Minorikawa Maizoukin Densetsu This game hasn't occurred very often on Gakkou e Ikou, but I always found it tons of fun. V6 breaks into KamiSen and ToniSen teams, fighting to win the "The Legend of Minorikawa's Hidden Treasure" (Minorikawa is the real name of host Mino Monta). The game consists of solving riddles in order to discover the the location of the next riddle, and the next, and so on until the "treasure" is found. But at each location, in order to win the riddle, the battling teams have to complete a task... and that task almost always involves eating inordinately large amounts of food. I suppose no one can complain that Johnny's don't get fed... At the end, the "hidden treasure" always turns out to be some simply horrible pun, resulting in a truly lame gift. And yet, they still play every single time. Odd... ******************************************* The first version of this game that I saw was in Osaka. Representing ToniSen were Sakamoto-kun and Inocchi, joined by Ueno Miku. Representing KamiSen were Okada-kun, Ken-ken, and comidienne Yamada Hanako. While Hanako-san is pretty funny, she's pretty much the opposite of feminine grace and beauty, so KamiSen felt pretty cheated. For this game, they were playing for "100 man en soutou no maizoukin" (a treasure of exactly 1 million yen), which was far bettwen than their last prize of 100 telephone cards. The first stop was Osaka Castle, where they had to eat three dango the size of someone's head. For those who don't know, dango is a thick rice cake that's rather filling, and tends to make me sick after a few bites. But as usual, even though KamiSen tends to figure out the clues first thanks to Okada-kun, ToniSen can eat. ToniSen was off and running to the famous Osakan restaurant Kuidaore (where my parents and I ate at while in Osaka, even though we had no idea it was well known at the time). There, they were presented with a giant parfait. Out of all six of them, only Miku seemed excited to see it. Inocchi got up sometime in the middle to bounce around and exercise for little bit, while Sakamoto-kun, who hates sweets, ended up curling up in a corner after a while and going to sleep. Thanks entirely to Miku's efforts, ToniSen barely finished up ahead, although KamiSen caught up to them at the next location, Osaka Dome. There, at a bowling alley, they were challenged to bowl a score of exactly 30 in three frames. One time, halfway through the third frame, KamiSen team miraculously got their score to 30. Hanako-san's gutterball would have won it for them... that is, if Inocchi hadn't cheated. As Hanako-san rolled the ball down the gutter, Inocchi, who had been about to roll at the same time, quickly put his ball back, sprinted down the KamiSen lane, and then slid on his knees to grab the ball out of the gutter and hurl it at the pins. It was the most absolutely horrible display of cheating I've ever seen, and yet, you have to admire someone who can slide halfway down a bowling lane on his knees. That takes skills. This little bit of cheating allowed ToniSen team to make it to the final location first, where they did a quick parapara dance to win a map. After searching the park for ages, ToniSen finally found the treasure chest and won themselves... "100 mai soutou no mai zoukin" (exactly 100 of my dustrags). As it turned out, looking back at the video tape, the announcer hosting the game performed a pretty amazing trick in his speech so that the pun was pulled off without a hitch. ToniSen was pretty ticked, but what did they expect? This DOES happen every single time... ******************************************* My personal favorite version of this game came when V6 arrived in Hong Kong after a harrowing "Doko ni Iku n desu ka?" Game. Go was suddenly handed a letter which invited V6 to search for the Minorikawa no Maizoukin. Despite the fact that they were in Hong Kong, V6 did quite well in figuring out the location clues, even if it involved a lot of staring at the map searching for gymnasiums or places with the character for "oil" in the name. The ToniSen and KamiSen teams are rather well matched, although in odd ways. Okada-kun is remarkably fast at figuring out the clues, so KamiSen is usually off and running while ToniSen is left staring blankly. As a plus for ToniSen, they can just plain eat. Which, in this game, is a huge advantage. The first stop in the game was a street market, where they had to eat about 30 or so little dumplings. After that was a vat of really spicy stew. KamiSen was leading through the first two rounds, but then they hit location number 3... where they were presented with a coiled, cooked snake. None of them quite knew what to do with themselves. (Personally, I thought they were doing remarkably well, but then again, even watching them made me hyperventilate.) KamiSen got a good laugh when ToniSen finally showed up and nearly tossed the platter in an attempt to get away. But then to everyone's surprise, ToniSen bravely dug in... and loved it. KamiSen picked at their snake and simply stared in shock as ToniSen inhaled theirs. KamiSen finally had to Jan-Ken to force the loser, poor Okada-kun, to eat the last piece in order to catch up with ToniSen. ToniSen reached the last location, a luxury ship, first and convinced the captain to take off. KamiSen, for reasons still unknown, managed to convince a local man to carry them in his speedboat so that they could board the ship. After finishing their last task, eating a giant fish, both teams of V6 were neck and neck as they searched for the treasure on the ship. By a stroke of luck, ToniSen managed to win and opened the treasure chest to find... a stuffed pink elephant. After confering together, V6 fished out the letter that Go was given... which invited them to look for Minorikawa's "mai zou-san" (my Mr. elephant). This is probably my favorite part of the whole thing. The characters "sa" and "ki" in "maizoukin" from "mai zou-san" have only one small stroke difference. But still, you just know that the letter was handed to Go for a reason. After he got the letter, V6 gathered around to read, but he stubbornly shoved them away and kept it to himself. And since Go was the only one who actually read the letter, which he did quickly, no one noticed that they were enduring a great battle for "Minorikawa no Mai Zou-san". Oh man, how predictably V6 is that... ******************************************* When Okada got his first starring role in the drama "Kisarazu Cats Eye" co-starring Arashi's Sakurai Shou, it seemed like a perfect time for a game. Sakamoto-kun and Ken banded together as the "Gakkou e Ikou" team and invaded the set, dragging Okada-kun and Shou-kun off to search for the mysterious "Cats Eye" treasure. My favorite moment occurred when Okada-kun and Shou-kun arrived first at their first location. A woman brought them a giant platter of tofu, at which point Okada-kun simply sighed and began reaching for a spoon. Shou-kun stared for a little bit before asking, "You mean, we're supposed to eat all this?" Okada-kun nodded, handing Shou-kun some utensils, at which point Shou-kun exclaimed, "Holy cow, this is an amazing show~!" He seemed to lose his enthousiasm about halfway through the platter, though, especially since between Ken (who eats a ton) and Sakamoto-kun (who actually really likes tofu), the "Gakkou e Ikou" team finished theirs surprisingly quickly and were off. At the next location, a group of masked men in black body suits descended on Sakamoto-kun and Ken, and proceeded to sing the next clue. It was basically the "Cats Eye" theme song, only at one part, the members of the small chorus would all break out into different lyrics. While one person sang the name of the next location, other people were singing things like, "Okada no deko" (Okada's got a big forehead), "Miyake wa gaki" (Miyake's a brat), and "Sakamoto oyaji" (Sakamoto's an old man). The "Gakkou e Ikou" team was off before the "Cats Eye" team even showed up, and ended up with a huge lead since the song seemed to stump Shou-kun and Okada-kun. However, Sakamoto-kun and Ken ended up arguing over the meaning of a map-like clue, and even after figuring it out, had to spend more time arguing over which direction the map was facing. Long story short, Sakamoto-kun was wrong, and the "Cats Eye" team won. However, the treasure chest turned out to hold, not a "Cats Eye" statue, but a "Cats Ai~n" statue, or a stuffed cat doing the "ai~n" pose made famous by a Japanese comedian. It figures. Back | TV Index