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'The Amazing Race' season 31 premiere sees cramps and chocolate shoes lead to an elimination

Digging into a huge sand castle for their first task, the 11 teams took off to Tokyo and ended up on Mount Fuji as the season premiere came to an end

After much anticipation and excitement, 'The Amazing Race's season 31 premiered on April 17 on CBS with host Phil Keoghan kicking off the race from the sands of Hermosa Beach in Los Angeles, California. "This is a reality clash between fierce competitors who all think they have what it takes to race more than 25,000 miles around the world and win one million dollars!" said Keoghan as he welcomed the teams to the Race.

The teams seemed confident and in a bit of pre-Race friendly bickering, 'Big Brother' and 'Survivor' contestants Rachel and Elissa and Corinne and Eliza took on each other with regard to how much the Houseguests ate on the show, as opposed to the Race, in which contestants don't get time to eat at all.

As teams start smearing dirt on one another, Rachel, who has been on both 'Big Brother' as well as 'TAR' said that contestants would be shocked by how grueling the Race is. Tyler Oakley got called out by Keoghan for remaining silent through the bickering, and Rupert Boneham, being his usual self, was adamant that 'Survivor' contestants are the strongest.

The contestants were then sent dashing for a huge sand castle that they must dig into for their first clue.  As teams find their golden tickets, they find out that they're off to Tokyo, Japan, and Art Velez and John James "JJ" Carrell lagged behind in the last place. Cousins Leo Temory and Jamal Zadran were one of the first teams to get the first clue and could be heard grunting "Not Tokyo again!"

The premiere was interspersed with the teams reminiscing on their past experiences on their respective shows. Tyler and Korey said that when they had started off on 'TAR' the last time, they probably seemed like "giggly messes" but they came third and don't plan on doing anything differently this season.

Corinne and Eliza soon dubbed Victor and Nicole "Team Dum Dum", labeled Rachel helpless without her husband and believed Rupert is too old to compete. Teams had to fly more than 5,000 miles and, once in Tokyo, had to catch a bus to Shibuya, which is a special ward of Japan and home to the world’s biggest pedestrian crossing. Teams had to then travel on foot to one of two locations to find their next clue, each of which had only a limited number of clues.

Rupert and Laura were the first ones to find their golden clues this time, closely followed by Leo and Jamal. The cousin brothers are the first to get to the Road Block — only to find some chocolate shoes! Soon after Jamal and Leo find the chocolate sandal, Janelle and Britney walk in and Janelle finds a chocolate sandal at the first attempt. Jamal and Leo are the first to reach the next Road Block, "Who Wants to Climb Mount Fuji?" while Victor, with his impressive sweet tooth (shoe tooth?), launches himself and Nicole into third place.

Colin and Christie catch up with "Afghanimals" Jamal and Leo at Mount Fiji, but the brothers still swiftly win the seven-day cruise. Corinne and Eliza, lagging behind, are giving up hope and think they'll be going home. The panic-stricken duo had no idea they were still ahead of Art and JJ. 

But, the tables turned as Art and JJ reached Mount Fiji and Art, cramping, was unable to scale the mountain. Rupert and Laura, who were lost on their way for over two hours used the golden opportunity to make their way through to the next leg of the race. Reaching last after Art's four-hour penalty, the duo was eliminated from the Race.