Applying for Sasuke 29

[eiguru]

Does anyone know if they are allowing gaijin to apply for Sasuke 29?

[lostinube]

The following only applies to the internet entry form for the qualifying event:

They don't say no gaijin but if one of their goals is to select a representative for the ASEAN Cup they may use that as a reason for not accepting non-Japanese (they're already using this rationale for women).

Also, do you reside in Japan or will definitely be in Japan during the qualification period?

[arsenette]

In addition the application for the trials closes next week (April 19) for trials on April 27-28. I've been asking about foreign participation and so far got nothing. We only know Sasuke tapes "summer" but trials is strictly for Japan in Japan with aps closing next week. If you find anything else let us know.. that seems to be the million dollar question around here.

[SKC99]

Apr 12, 2013 7:16:33 GMT -5 arsenette said:

In addition the application for the trials closes next week (April 19) for trials on April 27-28. I've been asking about foreign participation and so far got nothing. We only know Sasuke tapes "summer" but trials is strictly for Japan in Japan with aps closing next week. If you find anything else let us know.. that seems to be the million dollar question around here.

The other million dollar question is that will the All-Stars return? Also, how will the ASEAN cup affect the Sasuke Competitors?

[arsenette]

Apr 12, 2013 17:17:35 GMT -5 SKC99 said:

Apr 12, 2013 7:16:33 GMT -5 arsenette said:

In addition the application for the trials closes next week (April 19) for trials on April 27-28. I've been asking about foreign participation and so far got nothing. We only know Sasuke tapes "summer" but trials is strictly for Japan in Japan with aps closing next week. If you find anything else let us know.. that seems to be the million dollar question around here.

The other million dollar question is that will the All-Stars return? Also, how will the ASEAN cup affect the Sasuke Competitors?

Right now that's a bit complicated.  The application doesn't close until next week but Shingo and Takeda (and presumably Yamada) have committed to Sasuke and got invites. It's anticipated that it's for trials and not Sasuke 29 itself. There seems to be confusion over that. So much confusion that it's frustrating Nagano who's contractually bound to Maguro Festival.  Akiyama is backing Nagano by committing to Maguro only. Shingo is attempting to do both by flying out Saturday night back south to do Maguro Festival. Takeda is in limbo.  Inui however has written to me in bablefish English that they are not going to be at trials though.. so I'm confused.  Seems the All-Stars want to go and some are willing to jump through hoops but Nagano and Akiyama seem to be the ones that might get left out because TBS decided to do their trials the same weekend as the Maguro Festival that has been always the same weekend for the past 22 years.

As for ASEAN cup they are trying to work on the roster for Japan's entry to that event. Starting with this trials (which is why no women are invited to trials).  29 will work to further narrow the roster. No idea how many will be going November but seems Inui is taking this pretty seriously by picking specific people to even be allowed into trials.  By the post that Ube found (the Olympic swimmer) it seems there will be wildcards where at least one woman is allowed into 29 (but not trials).  Also New Generation are not going to be going to trials as competitors either (though we know they will be there to cheer on their fellow STQ'ers).

[lostinube]

Unlike when M9 was running things, TBS and Inui's group have zero to do with the Maguro Festival. They shouldn't bend over backwards just for the All-Stars.

Also, none of this has anything to do with the original question.

[SKC99]

Apr 12, 2013 20:50:05 GMT -5 arsenette said:

Apr 12, 2013 17:17:35 GMT -5 SKC99 said:

The other million dollar question is that will the All-Stars return? Also, how will the ASEAN cup affect the Sasuke Competitors?

Right now that's a bit complicated.  The application doesn't close until next week but Shingo and Takeda (and presumably Yamada) have committed to Sasuke and got invites. It's anticipated that it's for trials and not Sasuke 29 itself. There seems to be confusion over that. So much confusion that it's frustrating Nagano who's contractually bound to Maguro Festival.  Akiyama is backing Nagano by committing to Maguro only. Shingo is attempting to do both by flying out Saturday night back south to do Maguro Festival. Takeda is in limbo.  Inui however has written to me in bablefish English that they are not going to be at trials though.. so I'm confused.  Seems the All-Stars want to go and some are willing to jump through hoops but Nagano and Akiyama seem to be the ones that might get left out because TBS decided to do their trials the same weekend as the Maguro Festival that has been always the same weekend for the past 22 years.

As for ASEAN cup they are trying to work on the roster for Japan's entry to that event. Starting with this trials (which is why no women are invited to trials).  29 will work to further narrow the roster. No idea how many will be going November but seems Inui is taking this pretty seriously by picking specific people to even be allowed into trials.  By the post that Ube found (the Olympic swimmer) it seems there will be wildcards where at least one woman is allowed into 29 (but not trials).  Also New Generation are not going to be going to trials as competitors either (though we know they will be there to cheer on their fellow STQ'ers).

I think that the All-Stars won't go into trials. Also, the Maguro Festival has been going on for 22 years? Sasuke didn't even exist when it started. What did they do instead of Sasuke back then?

[RiderLeangle]

It's always been a festival from the fishing company, it wasn't until several years ago that Nagano added the Sasuke part.
(BTW, TL Note: Maguro = Tuna)

[eiguru]

Actually, it turns out that I'll be arriving in Japan during the afternoon on the 27th, so I'll miss the qualifier anyways. I'll be there for a long time though, so assuming there will be more Sasuke competitions I should get another chance. I figured that even if I were to get into 29 they wouldn't send me to the ASEAN cup no matter what, which is too bad since south-east asia is like home to me.

[arsenette]

Apr 17, 2013 17:23:59 GMT -5 eiguru said:

Actually, it turns out that I'll be arriving in Japan during the afternoon on the 27th, so I'll miss the qualifier anyways. I'll be there for a long time though, so assuming there will be more Sasuke competitions I should get another chance. I figured that even if I were to get into 29 they wouldn't send me to the ASEAN cup no matter what, which is too bad since south-east asia is like home to me.

Btw just something to keep in your thoughts.. Asean Cup is an OPEN competition. If what I'm hearing is correct you can qualify the 2 previous days.  The 11 countries who are a part of this are seeded but the rest of the lineup qualify before the main event. If you are serious about competing you might want to keep that in the back of your mind. If I find out more I'll post on it but that's the early information so far.

[shuhuqua]

I live and work in Japan and sent in an application for the 29 trials. I was at the trials for 28 which was a joke especially for the foreigners. The producers completely looked the other way (literally) for my 30 second appeal time and for the other foreigners in my group, so I'm not exactly excited about the upcoming trials because from the looks of things I stand no chance of being invited as a foreigner with the ASEAN cup stuff going on. I have no idea when applicants are supposed to be getting invitations to the trials, but like I said, I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll be sure to update everyone if I hear back from the Sasuke people.

I tried to stress my Taiwanese ancestry because with ANW going on I think Inui's crew is less interested in adding Americans than ever before, and said I hope Taiwan will be invited to the ASEAN cup because of Li En Zhi and that I'd like to compete with him. I have no idea if that helped or hurt my chances though. I know it's a TV show and politics and BS goes hand in hand with the industry, but I wish getting a shot at Sasuke was more "sporting," if you know what I mean.

[Philip]

Apr 20, 2013 0:58:36 GMT -5 shuhuqua said:

I live and work in Japan and sent in an application for the 29 trials. I was at the trials for 28 which was a joke especially for the foreigners. The producers completely looked the other way (literally) for my 30 second appeal time and for the other foreigners in my group, so I'm not exactly excited about the upcoming trials because from the looks of things I stand no chance of being invited as a foreigner with the ASEAN cup stuff going on. I have no idea when applicants are supposed to be getting invitations to the trials, but like I said, I'm not getting my hopes up. I'll be sure to update everyone if I hear back from the Sasuke people.

I tried to stress my Taiwanese ancestry because with ANW going on I think Inui's crew is less interested in adding Americans than ever before, and said I hope Taiwan will be invited to the ASEAN cup because of Li En Zhi and that I'd like to compete with him. I have no idea if that helped or hurt my chances though. I know it's a TV show and politics and BS goes hand in hand with the industry, but I wish getting a shot at Sasuke was more "sporting," if you know what I mean.

In the application did they say where the trials will be held? Also good luck!

[shuhuqua]

I believe the trials will be at the Midoriyama studio in Tokyo, which gives us all hope that it will be a proper obstacle course trial this time. I wouldn't mind another monkey bar challenge because I found that to be quite cool when they had that many years ago.

[shuhuqua]

Well much to my surprise and delight, I've been invited to the Saturday trial! I guess that answers the question about if they're allowing foreigners. I've been training hard, but I know many others have been training even harder, so I'm not expecting to make the final cut, but it's always nice to be able to experience this world first hand on any level =)

[lostinube]

Congratulations. Hope you do well.

I think that while they are trying to look for people for the ASEAN Cup they still need to find people to fill out the show since they already have some proven competitors that they could probably send right now and no one would complain about. We'll see how everything goes though.

[arsenette]

Apr 22, 2013 5:01:31 GMT -5 shuhuqua said:

Well much to my surprise and delight, I've been invited to the Saturday trial! I guess that answers the question about if they're allowing foreigners. I've been training hard, but I know many others have been training even harder, so I'm not expecting to make the final cut, but it's always nice to be able to experience this world first hand on any level =)

I'm so happy!  There were a lot left out.. only 200 got picked and we know the application process gets at least 2 thousand entries!  Good luck!  I believe the All-stars are there that day before they fly south to Kagoshima (at least Shingo will be flying down not sure about Takeda and Yamada).  If you can.. er.. try to take pics tehheheheheh

[Deleted]

Shingo is doing both the Trials and the Maguro Festival. Takeda and Yamada are not going to the Festival, unfortunately. Not unless they decided at the last minute that they'll go. I already asked Shingo about that on Facebook. He said they're not going. It's just Nagano, Akiyama, and Shingo. I asked Takeda earlier if he is going to the Trials (that hasn't actually been confirmed), but, although he saw the message, he didn't respond. I don't know if that's just because he couldn't respond due to the language barrier, or if maybe he thought that he's not allowed to say whether or not he's going. We should find out this weekend if Yamada and Takeda go to the Trials. Shingo has already confirmed that he's going, and he'll probably post some pictures on Facebook.

[shuhuqua]

I just got another e-mail changing my day to Sunday, so it looks like I won't run into Shingo... I think because they plan on airing the trials, there was a note saying please have your cellphones turned off when you enter the area. I'm not sure if that means no pictures too.

[arsenette]

Apr 22, 2013 18:51:49 GMT -5 shuhuqua said:

I just got another e-mail changing my day to Sunday, so it looks like I won't run into Shingo... I think because they plan on airing the trials, there was a note saying please have your cellphones turned off when you enter the area. I'm not sure if that means no pictures too.

Yeah I'm thinking it's the nda thing where they want no information leaked.  Still though you should be able to take pics and whatnot in the parking lot, etc.  So just be careful.  Either way have fun and good luck!

[Philip]

So the trials are Saturday and Sunday? Just making sure.