The Amazing Race: Japan

August 5, 2020 - August 6, 2020

The flight was amazing from Bangkok, Thailand, to Tokyo, Japan. The reason is because we had a good night's sleep before the flight and had some more sleep on the plane. It was a 6 hour and 15 minute flight and we arrived in Tokyo, Japan at around 3:00pm. Since this was probably one of the most exciting places we are visiting we had gotten off the plane as fast as we could and gotten our bags as fast as we could and were off. We got our first challenge which was to go to Akihabara Tech. District in Tokyo, and buy two pieces of technology for us to pass the challenge. Japan is one of the countries that is really big on technology and that kind of thing. It was an amazing city made of technology and lights. There were signs everywhere, it kind of looked like a time square in New York. They had so many shops and all were filled with different types of technology. Our challenge was to buy two things: 1) an Iphone can be any type and 2) a mini robot can be anything we find. This hadn’t been that ahrd of a challenge. We took an hour, not to get the things for the challenge, but actually because we enjoyed the mini city so much we wanted to stay and enjoy what we could with the time we had. We then got back in the car after the amazing experience at Akihabara Tech. District in Tokyo, we drove to Zojoji Temple. This temple was still in Tokyo and very beautiful and interesting. We had spent an hour there and walked around and learned about the cultural history of the place. It was an overall amazing experience that had given us more information than we had thought we’d receive. Once again it was like a sequent occupance because they had left a mark by building the temple of the culture and religion that they have in Japan. They have two main religions in Japan, Shintoism and Buddhism. They are both practiced and one had been adopted or assimilated from India where it had started. That’s correct, it’s Buddhism, that is the religion they had adopted and now practice. The next challenge on our list was the Tokyo Tower. It was very exciting for us, but a little nerve wracking as well because it was a very tall building that we were going to walk up. We paid the fee to climb to the second platform that they have which is the highest. The amount of stairs we climbed was incredible and very tiring, but it was all worth it for the view we got to see. They say that when up there we could see a 360 view of almost all of Tokyo. It was amazing and a wonderful experience that would be in our memories forever. It took us around two hours to climb up, spend an hour seeing the view and having a photoshoot, and then walking down. It had been late and we decided to go to our hotel and get as much sleep as we could so that the challenges the next day would be as great as the first day!!!!! We stayed at a hotel called Mimaru Tokyo Akasaka which was like living in a penthouse. There were so many rooms and a giant bathroom. We had more than enough space to get our rest and do what we had to do before our day of challenges and flight to Australia. The next day we woke up at around 7:30am, packed our things, checked out of the hotel, and took a taxi to Hinohara, a village around an 1 hour and 10 minutes away. It was a beautiful drive. We saw nature, and different people and places. It was amazing. We had reached the village and paid the taxi for being so kind and getting us to the village as fast and on time as he could. We met up with a native Japanese family and they had a nice breakfast meal ready for us. We were hungry!!! We were there to learn how to eat in Japan with the specific etiquettes which had been confusing and hard to learn, but we got the hang of it. We learned that slurping in Japan is a compliment to the cook telling them that the food was delicious. We had also learned that we should never stick our chopsticks in the food because it is a ritual done at funerals and is thought to cause a bad omen. We had enjoyed learning these cultural etiquettes from these truly nice Japanese people. We had spent a couple hours eating and learning and mastering the way of eating in Japan. Then with the same family we were assigned a challenge in which we were supposed to learn a poem in old Japanese or “Kanbun”. This had seemed very hard, but we had spent a wonderful hour with these people learning how to say the poem correctly. This challenge had been so hard and had taken time, but by the end of the time we had we had mastered the poem. We all recited the poem to the family one last time to get our next challenge. We said our goodbyes and thank you’s and had moved on to our next challenge. We had gotten a ride back to Tokyo, and had been dropped off in front of a restaurant called Ise Sueyoshi. We had been confused because we just ate, but we went inside. We realized it had been a challenge to test our stomachs and see if we enjoyed or didn’t enjoy a exotic 3 course meal in Japan. We ate so many weird foods like horse meat and had finished within 1 hour and 30 minutes. We had eaten and used the etiquettes we learned and thanked everyone one last time. We had left and gone to the airport for our flight to Australia. Our flight leaves at 3:45pm and we had gotten there a little earlier because we had gotten some rest time before the whole flight and Australia trip. We checked in, and relaxed at the terminal with our plane for an hour until we boarded. It was fun and exciting and we had so much fun in Japan, but were ready to enjoy our final leg of the Amazing Race in Australia!!!!!

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Akihabara Tech. District

Tokyo Tower

Research

Culture:

Japan in Japanese is actually pronounced as “Nippon” or “Nihon”. The country has around 6,900 islands, the most populated are Honshu, Hokkaido, Shikoku, and Kyushu. One of the most densely populated countries in the world.
The official language is Japanese. They have Old Japanese or “Kanbun” which is originally from China and older Japanese texts. They also speak “Kojiki” , an earlier language that mainly uses Chinese characters.
The culture was influenced by China. They have a distinct Japanese culture because they stopped contact with the outside world for a long time.
They study two main religions Shintoism and Buddhism. Shintoism is native to Japan while Buddhism was adopted from India and Hinduism. They also have a few Christians in Japan.
The largest holiday in Japan is New Year’s. They celebrate for the gods of the land and sea or what they call Matsuri. These celebrations happen everywhere and everyone celebrates.
Some sports played in Japan are sumo wrestling, judo, and karate, they also play baseball, rugby, and soccer. Sumo is Japan’s national sport and is often only seen in Japan.
A traditional family in Japan is called a “Kazoku” which consists of a mother, father, and their kids, they all live with their parents. This is becoming less and less over the years as modern ideas grow.
Japanese are primarily fish eaters. They are the #1 importer of fish in the world eating 12% of the world’s caught fish. The most famous Japanese food is sushi, but Japanese also eat beef, pork, and poultry.
Omotenashi is when Japanese people are hospitable and take care of guests. Comes from Sado or tea ceremony. They all show great hospitality in Japan.
In Japan they are big in technological use and have huge cities. Akihabara is within Tokyo which is a little street filled with lights and technology, very futuristic looking. There are many more places in Japan where they have scientific and technological things to do.
They have so many foods and drinks that they eat all the time like sake, ramen, whiskey, beer, and sushi.
They have many festivals and celebrations throughout the year like Hokkai Heso Matsuri, Aomori Nebuta Matsuri, and way more all celebrating Japan and more.
They have many different crazy historical sites and beautiful views of the world.
In Japan it is polite not to wear shoes inside someone's house and to tell when not to. They could have slippers in the front for you to put on or if the entrance is raised then most likely take your shoes off.
It is rude in Japan to eat or drink while walking because they think of it as low-class behaviour. If they buy food or drinks they stand next to the place they got it from and consume it all until they walk again.
It’s important not to stick your chopsticks in your food when not eating instead lay them next to the food. The reason is that it represents a ceremony done at funerals and can be thought of as bad omen.
Slurping is encouraged in Japan because they see it as a compliment towards the chef for great food.
It’s polite in Japan to pour drinks for everyone at the table instead of everyone for themselves.
Horse meat is commonly eaten in Japan.

Fact Sheet:

Race Destination #: 4

Country Visited: Japan

Country Shape Classification: Fragmented, and elongated

Country Development Classification: Developed country

Specific Places Within Country Visited: Tokyo, Akihabara, Zojoji temple, Tokyo Tower, and Hinohara a village in Japan.

Country Capital City: Tokyo Capital City Population: 37.39 Million

Country Government Type: Parliamentary State, Unitary State, Constitutional Monarchy.

Current Leader(s) / Party(s): Emperor Naruhito is the Chief of state, and Prime mInister Shinzo Abe is the Head of Government.

Ethnicities (% breakdown): Japanese - 98.1%, Chinese - 0.5%, Korean - 0.4%, Other - 1%

National Language(s): Japanese is the official language in Japan as well as the primary language. Some also speak the Ryukyuan language.

Religion(s) practiced (% practiced): Shintoism - 70.4%, Buddhism - 69.8%, Christianity - 1.5%, Other - 6.9%

Traditional Cuisine Descriptions: Sushi - typically raw fish wrapped with rice and seaweed, Tempura - battered and fried fish, vegetables, and more, Yakitori - bite-sized cuts of chicken on a skewer.

Traditional Dress Descriptions: Kimono - Japanese traditional wear and is dresslike, Obi - band tied around the waist when wearing traditional dresses, Furisode - The most formal type of kimono.

Famous sites of country: Shibuya Crosswalk, Arashiyama Bamboo Grove, Itsukushima Shrine, Dotonbori, Himeji Castle, Mount Fuji, Kone Port, The Hells of Beppu, Tokyo Tower, Kinkanku-ji.

Country Population (most current available): 126 Million as of 2019

Country Population (in 1900): 43.847 Million

Average Life Males: 87.07 years Females: 80.79 years

National Unemployment Rate: March 2020 is 2.5

Country Literacy Rate: 99% as of 2014

Country Murder Rate: 1.02

Crude Birth Rate: 7.31 per 1,000 population (2019) Crude Death Rate: 10.74 per 1,000 population (2019)

National Infant Mortality Rate: 1.8 deaths per 1,000 live births

FLIGHT INFO

Bangkok, Thailand to Tokyo, Japan: 6 hours 15 minutes (nonstop): $2068.20 ($689.40 x 3)

Tokyo, Japan to Sydney Australia: 14 hours 20 minutes (1 stop): $1859.10 (618.70 x 3)

TRANSPORTATION INFO