After sorting through close to 400 photographs, as well as details and documents from our biggest event of the year, MAJET is proud to bring you the blog post for Miyazaki’s Amazing Race 2015. Enjoy the read below, and stay tuned for one more very special update coming to this page soon!
Saturday, April 18, 2015. 8AM. Blue skies. Calm breeze. And 71 people all gathered on the steps at the Oyodo River Park, waiting for their journey to begin.
MAJET’s 4th Annual Amazing Race was about to commence!
Through the dedication and hard work of seventeen volunteers across two months of planning, MAJET developed a fascinating course to take adventurers all around Miyazaki City with Clues and Quests based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth.
In both clues and challenges, we did our best to incorporate language and tasks that people from both Japanese and foreign cultures would be able to understand and complete successfully, all while alluding to Tolkien’s settings, characters, and storylines. This year’s adventurers were in for a ride with everything from orcs to elves, from mines to towers, all while guarding something very… precious.
After all the participants were signed in, MAJET sorted out some last-minute team-shuffling, and completed the final rule explanations. Then, each of the 17 teams was called on to choose a leader and were given their very first Quest. From that point, each team worked their hardest to be the first to complete the Amazing Race!
In addition to the Quest tasks, which must be completed correctly to move on, teams also had the opportunity to earn points by completing a variety of side-activities such as solving riddles, completing photo challenges, or opting to level-up on a more physical Quest.
The day’s course went from the Oyodo River up through central Miyazaki City, to finally end at Heiwadai Park. The final Quest required teams to destroy their One Ring and defeat Sauron once and for all. However, there was only one correct way to destroy the Ring and the answer for how to do it lay embedded in a tricky, bilingual riddle. All but two teams were able to solve it correctly and complete their journey. Well done!
In each year of this event, there are two ways to win The Amazing Race: the first is to complete the race with the fastest time and the second is to complete it with the most points.
The winning team for fastest time was Team #10: Reiko, Sakura, Samantha, and Shin, who clocked in at 1:54PM after earned bonuses and accorded penalties.
The winning team for most points was Team #14: Michael, 和樹 (Kazuki), 咲乃 (Sakino), and 赵 (Zhao), who earned a whopping 361 points!
This year’s Tolkien-inspired adventure around Miyazaki City was a grand success! MAJET would like to give a huge thank you to all of the volunteers whose creativity and proactivity helped the day’s challenges come to life.
Below is a small selection of photos from The Amazing Race 2015. You can check out the full album on our Facebook group! (Sorry, you’ll have to be a member of the group to see the photos.)
We hope you’ll join us again next year!!
miyazakiajet.org 