My kids are currently obsessed with the show Unbeatable Banzuke. It’s a Japanese show that airs on the G4 network (by the by, it’s just about the ONLY show on G4 suitable for kids… even the commercials are unkid-ish). The Unbeatable Banzuke is a close cousin to the show Ninja Warrior, if you’ve ever seen that. The premise is a crazy array of obstacles, done in a variety of ways. There is a course for mountain bikes (a short video below).
I think it’s awesome that the word “mountain bike” in Japanese is “mountain bike”.
There is also a course for pojo sticks, a course for unicycles, a course for stilts, a course for walking on your hands, a course for skateboards, etc.,… and there’s a special course called Niko de Drive in which one person pushes around another person in a wheelbarrow painted like a cat. It’s fantastic fun.
So when I asked Jachin what kind of party he was thinking of for his birthday (which is in 4 days), it should have been zero surprise to me that he shouted out “Unbeatable Banzuke”!! I stared at him blank faced for a moment as he stared at me with is mouth still hanging open from shouting “Unbeatable Banzuke” in a Japanese accent, eyes wide, waiting to see what I would say. So I finally said this:
“How the crap would we do that?”
To which he said, “Just make some sweet obstacles in the backyard for me and my friends.”
“Well, okay, like what kinds of obstacles? Like, a balance beam?”
“Cooler and harder than a balance beam, mom,” he said, in the voice that always indicates that I’m a big nerd.
So I imagined painting up our rusty wheelbarrow to look like a big, pink cat. Then I said, “So, like, a rope climb?”
“No!” he shouted. “I can’t do a rope climb! I can’t have something at my party that I can’t even do!”
(At this point, Zoe ran off to fashion a pair of stilts from the take-out chop sticks in the kitchen drawer.)
So then I tried to think of something cool, awesome, creative, and harder than a balance beam but easier than a rope climb, which kids would find entertaining but which wouldn’t (knock on wood) cause any broken bones. And dude, I’ve got nothing. Have I mentioned that my brain has been pea soup as of late?
At this point I said, “So, like, Chuck E. Cheese?”
*a SIGH bigger than I knew his lungs could produce*
“Yeah, fine, Chuck E. Cheese…”
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Okay, this isn’t an obstacle, but it ROCKS. DIZZY BAT. You know, where you stand a bat upright, put your forehead on it, circle it about ten times, and then run. You can make it a relay race or whatever, but the real fun is in watching the runner. It is awesome. We used to do it at church camp. Also in college, with the addition of alcohol. It’s great fun.
Comment by Leslie — June 1, 2008 @ 7:49 am