Aika Kanda Takes on Route 66 Again! The Himura Couple’s American Road Trip, Part 1

An Epic Journey

We had been looking forward to this summer for an entire year. This year, we were finally going to complete Route 66, the highway that crosses America from coast to coast! It was a dream and a goal my husband and I shared. During last summer’s vacation, we set off from Chicago at the eastern end and drove about 1,500 kilometers over four days, making it as far as Oklahoma City.

This summer, we would pick up where we left off and cover the remaining approximately 2,300 kilometers to the western endpoint in Santa Monica in just five days. In late August, we returned to Oklahoma City. All right! The second half of the Hinomura couple’s Route 66 adventure was finally about to begin!

We picked up a rental car at Oklahoma City Airport. This year’s companion was a dark gray Toyota SUV. Last year, we’d had trouble when the engine oil warning light came on while we were driving, forcing us to exchange our car at short notice. As I walked around the vehicle, hoping that nothing like that would happen this year, I felt that the tire on the left rear wheel looked just a little flatter than the others.

When I pressed the tires with my fingers to compare them, that one seemed to give way slightly more than the rest. I told my husband, but he said, “There’s no way. It’s fine,” so I tried not to worry about it.

Our destination for the first night was Amarillo, a small town in Texas about 415 kilometers away. Last year, we’d driven along roads bordered by seemingly endless fields of corn or soybeans. This year, the farther west we went, the more the landscape turned into dry, desert-like terrain. The towns along the way were even more remote, with fewer people around, meaning that if anything went wrong, help would be a long time coming. The sunlight was scorching, too, and it was unbearably hot.

To make sure we could survive the journey, our first stop was Walmart, a large supermarket, where we stocked up on plenty of water and emergency snacks. Then we shouted, “Let’s go!” raised our fists in the air, and set off.

As we drove, the scenery gradually opened up into vast grasslands. The sheer scale was unimaginable in Japan. Cows and horses roamed freely, grazing as they crossed the natural hills, and they looked almost wild. Route 66 stretched straight ahead, cutting through the grasslands that extended all the way to the horizon.

The scenery barely changed, and there wasn’t much else to do, so we started playing a game: “Will the next animal we see be a cow or a horse?” Almost as soon as we began, we spotted a herd of around 20 brown animals in the distance. I guessed, “Cows!” while my husband said, “Horses!” As we got closer and could make them out clearly, they turned out to be horses. We played the game countless more times after that, but my husband was the only one who kept getting the answers right. Why couldn’t I even tell the difference between a cow and a horse? I was disgusted with myself.

After driving for several hours, with a break for my husband to take a nap along the way, we headed out for dinner at THE BIG TEXAN, a famous steakhouse in Amarillo. The restaurant was packed, and its interior was quintessentially Texan, with the heads of animals bearing impressive horns mounted on the walls. The restaurant’s signature attraction was a competition held on a central stage: anyone who could finish a 72-ounce steak (about 2 kilograms) within one hour would get the meal for free.

Why We Want to Go Back

When we visited, two burly men were taking on the challenge, cheered on by the other customers. Unfortunately, both gave up partway through. But the 300-gram filet steak I ordered was incredibly tender and cooked perfectly medium, just as I’d requested. I washed it down with a special cocktail served in a cowboy-boot-shaped glass, and it was so delicious that all my fatigue simply melted away. And so, our first day—which had lasted a whopping 31 hours—came to an end. We slept soundly at the hotel.

Incidentally, even now, my husband keeps saying, “Why didn’t I try the two-kilogram steak myself back then?! That’s my one regret!” At this rate, it looks like we’ll be going back to that restaurant sometime during the rest of our lives. When we do, I’d like to bring a handmade cheering fan and put Japan’s unique cheering culture to the test. I want to see just how much excitement a Japanese husband-and-wife variety-show celebrity duo can stir up among Americans!

On day two, we were heading for Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city about 470 kilometers away. Many of you probably recognize the name. That’s right—it’s the setting of the hugely successful worldwide TV series Breaking Bad.

My husband and I are huge fans of Breaking Bad. Naturally, before setting off on our trip, we rewatched every episode from the very first one. Almost all the shops and locations featured in the series are real, and there are reportedly around 70 filming locations. “Let’s get there early and go on a tour of the filming locations!” we said, hurriedly ate breakfast at the hotel, and hit the road.

(To be continued.)

Aika Kanda was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1980. After graduating from Gakushuin University’s Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Science, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003. She left NHK in 2012 to become a freelance announcer. Since then, she has been active mainly on variety shows and currently appears regularly as the main host of the Fuji TV daytime program Pokapoka.

★ Her first book, compiling this series, Where Exactly Does the Road Called The Mainstream Run?, is now on sale to great acclaim!

From the October 16, 2026 issue of “FRIDAY.”