Sutorenjaa In Japan

Rally??? Like totally, fer suuuure!

So there's this Rally thing that had been ominously looming for the last couple of months. I hadn't heard much about it... just whispers amongst the Jets in Fukui, and occasional FJET posting that "the Rally is coming"... what was this 'rally' thing? Impending doom was all I could think. And then... next thing I know, I'm part of a rag-tag team of 1st year misfits, calling ourselves "Crockwork Orangi"... no good could come of this.... and then it happened. One of the craziest, zaniest, balls to the walls nutty 'road trips' I have ever taken... but road trips is a TOTAL misnomer... it was the Fukui Southern Car rally. And it was pretty damn crazy.

This Rally... Hanna-Barbera Wacky Race + scavenger hunt + Animal House. One day, 11 teams (11 cars, 3-4 ppl in each team), and one course in southern Fukui... a place that is pretty seldom visited by the majority of the Fukui JETs (about a handful of people get placed down there, and cool as it may be, it's in the boonies and a trek for them to come up north, so we don't see them too much). So, basically, the south of Fukui is the great 'beyond' for us 'northies', aka PERFECT for a rally.

They had us driving around looking for all kinds of crazy things along the road, silly challenges, etc. I can't really explain everything, but I'll post a 'picture' blog this time & desribe some of the challenges that had us photograph. Rally ho!!!

Challenge: Make a pose of your favorite sports day activity

So, if you don't remember from my September post... school kids here have a sports day every year where they go out into the burning heat and do relays, games, challenges and other torments in the 80% humidity. By far, my favorite game was the capture the hat/ chicken fight game. HILARIOUS to watch kids smack each other silly grabbing hats, and all the while riding around on their teammates, in a human-pyramid-ish stance. ANYWAY, that's the pose we struck. Boo yah.








Challenge: Make a human Torii

"Shinto shrine compounds are entered by passing beneath a torii, the simple gate of the early shrine fences." So, this is what we made. Good times & I'm glad as hell I wasn't the one doing the lifting. Brilliant work, boys.








Challange: Find the abandoned ice cream shop

That about says it all. Mmmm... mmmm.





Challenge: Take a drive with Anpanman

Anpanman is a children's anime superhero. I am told by my kids that he is made of Anpan (a kind of bread) and helps people by giving them part of his face when they are hungry (WTF?!). He has a merry crew of other food-heros (e.g. Melonpanman, tostoman, etc) and they save the world from hunger and Baikinman ('Germ man'). How wholesome and dericious!




Last Picture of the Day!!!

Came in second place in terms of time, and 5th overall... NOT BAD considering we were all 1st years! :) Mad props to the navigators & question readers... made my drive a lot easier to handle (BTW- I am MAD good with the rally driving... I can haul!). ;) Good job everyone! Clap hands!



At the end of the day, everyone was totally bushed but in high spirits. We had a BBQ & campout/ party down in the moutains of Obama. Very fun.

posted by KidBach @ 10:59 AM