RACE ACROSS THE WORLD 2024

[TokyoSushi]

Just seen my first advert that it's back!!!! Japan to Indonesia starting 10th April, brilliant, my absolute favourite!

This interview with lovely Monique (daughter of Saint Ladi) fills in some of the logistics.
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/entertainment/a60430169/race-across-the-world-what-its-like-to-take-part/
I knew most of it already but it had never occurred to me that of course the teams swap books at the check points. That's very clever because there's no way you could pack enough books for the whole trip.

We enjoyed the first episode of this last night. Still settling into it and getting my head round the dynamics of all of the couples.

Eugenie and Isabel have done well but their budgeting is a disaster so far. They'll run out of money before too long if they aren't careful, and they will have to pack in a lot of work.

Oh blimey they're not that old to have gone through that are they.

My impression when I visited Japan was that not so many people had some command of English as other places I've visited. It's always a good idea (and respectful) to learn a few phrases in the local language but of course you might not understand the reply!! But as Sharon & Brydie (who I thought was called Friday watching last night, LOL) showed you can often get by and make connections.

Another who is glad this is back.

I found the boys really cocky and annoying though. I know they're young, but they seemed quite ignorant at times (repeatedly eating on the move and openly laughing at the baby sumo competition). Actually it was one of the mainly, the pilot one seemed much more mature.

And I agree that Stephen is unlikeable, which is a shame as i usually like the older couples. Shame the relationships are all quite familial this year, I'd have like a younger couple as well. Part of the show is seeing all the different types of relationships develop.

My DD wanted to apply for this, with me. I'd be so scared to read MN's views of us 😂

I said to my dd we should go on this but mn would probably tear us to shreds 🙈😂

The way Stephen talks to women is especially annoying and patronising 'are you shy?' 🙄 and so rude asking peoples ages.

I'd definitely be torn to shreds on here ! lol
I've no sense of direction and can't read maps and would probably lose something of importance and I can't run and well , I'd be hopeless tbh.
Dh would fair better , but he is more practical and very good with Maps / directions.
I'd be the one asking for directions / lifts though.
It looks gruelling too and like a comfy bed

Radio Times had a very uninformative interview with the boys who said "yeah, losing the map on day two was a bit off putting but we just got around it", rather than "we went to a shop and spent a crucial twenty quid of our budget on new maps".

They were in Tokyo when he lost the map.
I did wonder if they could have found a tourist information place to get a new one or a fold out paper version for free or something, but this is assuming they have such things and it's easy to find. Which it probably isn't.
Which is where having the internet is such a bonus on a normal trip anywhere these days
Mayes you realise how hard it is without any of that

I liked Monique a lot. She was a bit of a Princess at the start but really matured as a person by the end. I was hoping they'd win.

I felt sorry for the couple in a previous season somewhere who had their money stolen.
Must have been awful
Always a fear of mine on holiday

They have a digital camera so why not use that to take pictures of maps they come across instead of drawing maps which aren't to scale

Also as soon as I realised we were probably staying in asia I would have brought a bigger scale more general map of Asia not stuck to a world map

I find it so rude that so many of them make absolutely no effort to learn language basics. Isabel has done brilliantly but there is no reason that others can't have done the same. The boys said at least twice "it's all in Japanese" when looking at a sign or map - what did they expect. It's a huge bugbear of mine that British people (English people?) seem to think that speaking languages is beyond them.
I would never go to a country without learning at least Please, Thank you. Hello, Goodbye, and Do you speak English?

For this reason alone Isabel and Eugenie are my favourites and the boys my least, with the older couple a close second least-favourite.

I loved the first episode and think it's a good bunch of contestants. Yeah Stephen is a bit of a rude idiot but I enjoyed his wife talking about what a rude idiot he is.

As for the eating in the street shot with the lads - that was particularly well edited to manipulate the audience.

Plus I don't blame them, it's not always going to be possible to find a cheap cafe.

And they are 20 and have to go on a journey both physically and in terms of maturity. It would be rather dull if they were all perfectly formed world travellers.

They are given a map at the start I think ?..
Anyway, they all made it but a four hour difference is a lot for those who came last as they have to just sit it out before moving on.
Long way to go yet

Have you ever tried to read Japanese?

They are not going to pick up the script in a short period of time.

In the first five days they have all managed please and thank you and know quite a few useful things about the culture which is so, so different from anywhere else, and Isabel has learned quite a lot more.

Also when you ask people questions, even if you have the phrases, learning enough to be able to understand the answers is really difficult!

Plus they will be in another country in the next episode - how many East Asian languages are you expecting them to learn?

It's not like having a bit of French, Italian and Spanish.

Some of them did do their best to learn some languages before they set off. Isabel and her mum did crash/refresher courses in French, German and Spanish I think. None of which was much use when they were handed plane tickets to Hokkaido at Heathrow.

All the teams seem to know Hallo and Thanks.

I love RATW. So happy that it’s back.
Already loving the two mother and daughter teams. The young lads seem sweet too.

I shall now tell you my story of Tokyo, please settle back or skip over to the next post.

We went to Tokyo about 20 years ago, so post internet but pre smart phone. We had basic phones. We had a cracking two weeks but it was made a little harder because we are both vegetarian, which was something that just wasn’t a thing in Japan in those days. We both had very basic Japanese so could order in a coffee shop, buy train tickets etc. In those days lots of places only took cash, including the local train station. We had cards but the only cash point that would take our cards near our suburban hotel was inside the post office.
On our last night we decided to use up the last of our cash with a meal at a restaurant we knew catered for us, we had extra sides as we knew we wouldn’t have time before our flight the next morning.
We then got the train back to our hotel about 20 minutes outside central Tokyo.
When we got back we had a dreadful realisation. We didn’t have enough cash to get the train to the airport. The train station was cash only and unmanned. We needed to be at the airport before the post office with the cash point that could take our card would open. We tried other cash points in the area but no where would let us use our cards.
The hotel had a computer with in internet connection in the lobby. We discovered that there was a cash point we could use in the train station in the centre of Tokyo. We only had enough cash for one of us to go, one way. If one of us went but couldn’t find the cash point, or it didn’t work, they would be stranded there and the other stranded at the hotel. Remember, this is before über and the like. Taxis didn’t take cards. It was a very cash based society. This was a small b and b type hotel, not the kind of place where you could book a taxi at the desk and charge it to the room. None of the staff spoke English and they had all gone home for the night by this point.
We were debating what to do when another traveller in the hotel asked if we were ok. We told her the story and she asked how much we needed. It was only ¥500, about £2.50 then. She gave us the money. I tried to get her details to pay her back but she wouldn’t hear of it.
About 30 minutes later we discovered that DH is allergic to shiitake mushrooms and spent the rest of the night being dreadfully ill. Thank goodness he hadn’t gone into the city centre.

This is going to be tough this time around
The languages are so different and you can't even make out the odd word written down.
None of them have any knowledge of these languages and only a few things may be written in English.
Plus they might not have realized they were going there at all to start with.

We are on a train in Tokyo before we knew how rude it was. The looks we got!

Loved jen and Rob, "Robbie!"
Follow jen on Instagram

For the people saying how difficult it must be to find their way around without English signs etc….yes, in very small places. But in big cities, and absolutely in Tokyo, most maps and signs are also in English. All the tubes and trains have English announcements. DH and I have been several times and although we got a bit off track a few times in small places, we never felt truly ‘lost’ or unable to get someone to help - mostly people volunteered assistance if we looked as though we were clueless! Sign language can take you a long way and people want to be helpful, far more so in Japan than most places because they genuinely are extremely polite and go out of their way.

And as with @OutOfTheHouse, the one time we did get really stuck (a very long story to do with a typhoon, cancelled Shinkansens, a need to get back to our distant hotel to make a crucial onward trip) a Good Samaritan stepped in to help.

But it IS confusing because it’s so, so busy - the average mainline train station is like a medium-sized town. I’m amazed Eugenie and Isabel made the train they had 3 minutes to catch. It took us a full 2 weeks to grasp the layout of Shinjuku station in Tokyo.