I was pretty sure I’d seen what was happening on TV before. She Who Must Be Obeyed said I had but not with that family. This proved that the only things certain in Japanese are death, taxes and maps verses navi’s.

As we are in the middle of Golden Week here in Japan, there are certain TV traditions that must be upheld: there will be endless reports of the endless traffic jams at the beginning and end of the holiday, reports on the number of people taking a couple days of to enjoy a full 10 days of holiday and a dad with a map will compete against a dad using a navigation system in a race to the same location.

This race usually involves a car full of mom, dad and at least one kid with patience of, well, a kid. Dad A puts his faith in himself and his driving instincts and Dad B buts his faith in technology.

Dad A chooses byways and sideways that often seem to lead in the wrong direction which Mom A is more than happy to point out. Dad B does similar things but uses the navigation systems on-the-fly traffic reports to help choose the correct path.

Along the way each tends to take a pit stop to allow family member to buy souvenirs and “evacuate”. I don’t remember if this is a requirement or not. I also don’t remember if there’s a prize other than pride.

I watched this race a few years ago and I vaguely remember Dad A winning, but not by a significant amount (maybe 15 minute or so) as most famous places can only be approached by a few routes. Today, when I saw the same events happening in similar types of cars I was convinced it was a rerun.

She Who Must Be Obeyed told me it wasn’t, although it was exactly like things we’d seen before so it kind of was. It was a rerun with different players.

That actually made sense. I don’t know who won. Because I’d seen it before, more or less, I didn’t bother watching the ending.