Since the intro featured Mt. Fuji, and there is the means of using bullet trains back to Narita for teams to fly out, the possibility of a longer drive or transportation trip away from the Tokyo area for the pit stop makes a lot of sense.
IIRC, that sort of thing was done in previous visits to Japan. And if the order of tasks is generally headed away from Tokyo, the further out pit stop would make even more sense. The long trip rushing to the pit stop would create the sort of tension and drama TPTB seem to like these days.