Office Chair Street Racing in Japan
Teams of three compete to complete the most laps of a 200-meter course during a two-hour span, at Nakamachi shopping district special course (Oshu, Iwate Esashi), with the winning team rewarded 90 kg of rice! (Iwate Esashimi Gold Rice to be exact. Runner-up gets 60 kg and 3rd place 30 kg)
The event, which started with a race in Kyoto in 2009, was the brainchild of Tsuyoshi Tahara, and will feature at 10 different grand prix events across Japan this year.
Tahara’s idea has proved surprisingly popular, with 55 teams entering the Hanyu Grand Prix alone and hailing from as far away as Wakayama Prefecture, 600 km (about 400 miles) to the southwest. Sunday’s winning team, Kitsugawa Unyu, came from Kyoto and had also traveled several hours with their chairs for the race.
