Our 107th entry in this blog is our trip to MetLife Dome in Saitama, Japan, to watch Monster Jam 2019.  This has been Sai’s most awaited part in this year’s trip to Japan.  He is so excited to see his idol monster truck cars and their drivers.  And we are all so excited to watch a real race with real monster trucks.  So we woke up very early this Saturday morning and had an almost 2 hour ride to Saitama.  And the place is already full of people waiting for the Dome to open 🙂

And finally, when the area has been opened to visitors, we were greeted by a muddy race track.  hehe… I should have prepared for this and wore a dirtier shoes. 🙂  The goodies are all so tempting to buy.  And the trucks are indeed monstrous!

Monster Jam is a live motorsport event tour. The series began in 1992, and is primarily held in North America, with some additional events in other countries. The last time they visited Japan was 2016 (3 years ago).  We are so lucky that we get to watch it now as we do not know when they will visit again in Asia.

Before we started meeting the drivers, we went outside the dome and in to their food court area to have some lunch.  We really went here early and was not able to have a proper breakfast.  I was not able to take photos of our lunch, as I was so hungry, but we got to take picture of an inflatable monster truck outside, named Grave Digger.  This is one of Sai’s favorite truck as he already have a toy of this even before he knew Monster Jam.

The photo below is Max-D. Maximum Destruction is one of the most popular trucks in Monster Jam, namely for commonly living up to its fitting name that best describes its freestyle performances. It has always been a fan-favorite to see this truck go up in racing against the other legendary monster truck Grave Digger. The two have been longtime rivals in the monster truck industry, although the two are actually friends in real life. We met one of the drivers: Neil Elliott.  He has been driving this big truck since 2003.

Next is Scooby Doo and the pretty driver Lindsey Read.  Scooby-Doo! is a custom dog body monster truck. It is designed to resemble the cartoon dog of the same name. The truck was announced in 2012 and debuted in 2013. Scooby-Doo! has been a part of the Triple Threat Series every year since its 2015 inception.  Now this is Ate Rei’s bet to win today’s race.

And next is Sai’s ultimate favorite Monster Jam truck.  Zombie!  Zombie is a custom monster truck driven by Bari Musawwir. Zombie was the name selected by the fans in 2012 and made its debut in 2013. Some believe that the body is a modified Donkey Kong mold, or at least inspired by it. Our little Sai is really excited to meet the driver and made sure he showed his newly bought zombie car (as he left his other zombie car in Cebu, he was really sad about that).  And this is Sai’s bet to win today’s race!

The next one is Papa Dave’s bet to win.  Megalodon.  Megalodon is a custom 3D shark body monster truck introduced for the 2017 Monster Jam season. We met the driver Alex Blackwell.  It was previously named as “Shark” but I’m glad it was changed to Megalodon.  Cool 🙂

And the next one is my bet to win this race.  Wonder Woman!  And the driver was so pretty: Haley Gauley.  The truck, along with Superman’s return in Saudi Arabia 2017, signaled the return of the DC monster trucks to Monster Jam. The truck was officially unveiled on March 23rd, 2017 during the Monster Jam World Finals 18 Double Down Pit Party, along with the 25th Anniversary commemoration truck.

Below is also another contender for today’s race, El Toro Loco.  The truck is arguably one of the most popular monster trucks and has had many drivers behind the wheel since its debut. The truck has competed at every Monster Jam World Finals since 2003 and has become a staple in the European tour since 2005. We met the driver Marc McDonald.

There were also 2 other trucks that we were not able to meet the drivers.  And that is mainly because of their popularity that the lines are so so long.  They were Grave Digger (and the handsome driver Morgan Kane) and the Monster Energy itself driven by a Japanese guy who is also very famous here in Japan, Taka Higashino.
So we went to our seats and ready to watch the race.  Bring it on!

Here are some photos of the preparations made while people are going to their seats and eating yummy snacks.

And the race began.  At Monster Jam events, monster trucks face off in three forms of competition: racing, two-wheel skills, and freestyle. Racing is traditional heads-up tournament racing, where the first truck to cross the finish line moves onto the next round; the final race of the night is for that particular event’s championship.

The freestyle competition allows drivers two minutes on an open floor to show off their skills as they drive the trucks over ramps and junked cars, performing stunts and tricks with their trucks. The freestyle winner is determined by attendees voting via a score tracking website.

And the winner is: Sai’s bet, Zombie! Congratulations to our little Sai 🙂

Here is the ranking.  And my bet was last. hehe… But still Wonder Woman is my fave!

There was also some side shows with motorcycle stunts.  Most, if not all, of the drivers are Japanese so people are really excited to watch them and was proud of their fellow citizen.  We were also amazed by how high they can jump and do stunts.  Well, I don’t even know how to drive a motorcycle so… for me it was really amazing 🙂

And that concludes our watching of the Monster Jam.  We really hope we can see another show like this next time 🙂