Ainori

Ainori, literally "love ride" but can also be read "ride together" or "car pool", is a popular television program that runs Monday evenings from 11 pm in Japan on Fuji TV. It debuted on October 11, 1999. The show originally ended on March 23, 2009 but returned under the name "Ainori 2" on December 25, 2010, running through April 30, 2011.
Ainori was revived by Fuji TV and Netflix beginning with Asian Journey, which was first broadcast on the streaming platform in November 2017 and on Fuji TV in January 2018. Both media outlets also aired the second season of Asian Journey as well as the first season of African Journey, which was available on Netflix in late 2019 and on Fuji TV in early 2020.

WWW fujitv.co.jp/ainori

Description

Ainori is a reality program where seven young men and women travel the world riding a pink bus nicknamed the "Love Wagon". The program is reminiscent of a travelogue; as of December 2008, the show has followed the bus across 90 countries as participants explore both famous tourist attractions and more off-the-beaten-path places. The participants are led across each country by a native who serves as tour guide, bus driver, and friend. Upon reaching the border with another country, the bus stops and participants head out to their next destination country to meet their new tour guide and get into their new bus.
The show's twist is that the participants are each young, single people whose goal is to find love with another participant and return to Japan as a couple. When a participant has decided they like someone else, they ask the driver for a ticket back to Japan. They then declare their love to the object of their affection, and ask that the two return to Japan together. After a night's consideration, the person who received the love declaration can either answer with a kiss, after which both participants leave the bus for Japan. Otherwise, the jilted participant is left to return to Japan alone. Besides the love declaration, participants are forbidden from talking openly about their love interests with other participants, but inform the TV audience of their feelings through diaries and confessions to the camera.
After people leave the bus, new people are added to the program, to keep the total at 7 members. They are seen on the side of the road with a painted cardboard sign and brought aboard after a self-introduction.
The First Lap Around the World ended in May, 2003, and the Second Lap ended in March, 2007. After that, the bus visits the countries which has never been visited on the show, without the route. The 400th episode was aired on May 5, 2008.
As of March, 2009, 44 couples have found love through the program, and there have been 8 marriages. On March 1, 2005, the first "Ainori Baby" was born, and as of mid-2008 there have been 4 babies born in total. Although typically the couples are "born" on their world trip, in the summer of 2006, two separate couples were formed after the participants returned to Japan and realized their feelings for each other there, and in February 2007, an "Ainori news special" told the story of another couple who got together after returning to Japan.
To help prevent relationships between the staff and the participants, only staff members who are married or are already involved are chosen to work on the show. Songs such as ELT's "Fragile", Glay's "Way of Difference", and I WiSH's "ashita e no tobira" are used as the main theme music

Countries visited

The First Lap

*1 : Paolo is a native person who participants met in the youth hostel in Italy. He could speak Japanese because he had stayed in Japan for one year.*2 : Once Midori had been jilted by Kin-chan, and been back to Japan from Vietnam. After that, she received a letter from him, and visited Thailand to meet him again there.*3 : Once Hisashi had been jilted by Mariko, and been back to Japan. But Mariko gave up the trip to meet Hisashi again in Japan.

The Second Lap

*1 : Michele, Pendo, and Andy are native persons. Michele was a special participant as the commemoration of the Second Lap. Pendo and Andy took part in the trip during a single episode.*2 : In the episode #315, Outlaw gave up the trip because of the mistake by the staff, and Goki also did. But in the episode #317, they reported that they had met again in Japan and had started to love each other. Although they are not counted as an official couple of the program.*3 : Once MIE had been jilted by Susan, and been back to Japan from Hungary. But in Switzerland Susan gave up the trip and returned to Japan to meet her again.

Ainori: Asian Journey (Netflix)

'''Ainori: Asian Journey Season 2 '''

Fundraising

Since April 2004, the program started the fundraising campaign called Ainori Bokin. This is a donation for poor countries visited in the program. The money has been mainly used for children living in these countries, and the schools called Ainori Gakko have been built.

Commentators

Masami Hisamoto – October 11, 1999 – 2006
Koji Imada – October 11, 1999 – 2006
Haruhiko Katō – October 11, 1999 – March 20, 2006
Eiji Wentz – April 10, 2006 – 2011Becky – October 2017 – present
Mayuko Kawakita – October 2017 – 2018
Audrey – October 2017 – 2018
Shimon Okura – October 2017 – 2018
Asako Ito – November 2018 – July 2019
Natsuna Watanabe – November 2018 – July 2019Karina Maruyama – January 2020 – presentRyo Kato – January 2020 – present
'''Kouhei Takeda – January 2020 – present'''

International versions

Vietnam

The Vietnamese version is called "Hành trình kết nối những trái tim", or "Love bus", was broadcast in December 2008, becoming a high rated show of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi Television. It is originally aired every Tuesday at 10PM.