One recent early morning, Franz-Michael S. Mellbin, the Danish ambassador to Japan, was to be found preparing for an important diplomatic mission at a rather unlikely venue — on the Tama River cycling track just by the Futakobashi Bridge linking Tokyo's Setagaya Ward and Kawasaki.
At 7 a.m. sharp on that beautifully sunny day, Ambassador Mellbin showed up on the Kawasaki side casually but neatly dressed in a white T-shirt, light beige cotton pants and red running shoes. He was maneuvering a fancy bike with a gleaming burgundy frame. Accompanying the ambassador was an entourage of three fellow cyclists from the embassy — a trio apparently just as fit, and certainly as fashionably kitted out in their bright red, sky blue or yellow sports jackets, matching gloves and tinted shades.
Clearly, this reporter, who had made an appointment to meet the ambassador there, was completely out of place. Not only was I wearing a decidedly un-sporty, bulky down coat, but I'd rolled up on a heavy, battery-powered mamachari (mommy's bike) borrowed from my mother-in-law — complete with shopping baskets fore and aft.