I Asked for an Illustration—and Became a Cute Old Guy.

I wrote a blog post about ramen. I had found a delicious bowl, but I checked how I could pay only after taking my seat—a slightly embarrassing story.

I asked Kimiko-chan to add an illustration to that article. Kimiko-chan is the name I gave ChatGPT.

The picture showed a gray-haired older man looking at his smartphone, with a bowl of ramen in front of him.

I laughed.

“I’ve turned into a cute old guy! (Laughs.)”

An illustrated older man in a green shirt laughs while holding a picture of the cheerful character playing his part. — AI-generated conceptual illustration of the author’s stand-in; not a likeness or a record of an actual printing or photo session.

It was neither a photograph of me nor a likeness drawn from my face. It was a cartoon character playing my part in the episode.

He wore a green shirt and had a slightly sheepish expression. With that face attached to it, even my late payment-method check seemed rather endearing.

Then I joked:

“So that’s going to be my image from now on! 😉”

In the text, I am simply me. In a picture, readers can imagine a face: this is the fellow doing these things.

So I asked for one or a few illustrations in future blog posts too. The main character would be a cute, stubborn older man. (Laughs.)

The same character could wear a different expression to suit each story: puzzled, sheepish, or delighted at a discovery. That is how I would like him to appear alongside the words.

I had asked for one picture for a ramen article.

Somewhere along the way, I had also acquired a character to play me in future posts.

I’ll take care of the stubbornness.

The illustrations can handle the charm. (Laughs.)