I want to comment on the design of the Osaka Detour, specifically Smell(in the flower shop, the selection of a real flower). This task should never have been in the design once Rachel was chosen as a contestant. As a florist she had a huge unfair advantage, as evidenced by the fact that it took her 3 mintues onsite to complete this task. Given the situation, that just helped to minimize her team's deficit. however, if they had been competitive at that point, it would have been grossly unfair. It makes you wonder if a change might have been made to Osaka detours once the flight issues of TK&Rachel were known to the producers so that a chance was provided for Tk&Rachel to do some catchup. I have minimal confidence in the statements that the race design is fixed before it starts and never altered since we know what happened in Kuala Lumpur to Uchenna and Joyce. How many others tiimes has something like that occured but no outsiders ever knew?
Given how tight the schedule was, I don't think they (WRP) would have enough time to change the Detour, get the necessary permits and permissions to film in that location (though I'm not well versed in the filming requirements of Osaka so that might not be an issue), and to reprint the Detour clue from what it originally was (if it was indeed on the fly) before the lead teams encountered the Detour. Not to mention there have been quite a few tasks that racers have been good at: Marianna with the pole vaulting, Vyxsin with macrame, Donald with just about everything.
A much easier way of fixing the Detour would've just been to put the real flower close to the entrance for TK/Rachel, ensuring that they get out quickly.
I'm interested in the timing aspect of the leg - the lead teams arrived in Osaka at 2:30 and finished just before (Ron/Chris) to a ways after sunset (Nic/Don) - given the traffic that they would encounter in the RB, that's understandable. What's interesting is that TK/Rachel arrived at around 6 and even given the presumably reduced traffic and quick Detour choice, it's safe to say they landed on the mat at around 11. I'm at a loss as to how they could lose so much time this leg.
EDIT to respond to this
I love it when there are tasks in the race that one or more racers happens to be particularly adapt at. You should be able to draw upon your skills.
I was not aware of anything unusual for Uchenna & Joyce at Kuala Lumpur.
What do you mean?
According to one of their post-show interviews, Uchenna and Joyce ran the full leg in Kuala Lumpur; they did the cookie Detour and Joyce did the RB, which would indicate that they were still going to be in it and needed to get a true pit stop time arrival. Were it supposed to be an elimination leg, they would just get the pit stop clue at the soonest route marker (as it was shown on the show like prior instances of this ie Gutsy Grannies, Peter/Sarah) so they wouldn't waste time and money performing and filming the tasks. Moreover, this was followed by two NELs, which, given the marked for elimination penalty, made the first non-elimination leg (Hong Kong) basically useless in the grand scheme of things). I think that based on U/J's interview and the subsequent leg structure, that Kuala Lumpur was originally going to be an NEL and that Hong Kong would be elimination, but that since U/J were so behind, the expense would be too much to warrant keeping them there an extra leg and they were given the boot.