Balancing bottles and glasses, waiters race in Japan’s Yokohama (Video)

Over 120 waiters took part in the “Waiters’ Race Japan” in the port town of Yokohama on Monday (November 23), running with carefully balanced trays of glasses and bottles filled with water.

All waiters run down a 300 meter (985 feet) ginkgo tree-lined course. Within the competition there are two races, an individual race and a team race. Each team is made up of five members who run one lap each totalling at 1500 meters (4925 feet). In the individual heat each participant also runs one lap.

The race was not easy for everyone with many of the participants dropping their glasses and bottles during the run.

Hundreds of locals turned up to watch the race, which originally began in Paris in the 1930s as the ‘course des garcon de cafe’, organisers said. It was aimed at improving the recognition of waitering as a career.

Hitomi Bito, one of the participants who works at the “The Yokohama Bay Hotel Tokyu”, said she enjoys the competitiveness of the race.

Bito’s team created a new record in Japan of 5 minutes 31 secs for the combined time for the five laps the team ran.

Kento Sasamoto won the individual’s men’s event with another record for Japan of 49 seconds for his lap.

Sasmoto said he was proud to be one of the few participants from the restaurants to have won.

Spectators were impressed with the balancing skills displayed.

Executive producer of the Japanese race, Tsuneo Kaji, said he was inspired to host a version in his own country after participating in the original Parisian run.

Waiters’ Races are now held annually in more than 61 countries around the world, organisers said. Yokohama, which is Japan’s only waiters’ race recognised by The International Waiters’ Race Community, hopes to host a World Waiters’ Race ahead of the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020, organisers added.

 

-Reuters

The post Balancing bottles and glasses, waiters race in Japan’s Yokohama (Video) appeared first on Sri Lanka News - Newsfirst | News1st | newsfirst.lk | Breaking.