There are two ways into the book, Tokyo Ueno Station. One way is to read it straight through from the beginning, as most books are intended, and get lost in the hallucinatory tale of Kazu, a homeless man in Ueno Park.

The second way is to start with the author’s afterword at the end of the book (as well as the translator’s note if you’re reading the English translation). For some grounding, I’d recommend the the afterword, as Japanese culture is disorienting enough.

That bike made the entire world my playground, safe enough to explore, and full of treasures in the most mundane of places. It gave me a set of exploration maxims I honor and refine to this day: the art of going incrementally further and more dangerous; that it’s better to get out the door than stay inside when life sucks;  riding solo is just as fun as with the crew. That bike gave truth to the cliché that it’s all about the journey and not the destination.

I chose Sasquatch Chronicles episode 761 as a good introduction of what the podcast has to offer. Wes, the host, interviews a hunter from Mississippi who—while hunting deer from a tree-stand along the clear-cut of a power line—has a run-in with a creature he at first thinks is a bear, until he lifts his rifle scope and zooms in. Bigfoot!