TAR18, Recap Leg 3, 3/6/11

Welcome to Leg 3! Last time, on Let’s Get Hopping!, teams raced from Sydney to Broken Hill, a mining town on the edge of the outback. Mel and Mike fell victim to emotions, Ron and Christina are up to their old tricks, Zev and Justin are winning (now that they have their fanny pack) and Kris and Amanda? We hardly knew thee. Who will be eliminated. . . next? (click for more)

Arrival at the pit stop last episode:
1st – Zev/Justin, Team Aspergers
2nd – Flight Time/Big Easy, The Globetrotters
3rd – Jet/Cord, The Cowboy Brothers
4th – Kisha/Jen, Team Bathroom
5th – Margie/Luke, Team ASL
6th – Mel/Mike, The Tygers
7th – Kent/Vyxsin, Team Goth
8th – Jaime/Cara, The Cheerios
9th – Gary/Mallory , The Hillbillies
10th – Ron/Christina, Team Asian

Junction Mine, Broken Hill, Australia

Teams are transported overnight from Broken Hill to Sydney by train. Once teams are at Central Railway Station in Sydney, they are then released by arrival time.

11:57 AM Zev/Justin (1st)
Clue: Fly 5000 miles to Tokyo, Japan! Once there, make your way to the rotating parking garage to get your next clue. You have $607 for this leg of the race.

Zev and Justin travel to the airport by taxi. Justin: “The last time we went to Japan, I had to eat a wasabi roll.” (Toyouke: “Wasabi roll!”)

12:05 PM Flight Time/Big Easy (2nd) – who take the train with . . .
12:08 PM Jet/Cord (3rd)
12:09 PM Kisha/Jen (4th) – who miss the first train and find a computer.
12:10 PM Margie/Luke (5th) – who go to a travel agent with . . .
12:14 PM Mel/Mike (6th)
12:16 PM Kent/Vyxsin (7th) – who find a computer. And Kent decided to wear a cowboy hat to mock the cowboys. (Toyouke: “Kent, you are not rocking the cowboy hat.”)
12:24 PM Jaime/Cara (8th) – who find a different travel agent.
12:26 PM Gary/Mallory (9th)
12:28 PM Ron/Christina (10th) – (Toyouke: “Christina got engaged to Azaria! What!? Oh, points for not trying to get Christina and Azaria to race together.” Kmanpat: “Although, I could have handled that better than her father.”)

The teams use their various methods to book themselves on one of two flights: a Qantas flight direct to Tokyo, landing at 6:15 AM, and a Cathay Pacific flight with a connection in Hong Kong, scheduled to land 15 minutes earlier at 6 AM. The teams shake down as follows:

First Flight, Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, arrival 6:00 AM
1) Zev/Justin
2) Margie/Luke – (Auburnium0513: “I think the choice of direct flight is much wiser than risking a connection for 15 minutes. If it makes you nervous, Margie, DON'T DO IT!”)
3) Mel/Mike
4) Kent/Vyxsin
5) Jaime/Cara

Second Flight, Qantas, arrival 6:15 AM
1) Flight Time/Big Easy – who gave up the Cathay flight to Team Aspergers. (Toyouke: “Hmm...good on the Globetrotters, although that's crap racing. But at least he already didn't like the connection.”)
2) Jet/Cord
3) Kisha/Jen
4) Gary/Mallory
5) Ron/Christina

Teams board their flights. And then the Cathay flight gets stuck in Hong Kong with engine trouble. (Toyouke: “Aaaaaannnnnnd apparently it's better to avoid connections.”) Note that the Cathay flight was actually one and a half hours LATE. So, teams arrive at Narita, and work their way to the Parking Garage to get their cars in the following order:

1- Gary/Mallory
2- Flight Time/Big Easy
3- Kisha/Jen
4- Ron/Christina
5- Jet/Cord
6- Margie/Luke
7- Mel/Mike
8- Kent/Vyxsin
9- Jaime/Cara – who get their car, and proceed to drive it into someone else’s side view mirror. The cops get called and everything gets settled.
10- Zev/Justin

(Auburnium0513: “Cool parking garage! Aww, no task involving the fun garage?”)

Teams are now instructed to drive themselves to the city of Kamakura in the Kanagawa Prefecture and find Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu. Once there, teams should find to Yabusame Dojo. They arrive in the following order:

1- Ron/Christina
2- Gary/Mallory
3- Flight Time/Big Easy
4- Kisha/Jen
5- Zev/Justin
6- Kent/Vyxsin
7- Mel/Mike
8- Margie/Luke
9- Jet/Cord – (Toyouke: “Why is it that the cowboys kind of fail at everything except being hot?“)
10- Jaime/Cara

(Auburnium0513: “I know you're trying to get there quickly, but maybe you should figure out the map BEFORE you start driving.”)

Once they arrive, teams get the second roadblock clue.

ROADBLOCK:

Who wants to go back a thousand years in time?

In this roadblock, one team member must perform an ancient Yabusame ritual correctly. Teams must don ancient ceremonial garb, and watch a demonstration to be able to master meditative form, bow and arrow posture, and shooting accuracy in order to get their next clue.

The following teammates take the Roadblock:

1- Ron
2- Gary
3- Flight Time
4- Jen
5- Justin
6- Kent – (Toyouke: “Kent, now I'm offended. No fake Asian accents.”)
7- Mike
8- Luke
9- Cord
10- Jaime

After much bow and arrow shooting, teams complete the Roadblock in the following order:

1- Kisha/Jen
2- Zev/Justin
3- Gary/Mallory
4- Flight Time/Big Easy
5- Ron/Christina
6- Margie/Luke
7- Jet/Cord
8- Kent/Vyxsin
9- Mel/Mike
10- Jaime/Cara

Teams are now instructed to drive themselves to Minamiashigara and find Daiyazan Station. Once there, teams are to find the Kintaro statue to get their next clue. (Toyouke: “Aww, small children!”) Teams arrive in the following order:

1- Zev/Justin
2- Gary/Mallory
3- Flight Time/Big Easy
4- Ron/Christina
5- Kisha/Jen
6- Margie/Luke
7- Jet/Cord
8- Kent/Vyxsin
9- Mel/Mike
10- Jaime/Cara

And we get the Detour Clue.

DETOUR:
Prayer of Purity OR Frog of Luck
*Prayer of Purity: Teams travel to a park where they will receive a Shinto cleansing that includes putting on a traditional wardrobe, learning a very vocal and physical prayer, and standing under a waterfall at 45° for one minute. Once complete, teams get their next clue.
*Frog of Luck: Teams must wear a loincloth and search a mudpit for a frog while being pelted with mud. Once the frog is found, teams take it to the proctor for their next clue.

(Toyouke: “I'm sure the symbol of luck is not a plastic frog that probably squeaks when you squeeze it.“)

1- Zev/Justin choose Frog of Luck
2- Gary/Mallory choose Frog of Luck – (Toyouke: “I'm entertained Mallory is so game for being in the mud.”)
3- Flight Time/Big Easy choose Prayer of Peace – (Toyouke: “Are the Globetrotters even saying anything? Should I be offended again?” Auburnium0513: “Hearing a Globetrotter cry for his mamma: Priceless”)
4- Ron/Christina choose Prayer of Peace
5- Kisha/Jen choose Frog of Luck
6- Jet/Cord choose Frog of Luck – (Toyouke: “Wooooooooo naked cowboys! And then they look for a real frog. Sigh.” Kmanpat: “The naked cowboy quotient on this show is still very low. . . But the techniques that Cord used still somehow located the amphibian.”)
7- Margie/Luke choose Frog of Luck
8- Kent/Vyxsin choose Frog of Luck
9- Mel/Mike choose Frog of Luck – and get hypothermia.
10- Jaime/Cara choose Frog of Luck

Teams complete the detour in the following order:

1- Zev/Justin
2- Gary/Mallory
3- Flight Time/Big Easy
4- Ron/Christina – who freak out when they can’t find Christina’s fanny pack. (Toyouke: “I don't think that's something you can blame on Christina. The Globetrotters should have let them know or something.”)
5- Kisha/Jen
6- Jet/Cord
7- Kent/Vyxsin
8- Margie/Luke
9- Jaime/Cara
10- Mel/Mike

Teams get their clue and find that they must now drive themselves to Kurihama in Yokosuka Prefecture and find the Commodore Perry Monument, the PIT STOP of the third leg of this racearoundtheworld. The last team to arrive WILL be eliminated!

1- Zev/Justin – who win a trip for 2 to Punta Islita, Costa Rica
2- Gary/Mallory
3- Ron/Christina – who arrived fourth, but got bumped up as did . . .
4- Kisha/Jen – due to the stupidity of . . .
5- Flight Time/Big Easy – (Toyouke: “Ooo how did Phil not know what the Globetrotters did?”)
6- Jet/Cord
7- Kent/Vyxsin
8- Margie/Luke
9- Jaime/Cara
10- Mel/Mike – (Toyouke: “Jamie and Cara saved by Mel being too old? SUCK”)

Mel and Mike were told to go to the pit stop after all other teams had checked in. Mike still loves his dad, and will continue to be concerned about him. Mike says he’ll be back to run the race with his walker when he’s 80.

ORDER NOW:
1st – Zev/Justin
2nd – Gary/Mallory
3rd – Ron/Christina
4th – Kisha/Jen
5th – Flight Time/Big Easy
6th – Jet/Cord
7th – Kent/Vyxsin
8th – Margie/Luke
9th – Jaime/Cara

Next week: China! Zev has a hard time. Ron freaks out, as usual. And the Goths go the wrong direction. All in a night’s episode. Until next time!