After a late start, about 15 minutes, we were on our way to a amazing trip around the world once again. (This is your reminder now, if you have to rec set it for an extra hour, football always seems to run long & no matter how much I complain they wont skip Andy Rooney lol.) The starting line this year was the LA river in the middle of the city. After we meet each of the teams we see our host, Phil, looking great as ever in dark pants & a light blue button up shirt. Phil tells the teams that for the first time ever there is a challenge right off the bat & one team wont make it pass the challenge.
The first challenge is a long chain link fence with tons of licence plates, the first 11 teams to find the plates with the correct design (that was on the top of their clue but wasnt told to them) will receive a ticket to one of two flights to Tokyo. Maria & Tiffanny were the 1st team to find a plate, followed by Marcy/Ron, Meghan/Cheyne, Globetrotters, Gary/Matt, Zev/Justin, Sam/Dan, Mika/Canaan, Garrett/Jessica, Brian/Ericka, Lance/Keri in that order. That left our yoga team of Eric & Lisa the first team to be elimated of season 15. They were bummed but seemed to handle it very well. Lance & Keri the second to last team were already fighting, as I had expected.
The rest of the teams headed to the airport and were off to Tokyo to compete in a Japanese game show, Sushi Roulette. The host spun the wheel & the teams had to eat what was in front of them. What the teams wanted to stop in front of them was a wasabi bomb. The team member had to completely eat the roll in under 2 minutes. Then they were able to leave and start the second half of the task: bringing 20 audience members that matched the color of their flag to the first pitstop of the season – Konno Hacnimangu Shrine.
The 1st two that got the bombs were Ron for his team and Cheyne for his. Ron struggled a bit but both managed to get it down. Justin and Garrett got them down for their teams while Maria was not able to finish her’s in time and had to eat a 2nd one on her next turn. Big, Lance, Justin,and Cannan all complete theirs while Brian was unable to eat of of his under 2 minutes, almost puking even. Dan was up next and ate it down in 2 bites, he said he eats sushi everyday. That just left Brain & Ericka, he finally got it down & they were able to start the second half of the task and were headed to the pit stop. And they got there pretty quick, quicker than almost all the teams !Who seem to have a lot of trouble with all the people on the streets and the language difference. And one of poor Zev & Justin’s people had a broken shoe, so Justin carried her to the pit stop.
First Pit Stop Order:
1 -Meg & Chyene -for being 1st they won a trip to both Aspen & Veil
2- Zev & Justin
3 -Lance & Keri
4- Ron & Marcy
5 -Big & Flight (Globetrotters aka Herb & Nat)
6- Brian & Ericka
7- Gary & Matt
8 – Garrett & Jessica
9- Sam & Dan
10 – Mika & Cannan -were missing 1 person found her & he carried her to finish so still the 10th team.
Last – Maria & Tiffany- (aka Poker girls) lost 2 people accrued 2 hour penalty. But lucky for them is was a non-elimination leg, however they would have speed bump on the next leg (task only they have to complete).
What did you think of the this leg of the race?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
First 5 minutes and one team is gone, first pitstop and no one goes home, that sucked. Have some interesting characters this season.
I thought this was an exciting start to the season. Rarely have I gotten excited about what was going on so early in the race. Usually it takes a few episodes to ‘get into it’ with the racers…a few episodes to find my favs. Not this time around (I’m aready rooting for Zev & Justin and wish Lance & Keri would get eliminated quickly) The “stop before you go” elimination was brilliant. I hope the person that come up with that idea got a nice little raise out of it.
I totally agree Jim the stop before you go was brilliant!! The race really started with a bang and I can’t wait to see what lays ahead!!