Freelance Announcer Aika Kanda: “My Second-Year Challenge! The Himura Couple’s Route 66 Trip, Part 2—My Proud ‘Sea Lion’ Friend”

A place I absolutely want to visit

My husband and I embarked on a journey to fulfill our dream last summer vacation: a cross-country trip along Route 66.Last year, we started at the eastern end in Chicago and traveled about 1,500 km to Oklahoma City. This summer, we’ll continue from there, driving the remaining 2,300 km in five days toward our western endpoint: Santa Monica.

Our destination for Day 2 is Albuquerque, New Mexico—the town where the TV series *Breaking Bad* was set—located about 470 km from Amarillo, Texas, where we ended Day 1. As fans of the show, we wanted to arrive early to tour the filming locations, but there were two places along the way we absolutely had to stop at.

Right after leaving the hotel, we arrived at the first place we wanted to visit: “Cadillac Ranch.” Ten real Cadillacs are buried vertically in the ground, arranged so that the cars appear to be growing out of the earth. Seeing this scene—which we’d seen countless times in videos and photos back in Japan—we were both moved and exclaimed, “We’re really here!”It’s a tradition for visitors to use the spray paint cans provided to tag the Cadillacs, so we also wrote our names side by side—“YUKI” and “AIKA”—in green spray paint.

Before we knew it, the view from the window of our rental car had turned into a red-earth wilderness stretching as far as the eye could see. This was Route 66. We were thrilled by this scenery, which you rarely get to see on a typical trip to the U.S.

Then we arrived at our second stop, the “Blue Hole.” It’s a small lake about 25 meters deep and 18 meters in diameter, where the water is completely refreshed every six hours by spring water.Many people were jumping in from the diving board and having fun. My husband had been wearing his swimsuit since morning just to swim here. Beaming with joy, he hurriedly joined the line… Splash! When my husband—with his jet-black hair plastered flat to his bob cut—surfaced from the water, the foreigners around us stared at him with curiosity.

I felt proud seeing that sight. Everyone else there was a foreigner with a similar body type—similar muscles in similar places. Their silhouettes were so alike that, to be honest, you couldn’t tell them apart from a distance. But my husband was the only one whose whole body was flabby and jiggly, with a round belly sticking out.No matter how you looked at him, you could tell it was my husband in an instant. I shot him a triumphant glance at the others, as if to say, “How about that, you guys! You don’t have the guts to have a body this unique, do you?” and kept snapping photos of him as he emerged from the water like a sea lion.

At 4:30 p.m., we finally arrived in Albuquerque. We went on a shopping spree at the “Breaking Bad” merchandise store and had a blast at the museum displaying the costumes and props used in the show.

The Reality of the “Sacred Site”

Next, we headed to the location that appears most frequently in the show: the home of the protagonist, Walter. It’s a real house, and while the address has been made public as a filming location, I heard that people still live there as a private residence.

As the house came into view through the windshield, I realized it was the very same one I’d seen on the show, and I couldn’t help but call out, “Walter!” and wave. Although the color of the roof had changed, the gate and the driveway were exactly as they appeared in the series. There were several other groups of tourists there as well, and I was delighted to see the enduring popularity of this show, even 13 years after it ended.

However, there was one thing that shouldn’t have been there in the show: a fence set up in front of the house. On it were several signs reading, “Please do not take photos from here!” I imagine fans of the show must have been visiting and taking photos that looked as if they were peering inside the house.It seemed some fans had even trespassed into the pool at the back of the house—where key scenes were filmed—so an additional fence had been erected along the path leading to it.

I, too, was so filled with joy and excitement that I hadn’t even considered the residents’ privacy. Once again, *Breaking Bad* taught me an unexpected lesson.

Then we headed to the hotel. For my husband and me, this long-awaited night in Albuquerque was a special one. We decided to toast on the hotel’s second-floor communal terrace. Pop! ♪ The festive sound of the champagne cork popping echoed through the quiet Albuquerque night sky. “Thanks for everything—cheers!”We spent over an hour sharing our thoughts on the day and how we were feeling, then drifted off to sleep. With only three days left, we still had about 1,400 km to go. Would we actually make it!? (To be continued)

Aika Kanda / Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1980.After graduating from the Department of Mathematics in the Faculty of Science at Gakushuin University, she joined NHK as an announcer in 2003. She left NHK in 2012 to become a freelance announcer. Since then, she has been active primarily in variety shows and currently appears regularly as the main MC on the daytime series “Pokapoka” (Fuji TV network).

★ Her first book , a compilation of this series titled *“Where Does the ‘Royal Road’ Lead? ”* , is now on sale to great acclaim!

From the October 23 & 30, 2026, combined issue of *FRIDAY*