James May: Notre Homme...

Unlike many documentaries and YouTube videos filmed in japan, James really showed how japan is like in a respectful way. Funny, entertaining and I learnt a lot more about japan than just the touristic places. Watch it!

The show is good overall, but it's let down by half-heartedly squatting between two schools of thought aboht what it wants to be and it suffers greatly for it. I want to watch James May spend hours excitedly explaining intricate processes in detail, admiring the delicate craftmanship of woodworking and the technical complexities of engineering; there is a bit of that, but far too often in this series this is cut short - seemingly on the (spurious) assumption that people would rather see James May being forced to perform ridiculous antics and laugh at him he complains about it. Please, drop this for the next series; it's not smart, it's not funny, and it's a waste of James May's talent as a presenter. We get enough bullying of him on The Grand Tour - let him explore things he's passionate about and share them with us. Too much focus on these antics has left the show felt rushed overall - it could have done with another few episodes and much longer segments of the interesting bits.

(Flash Review)

It makes sense that between Clarkson and Hammond that James May would be the one to explore Japan from a cultural perspective. Over six episodes and across each island, May explores several cultural activities from artistic to food & drink to Japanese heritage to local manufacturing to picturesque nature to the bizarre. The spectrum goes from simple and cheap restaurants to luxury train rides. His dry wit and quirky charm is entertaining for the duration and he really exposes the viewer to a wide array of what Japan has to offer. A solid combo of information and amusement.

Mellow and sensible little show. Yujiro was simply great!

Joined up just to say how much I enjoyed this series! James and Yujrio have amazing on camera chemistry that is so fun to watch! They really feed well off one another- they're crazy if they don't collaborate to make another season.