Fellow Dopers, I give you World Order - “World Order”. I’m sure it’s some sort of social commentary on the impersonal nature of Japanese life.
The dance routine turned out to be the more difficult task. The sake assignment had the potential for much frustration, but it turns out you only needed to get one bottle right; plus drunken samurai make everything better.
I normally hate stunt casting on The Amazing Race. I’m sure the Amazing Producers were hoping to get some epic meltdowns, but the blind dating couples seemed much stronger overall in this initial leg. I thought Hayley and Blair (doctor & nurse) were getting the losers’ edit as they had the little “first date” vignette at the airport. I rather like them so I’m glad they’re still in it.
I wonder when the show was filmed in Tokyo. Grrrr I missed it! I work a block from the site of the robot dancers challenge (Shinjuku Central Park). That was the same site of a robot building challenge a couple seasons ago.
I missed the first half because I fell asleep Damn this early AM work schedule!
But yeah, I recognized the park too I thought the sake would’ve been the more difficult of the two (i.e., the notorious “needle in a haystack” task). The dance itself wasn’t that difficult, it was the syncopation that was UNLESS you already possess inherent rhythm/timing and/or you’re already a natural dancer.
I don’t like pointing out one team over another this early. They won’t start differentiating themselves to me until maybe 3-4 episodes in.
I was also surprised there weren’t any epic meltdowns. Everybody seems to be making an effort to get along. Whether or not they actually get along, though is another story.
Got a kick out of the lawyer team making the differentiation of defining “vicinity”. It was roundabout but it left me wondering if the actual definition would dawn on the other teams.
Was anybody eliminated? I missed the last few minutes because I had to let out the dogs
The pilot and flight attendant pair were eliminated after leaving the dance task last, and then being U-turned.
I wonder if the bar at the sake task was a few hundred unique bottles, and the 10 they had learned and were scattered about, or if it was just multiple copies of the same 10.
I also thought the sake task was easier than I’d imagined. Having to bring all ten bottles in a certain order would be a nightmare. Still not easy, but a lot faster than I’d thought it would be.
I’m already sick of Phil’s, “Any sparks here yet?”, “Any chance of love?”. It seems like an awkward attempt to make TAR into something it isn’t. Although after so many seasons, I can appreciate the desire to do something different. It just seems classless when TAR has usually been above the pandering of so many other reality TV shows.
The selfie thing also got old and stupid quick. Why do we need an occasional still frame when we have video of the event?
TAR usually has more product placements than you can shake a (selfie) stick at. I’m surprised that they didn’t take every opportunity to promote the phones the Amazing Racers were using.
The detours were wildly unbalanced, with the sake task way easier than it sounded by the description. But the really strange thing was that no one switched detours. After the first hour or so of not getting it, you’d think that someone would at least try the other task, just to see.
I’m sick of the dating/blind date thing. I think I would like to see 22 people and have the teams get created from that first, pre-airport task (e.g., do a needle-in-a-haystack challenge to find a card. Wait for someone else to find the matching card. Congratulations, that’s your teammate for the race.) But the over emphasis on whether or not these people are in twu-luv is annoying, especially since some of the better, more interesting race teams have been friends.
I got really annoyed at the flight attendants being so proud of themselves for “not giving up” and “sticking with it.” They were like, Well we lost but at least we didn’t give up.
You *should *have given up! You spent 4 hours doing one task when the other one looked like it was done in minutes. Sticking with a bad decision is not a good thing.
I missed what was up with the phones, so what was up with the phones? Was it something they were given? Are they just cameras? It’s going to change things if they can be used to look things up via WiFi.
I do hope they don’t keep going on about the new “couples”, though I guess asking after the first 24 hours isn’t too bad. That’s a hell of a time to throw them together though, Asia has to be the hardest to get around in, at least in Europe and South America one can read the letters and such.
But they didn’t know the sake task was easier. If there are still teams left at the dance task, and you’re making progress - doing better and better each time you try it - it’s safer to keep with the same task. Especially when just going to the other task means navigating your way through a city where you don’t speak the language.
Is the nurse the blonde who seems to bring up her blondness at every opportunity? And then talked about being small, or petite or something like that? I’m not fond of her. Maybe it will change.
I think that’s right. Her partner is a doctor and early on, the editing made it seem like he was a bit irritated with her babbling. At least that was the vibe I got.
He’s a Navy surgeon, and he said something like the women he meets aren’t organized enough for him. So yeah, bubbly babbling blonde was getting under his nerves.
Agree with everything said. The saki task looked like it could be a nightmare. I have to say though, I’m pretty sure I could have gotten the syncing steps right after a couple tries. Some of those people were painful to watch.
The gay blind daters nipped the “are u in wuv” thing in the bud. “I’m sure we’ll be friends.”
I wonder when they were casting, did they have to break up a bunch of existing teams that applied? “Sorry, we know it’s a dream for you, but only one of you gets to go.”
I don’t think so as they all had individual recordings about how they can’t find “love”. I’m not sure so how much I like the idea of couples, but I do like the idea of just randomly putting two people together. Maybe find 22 people and do the idea above of picking partners from a challenge, or just have them put together right before the race. I still wonder if they did it with 5 teams this season just to test the waters and see how it works.
One thing: The Tuskeegee team at one point had a cabbie offer to take them where they wanted to go for ‘one hundred.’ She said, “One hundred yen? He must be out of his mind.”
Just checked, and right now, 100 yen is worth almost 84 cents US.
Damn this early AM work schedule!
I thought the sake would’ve been the more difficult of the two (i.e., the notorious “needle in a haystack” task). The dance itself wasn’t that difficult, it was the syncopation that was UNLESS you already possess inherent rhythm/timing and/or you’re already a natural dancer.