There is a British TV series called “Race Across The World” in which teams of two people race from one point to another under the restriction that they have a limited budget, are not allowed to have their own mobile phones, and are not allowed to fly. I have enjoyed the previous series (three main ones and one ‘celebrity’ one). The current series started showing a few weeks ago and the starting point for the race was Sapporo, with the end point being in Indonesia. Given my combined interests in Japan and transportation, it was inevitable that I would take a particular interest in the Japanese-legs of this series.
While the end point for the “race” is in Indonesia, there are checkpoints (where they all get to rest up for a day) that the teams must pass through. There was one of these checkpoints in Japan – Nara. So the teams had to get from Sapporo to Nara initially. I’m not really sure why the race was starting in Sapporo rather than another city within Hokkaido, but I suppose its size, meaning that it would be easy to find accommodation for the teams and the accompanying camera crews would be relatively easy, may have been part of it.
For this series of the “race”, the use of high speed trains (i.e., the shinkansen), the focus of some of my research, was not allowed (in addition to not being allowed to fly) – so they wouldn’t be able to do anything like my craziest/busiest trip to Japan. Not a problem. There are local trains (including express, but not shinkansen, options), and buses (including overnight services which helps save on accommodation costs). Due to not being able to take the shinkansen, options to get between Hokkaido and Honshu become a bit more limited, with a ferry being needed. But what the teams did after getting to Honshu made me appreciate that this “race” is no “race” at all.
Using a combination of local trains, and buses, it should take less than 36 hours (i.e., less than 2 days) to get from Sapporo to Nara. The teams took 5 days! One team, having got to Sendai decided to head over to Sado island (which I’ve actually yet to get to despite it being the destination for the protagonists in my first novel, Hijacking Japan). Some teams, both on this leg and on the next one after Nara, do some bizarre yo-yoing. It’s clear that this “race” is not a pure race.
While teams (or, at least, one member within a team) may have a competitive element, they often also want to see something of the countries that they are travelling through. At times they will also stop to do some work to help raise some money for the trip – whilst also providing them (and the viewers) with an insight into some aspect of life of that country.
The second leg took the teams to South Korea, but this provided an opportunity to go via Hiroshima and some discussion of the atomic bombing of the city, a subject which is so pertinent today due to the rising conflicts around the world and the dangers of atomic weapons due to there seemingly being less awareness of their dangers in a post-Cold War world. See The A-Bomb Dome (Photo in “Japan: The Basics” (2nd Edition)) and In the Shadow of the Mushroom Cloud: 75 Years since the Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for some of my additional thoughts on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
From watching the two legs that included parts in Japan, I got a much better understanding of how this, and probably previous, series are not really a “race” but a much more convoluted, semi-scripted trip that is designed to provide entertainment and touches of education, but where the race is not completely a race. To some degree this reminds me of one of the Top Gear episodes that included a race within Japan, where Jeremy Clarkson did the race by car and the other two presenters went by public transport. I was consulted on this episode in the design of the route and then went to the studio (the part in the aircraft hangar) to see the parts filmed there and watching of the Japan parts. It was important to come up with a route (no matter how convoluted) that would have high chances of a close finish between the two teams. Within the discussions with the audience between filming, Clarkson explained how they do these races twice – the first time is a genuine race without much work being done by the camera crews. The second time they do the race again with the camera crews to capture the shots for the programme itself. I suspect “Race Across The World” is doing something similar – at least asking teams to go to particular places so that camera crews can meet them there for shooting some footage, even if camera crews don’t join them for the whole race.
Of course the “Race Across The World” parts in Japan had the usual mixture of stereotypes, cliches, and tropes (and the usual mispronunciation of Japanese words, though not as bad as some programmes) – a subject that is also in Japan: The Basics and which was also the focus of a presentation that I gave in 2023. But, as noted in a recent book review, we should not be surprised by this – these stereotypes and cliches are based on some sort of reality (even if some are now out-dated). The programme did also little to dispel the idea that Japan is expensive (particularly Tokyo, which at least one team went to lengths to avoid, despite its convenience as a transportation hub (not requiring a stay)). Especially at the current exchange rate, Japan isn’t expensive – but if people are getting put off from going to Japan due to fears that it will be expensive, I won’t be overly complaining as it’s getting hard to find accommodation (hotels/ryokan) these days due to how many people are visiting Japan, as I discuss in the second edition of Japan: The Basics.
I suspect this post has come across as quite critical of “Race Across The World”, but that wasn’t really my intention. I continue to enjoy the series. I just think it would be better if there were clarification about what is really meant by “Race” – requiring the teams to take a minimum number of days on legs (so that they get properly rested and so reduce the chances of getting ill), requiring them to do some work on each leg (for the money and the experience), and requiring them to go to a certain number of key tourist/cultural locations – all of which is what effectively seems to be happening anyway – and making it clear to the audience that this is what is happening would be better, in my view.
Cover image from https://planetradio.co.uk/hits-radio/entertainment/television/race-across-the-world-series-four/
Christopher P. Hood 