The Amazing Race Philippines: DryedMangoez Edition 4 – Leg 11 – Japan

Introduction → Leg 1 → Leg 2 → Leg 3 → Leg 4 → Leg 5 → Leg 6 → Leg 7 → Leg 8 → Leg 9 → Leg 10 → Leg 11 → Leg 12

Leg 11: “I’m so dirty!”

It’s the penultimate Leg! Teams will be driven back to Seoul where they will secure tickets to their penultimate destination of the Race, Tokyo, Japan!

Teams can book any tickets they want, but let’s be real. They’ll be flying on one of two flights from Seoul Gimpo to Tokyo Haneda. The first flight on ANA will arrive at 9:55am while the Japan Airlines flight arrives at 10:10am.

Once in Tokyo, teams will find their brand-new 2016 Kia Sportages in the airport parking garage.

They must then drive to the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Here, teams will take the orders of a table of five customers and correctly prepare their ramen orders. Once served to the guests, teams will be given their next clue.

And that clue reveals the Detour: Prayer of Purity or Frog of Luck.

In Prayer of Purity, teams will put on keikogi and travel to the nearby woods where they will take part in a Shinto cleansing ritual. First, the will learn a prayer which consists of a chant, lighting incense and then shouting while thrusting a walking stick out in front of them. They will then stand under Yuhi Falls and endure in 45 degree water for one minute before getting the next clue.

In Frog of Luck, teams will strip down to their undergarments and put on fundoshi before walking into a mud pit to search for a toy frog in the mud while having mud thrown at them by locals. Once they find the frog, they will present it to the nearby frog master for their next clue.

After completing the Detour, teams must drive to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and find the Yabasume Dojo.

Here, teams will find the Road Block: Who wants to get on their high horse?

On this Race, there is a 5 Road Block limit for each team member.

For this Road Block, teams will dress in traditional clothes of a samurai archer and learn a Yabasume ritual through observation, consisting of a meditative form ritual before a traditional posing with the yumi bow. Then, teams will op onto a spinning wooden horse and must shoot five arrows, each with a numbered ribbon, toward five targets. Each target has a picture of a food or drink they’ve enjoyed on the Race.

They must correctly hit each target with the correct numbered arrow in order:
1. Kalua Pig > 2. Hot Dog > 3. Umu Rapa Nui > 4. Kimchi > 5. Soju

Once they’ve correctly hit all targets, they will receive their next clue.

And that clue points teams to the Pit Stop, Kotoku-in.

The first team to check-in here will win P100,000 courtesy of Shell V-Power Nitro+.

The last team to check-in WILL be eliminated.

“Director’s” Commentary

So I kinda had trouble figuring this Leg out. There are plenty of Japan Legs to recycle from other TARs as well as other fresh tasks that would be good for TARPH, but none were really penultimate Leg worthy. I feel like penultimate Legs should almost be part 1 of the finale. And I didn’t want a Tokyo Leg because… well. Spoiler alert.

Anyway, I had to settle on TAR18’s Japan 1 Leg. The Detour was alright I guess. So I had to add in the ramen Route Marker which should be an interesting location to film at.

But the highlight of this Leg has to be the Road Block. Starting with the Kuala Lumpur Leg in TARPHDME3, I think I’ll be including a semi-memory task/mini-Final Road Block task in the penultimate Legs. Should add a little more excitement to the Race for the Final Leg.