The Amazing Race 01/06/08 - ""I Just Hope He Doesn't Croak on Us"

Cafe Society
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[QUOTE}

Possible spoiler question for anyone else:

The “info” key on my DVR brings up an episode summary like the following:

The Amazing Race - Ronald Hsu, Christina Hsu. Teams go to Japan and complete tasks to win the race.

Every week since I’ve been looking at it (the last 4 weeks at least), it’s listed Ron and Christina’s names – and no one else. It’s not giving away the ending, is it?

[/QUOTE]

Well I know that it used to show

Kynt’s name too

I distinctively remember that. I can’t remember what I’ve noticed on other seasons, but I have always wondered about it. Oh wait, on all-star season I do remember either Oswald or Danny being on there.

If you want to talk about big spoilers, and I’ll spoiler box this for anyone who hasn’t seen the seasons that you can buy/rent on DVD:

my mom and I noticed that each DVD has three episodes and the menu shows three teams – guess which ones! I can’t remember now if it was both seasons or only one, but I got pretty bummed when I noticed it.

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That’s really lousy DVD programming and planning. Unfortunately, it’s not unique. The Babylon 5 season 2 discs have Delenn with the hair on the group shot in the menu, even on the first disc (her big reveal isn’t until the 2nd episode of Season 2).

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Well. That was one of the more boring legs of the race. In between all the driving around, we get…more driving around! And smelling things! (Although I’m sad we weren’t treated to more shots of Rachel’s professional expertise in the area.) I suppose there was the manufactured suspense of is-it-or-isn’t-it a non-elimination leg, but if that’s the most exciting part of the leg, then…

Taxi Assessment

Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Ari & Staella and Kate & Pat and Marianna & Julia and Lorena & Jason and Shana & Jennifer and Azaria & Hendekea and Kynt & Vyxsin - Watching from the sidelines.

Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Rachel & TK (down from “Passing”) - Huge mistake not double-checking their flight once they got to the airport. That’s pretty much all you can say about this team for this episode, since they were so far out of it that any other mistakes they made or didn’t make were essentially meaningless (and weren’y shown in any case). And now they’re three hours behind, plus need to perform an extra task next episode. Since the last Speed Bump leg had no bunching points, I presume that the next one likely won’t either, which puts Rachel & TK in a bad position.

Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Nicolas & Donald (holding steady) - Heh heh. “Nick’s my bitch.” Interesting family dynamic there. Anyway, still a step behind the rest of the teams. Their only first has been on a Fast Forward, and other than that they’ve only beaten Jennifer & Nathan once. Not a promising statistic. This tream was pretty consistently behind everyone else this week, and I don’t see how they could possibly win it all.

"Rapido! Por Favor?" - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Ronald & Christina (holding steady) - Ah, yes. A very special episode of the Amazing Race, where Ron doesn’t yell at Christina even once. Or, at least, not very much, which is sort of the same thing. Essentially. What a heartwarming achievement. Any bets on whether he’s learned his lesson?

In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Jennifer & Nathan (up from "Rapido!) - This is the team that would probably benefit most from TK and Rachel’s elimination. They were almost in first today, but had cab problems again–and what’s up with that? This team seem to have cab problems in every episode. Do cabbies just instinctively avoid Jenn or something? They still haven’t won a leg, but let me just say this: the Amazing Editors sure have made a point of including Jenn’s every complaint about not…quite…getting first place. Wouldn’t it be Amazing if a team won the million dollars without ever winning a previous leg? Yeah, I thought so, too.

Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
No one this week.

Next week: The very last elimination! For sure this time!

[sub]Props to Mullinator and his Raj Ratings.[/sub]

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I was very little when I spoke Japanese, but I picked up on that. When I was a kid my dad would tell me ‘Hayaku kudasai!’

OT: Is ‘to wait’ mate, or matte?

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I was very irritated to discover that last week–when I was not watching tv for obvious reasons (visiting with relatives)–they aired a new episode. It never occurred to me that they might do that, until I watched last night’s episode. I was irked. Mostly at myself–for not thinking of it, but a little bit at whoever didn’t decide to make last week a clip episode. (or show something else entirely).

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Huh? I’m not sure what the question is.

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Sorry, that was to Seige (or another Japanese speaker). ‘To wait’ is pronounced ‘ma-te’, as in ‘Chotto “ma-te” kudasai.’ Just wondering if the romaji spelling has one t or two.

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Ok, gotcha.

Was anybody (non-Japanese speaking ;)) cracking up over “arigato” and the robots?

“Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto” - hee!

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I’m not sure if you’re whooshing here. There isn’t any obvious reason to me for not showing an original episode on December 30th. Anyhow, I think that since they already skipped a week for the Survivor finale (and I was irked at that, because I was travelling for work and had a hotel room to myself and no kids to to bed and could have watched it in peace…), they probably didn’t want any other interruptions to the schedule.

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lorene,

There probably isn’t a good reason why they shouldn’t have aired a new episode last week. Although, it seems to me that a few years ago, they did have a TBC episode the week before Christmas and a clip show the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Of course, given the way that Christmas and New Year’s rotate through the days of the week, assuming a precedent be dangerous.

Mostly, though, I’m irritated with myself, because with a little bit of effort, I could have been better prepared to see a little bit of last week, followed by new events in new places. Instead, I never thought about it before leaving home, never gave it a thought last Sunday–and was surprised and thus displeased to see that I’d missed a new episode.

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I too am starting to like Nicholas and Donald more, although that poor kid is the team, and I wouldn’t mind if they won the Race. I’m still rooting for TK and Rachel, and really hope that they can come back on the next leg and be viable competitors. They had the perfect attitude while completing their tasks in Osaka; even with the thought that they were done for, they still did everything they were supposed to, with what seemed to be to be joy and appreciation. My fingers are crossed for them.

The less said about Nate and Jen the better. I will grant that they managed to run a decent leg, but the whinging and the screeching are just too much for me. And he so did not shove her into the cab.

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They are so delightfully Zen, aren’t they?

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That’s what I thought, my Mom thought they couldn’t even do that.

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Huh. My wife, who doesn’t speak a lick of Japanese, said, “doesn’t ‘ichiban’ mean something else?” Not sure where she got that impression, but obviously she was right.

Does “number one” and “number two” mean the same things idiomatically in Japanese as they do in English? Because that would be funny.

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As bad as Rachel & TK’s position is, they still have a chance. All they need is another detour where Nick has to find his way to someplace then back again without Don. He may be a great pilot in the air, but on the ground his navigational skills suck. And Nate and Jen are just a meltdown away from sequesterville.

Somebody wrote here that the further behind Jen & Nate get, the worse they work together. If they were in front, maybe they would do well? Nope. Even in the lead, a little bit of adversity and it is time for yelling. Yeah, they should stay together after the Race. :rolleyes:

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I’m pretty sure the previews showed Rachel and TK in the airport with everybody else.

I’ll black that out although it was shown last night, because it applies to next week’s episode.

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I would think that many Japanese taxi drivers who have had non-native speakers as passengers would be able to understand that “ichiban hayai” meant “fastest, quickest or earliest.” “Dekiru dake hayakute, onegaishimasu” would be quite a mouthful to say even for a beginner Japanese speaker.

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Speaking of talking Japanese, I have to thank the editors for not going the sleezy route for once. When Grampa said something said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Christina did speak Japanese. They left in his follow up that he thought that way because she went to high-falootin Princeton. They could have easily left that off, giving the false impression that he thought “all them Asians are the same” or something.

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As long as we’re discussing amateur Japanese translation (and I, too, picked up on ichiban = number 1)…didja notice that the Japanese for “got it” (when the cabbie was asking for directions) is…“ah so”? Just like in bad WWII movies?

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Ichiban basically means ‘the best’. (‘The first’, ‘Numero Uno’, etc.)