It looks like another actor and musician recently traveled Route 66 for a multi-series television special. Last fall, it was Billy Connolly for United Kingdom TV. Now it’s Yamashita Tomohisa, a 26-year-old singer-songwriter and actor from Japan.
On Jan. 2, NTV in Japan started airing “Yamashita Tomohisa Route 66: Tatta Hitori no America.” According to TokyoGraph, he toured Route 66 in November. The report said:
Along the way, his experiences included living the cowboy lifestyle, interacting with Native Americans, and meeting with Angel Delgadillo, known as the “guardian angel” of Route 66 for his work in preserving the historic road.
Yamashita reportedly completed the trip without a manager or makeup artist, doing everything on his own, from driving to doing his laundry to managing his meals.
Get this: The series will last for three months.
Below are the first two episodes. Language will be somewhat of a barrier, but you’ll probably understand what’s going on well enough:
https://vimeo.com/34505381
https://vimeo.com/34837344
In the wake of Connolly’s highly rated television series, Route 66 tour groups are expecting a surge of British travelers this year. If Yamashita is as popular in his homeland as he appears, don’t be surprised to see an influx of Japanese tourists on the Mother Road as well.
Thank you for posting these. Surprisingly entertaining. He certainly managed to find a vehicle with far more history and soul than the first much newer one he was shown. That he chose a pickup as old as he and knew to travel 66 from east to west makes me think he’s worth watching. Please, continue to post the episodes.
Superb Deluxe Japanese performance of “Get Your Kicks On Route 66” by the BFJO comliments of the Route 66 Artwork fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1863032261924
NOTE: Must be logged into your Facebook account to view video.
Love it!
Loved the episode with the Shea couple. Hope to see more of this show – it’s really heart warming.
Yamashita is very-very popular in Japan. Not sure about influx of tourists though, as the economy in Japan is not so good. It’s a very interesting series. You can get a subbed version from here: https://share.dreamwidth.org/
I must say, I’m pleasantly surprised by this article and the comments on it. I’m a fan of Yamashita (I’m not Japanese) and I was truly wondering what international non-fans would think of the show – since this series is broadcast at a very late time in Japan, its audience is expected to be mostly (female) fans of his. The following episodes have become more and more interesting (up to ep5 now) as Yamashita meets more people and loosens up. I’m not sure route66news will do so, but I’d love if you could keep posting up the subsequent episodes as well. Many thanks.
It seems that the user who uploaded this two episodes on Vimeo has also uploaded up to episode 5!
Yup. I posted those episodes on this site.