Scavenger Hunt

When is the last time you went on a Scavenger Hunt? Honestly, I think I was probably about 10 years old. I can't say I remember it all that well but I do seem to think it was pretty fun. As far as I can remember all of the very few Scavenger Hunts I have been on were pretty fun.

And the Miyagi Prefecture JET Scavenger Hunt was no different. We split into groups of about 6 people, got a list of 21 items, and a disposable camera. Then, we had two hours to dart around Sendai and get the best and most creative of the items we could. My team was pretty energetic so we managed to finish all of the pictures, but as it turns out all of the teams finished everything.

It was pretty much a big joke so the list including stuff like "A picture of whole group inside a taxi" which isn't so easy when you're talking about 6 or more people. We also needed a group shot of everyone singing karaoke and fortunately we found a karaoke bar willing to let us dress up in costumes and invade one of their rooms without paying. An employee even took our picture and then straightened up after us. How nice! For our picture of somewhere high we went to the top floor of the tallest building in Sendai and then got on each others shoulders which got us runner up. For somewhere low we just went to the subway which got us nothing. The winners took a picture of themselves counting their change outside a hostess bar. Pretty low. For the picture of the longest piece of string we managed to stretch it across the walkway in front of Sendai Station, which I think you would have to have seen to really believe. Again only runner up because the winners took one picture at Sendai Station and another at the other side of town and made it look as if they had stretched it that far. Inventive, but two pictures. Cheap! We did win the picture for the T-Shirt with the worst English. I can't quite read it from the negatives (they kept the originals to put in the Miyagi JET magazine) but it was something like "Behold the edible flow of all which going into tomorrow leaves us now. How nice!" We managed to garner a runner-up for the photo of random foreigners since we had two and also a runner-up for the photo of Japanese school boys kissing group members. We had three guys kissing two of our girls on the cheeks which was cute. However, we lost because James managed to kiss a Japanese school boy on the mouth, or at least make it look like he did. Which is weird. Our group re-enactment of the Abbey Road cover was apparently the most unoriginal thing we could have done so that won nothing, espcially after seeing the winners re-enactment of the Iwo Jima photo using the flag from the Sendai soccer team. But we did win for the group shot in a men's restroom since there were just enough urinals for everyone to stand at. Of course, we got some odd looks coming out of there. Still, it was nice of that guy to put out his cigarette and take the photo.

Anyhow, once everyone turned in their cameras we had a little time to kill and then we all met up for dinner and the awards ceremony. It was dinner and drinks while the announced the winner in each of the 21 categories and then passed around all of the photos. Our group did all right, probably coming in 3rd of 5. Great fun.

Who says JET isn't a serious job?