Some people worry about their privacy. I’ve accepted that we’re living in the panopticon a long time ago, and I embrace it. So I was thrilled to find this image on Google Street View.

I learned that Tokyo had been pretty well covered on Street View, so I was began poking around my old neighborhoods and tracing my old bike routes. This shot is from the shotengai (shopping street) around the corner from our old apartment in J-House out in Nakano Shinbashi (right across from Panda Koen). I was really excited to see an over-sized gaijin atop his sweet mama chari bicycle (me). That bike – which I still have in Brooklyn – is one slick ride. I get lots of questions about it when I take it out to work on the Long Island Railroad. It’s got two shiny fenders, and extra-deep basket up front and a huge headlamp that’s pedal-powered. It’s pretty intimidating.

I actually dedicated my dissertation to “the bicycle-friendly streets of Tokyo” so it’s good to see that my relationship has been recorded for posterity. It’s fun to look at this picture now, because it must have been taken when I was writing the first draft of The Complete Collection. I would bike from place to place and write the stories as I took a break.

Anyway, big day for me.