As we celebrate its 100th anniversary, many have discovered that Route 66 is truly an international phenomena, recognized in various countries around the world as an icon of the American spirit and sense of adventure. Japan is one of those places and ten young men, university students, from various parts of Japan bicycled through Lebanon this last weekend of September, experiencing some of that for themselves.
Masaki Konishi, Tatsuya Kushihara, Haruto Tominaga, and Shinnosuke Kawabe were spotted biking along Elm Street Sunday, just after noon on their way from Chicago to Santa Monica, the entire expanse of Route 66. They call themselves the Ukiyo Guys, a Japanese phrase that originally meant ‘a world of sorrow’ but with the change of just one letter, artists changed the meaning to a ‘floating world’, roughly translated as a different way of looking at the world, a world you can enjoy, according to Masaki.
“We left Chicago a week ago,” Masaki began to explain while the young men, all in their early 20s, took a short rest break on the grass in front of the Super 8 Motel on Elm Street, aka Historic Route 66. “There are 10 of us altogether and we have 5 bicycles. We alternate, some biking and others riding in our camper, our support vehicle. At night we alternate, some of us sleeping in the camper and others in tents, camping along the way.”
A couple of the young men are also photographers and videographers and they are documenting the entire journey with the goal of producing a documentary that will eventually be shown in 100 schools back in Japan.
Masaki continued to explain their purpose. “Many young people in Japan are taught to play it safe. They use social media but we want to show them that you can do more and to challenge themselves. We hope to help build a society where one person’s challenges inspire another.”
Their route from Chicago to Santa Monica encompasses 2330 miles and they ride 60 to 90 miles a day. Their goal is to arrive in Santa Monica by November 11, Route 66’s actual birthday, according to their website post. Masaki also mentioned they were very grateful to their Japanese company sponsors who have made this adventure possible.
It has not been all that easy. They have obviously endured an incredible heat wave in recent days and drenching rains in their first days.
“We had four of our five bikes stolen in Chicago the day before we were to leave so we had to replace those with our own money before we could leave. We’ve also had flat tires but also a lot of help from strangers along the way.”
Masaki is a university student and also works as a house parent at a university dormitory. Tatsuya is also a student and runs a small tourism business. Shinnosuke is a photographer and a videographer and one of the young men who is helping to make the movie they will produce at the end of their journey.
Haruto is also a university student and a professional Japanese calligrapher, producing the drawn characters so often associated with Asian art and writing on specially designed hand-made paper known as Washi.
All four students were very excited about their experiences thus far and the different things they were learning along the route, including new and remarkable history lessons such as the Midwest’s Dust Bowl of the 1930s that involved families that also traveled Route 66 on their way to California.
They were all exceedingly polite and ended our interview with a traditional Japanese bow of respect and a gift of Japanese calligraphy by Haruto.
