Even though it has been on my “to do” list for years, it wasn’t until last week that I finally got around to downloading the first season of “The Amazing Race”. It is pretty old – a scene of the New York skyline still had the World Trade Center towers standing, so it was filmed well before I came to Japan.
After watching a few episodes, I’m really impressed. I’m guessing that probably everyone that reads this blog is more familiar with the show than I am, so I don’t think I need to describe the premise.
I think I like it because it plays into one of my childhood dreams of going to an airport, and just buying a ticket somewhere and flying off. I am also a big Survivor fan, because I like watching how people react to stressful situations. The Amazing Race so far is like 80% stressful situations – throwing these teams into foreign and strange environments and watching how they deal with it. And like an American teacher I know at Shin-Cat says, the players are so annoying. As the stress gets to them they begin shouting at African people in English, which never works out too well.
Also the idea of pulling into a foreign airport and trying to find your way to some unknown destination tends to remind me of some of our overseas travel adventures. I envy the players the experience, but also feel bad for them that they only get to see most of the world while running like hell through the streets with a giant backpack on.
Now I have thirteen seasons of the Amazing Race to catch up on (which will be a very slow process), but I’m hoping that it continues to hold on to my attention the way that the first few episodes have. Great show!
