justin
  2. Gary & Mallory
  3. Globetrotters –
  4. Ron & Christina
  5. Sisters
  6. Cowboys
  7. Goths
  8. Margie & Luke
  9. Cheerleaders
  10. Mel & Mike

Questions

  1. What do you think about the random penalty for the Globetrotters? Did they deserve it? Do you think Ron & Christina would have still arrived after them to the pit stop, if the fanny pack was never touched?
  2. What do you think about Margie & Luke ditching the cheerleaders when they were lost in Tokyo?
  3. What about the cheerleaders and their driving skills?
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