December 27, 2023. Madeleine Day.

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At the end of last year I thought 2022 was the year of Madeleine for me...

 

but A LOT happened this year...I don’t even know where to start.

Okay,I can do this.

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In the previous Madeleine update I talked about the ゾゾゾ experience, and also about the Yotsuya/Ichigaya trail on the 9th of November. That was my last Madeleine (Madeleine Season 5).

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If you need a recap, and most likely you do because my explanations are very confusing, here’s a quick recap:

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Madeleine Season 1. (Tabata, 27 December 2021) Where it all begins :)

Madeleine Season 2. (Nippori/Uguisudani, 27/28 March)

Madeleine Season 3. (Sugamo, 27 June)

Madeleine Season 4. (the one I did in Oji, 27 September)
Madeleine Season 5. (Ichigaya/Yotsuya, 9 November)

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So now it’s it’s the end of 2022, I had the adventure in Ichigaya/Yotsuya and about a month later I discovered the whole ゾゾゾ thing....and my mind is blown.

If you remember my previous update, I was saving my Madeleine videos in order to share them with Sさん, when I suddenly remember about the message/e-mail system I setup for this page where I saw all your messages and find out about ゾゾゾ etc...

So after that shocking discovery, I decided not to tell Sさん about it. Instead, I decided to keep saving the videos I took during my Madeleines adventures and share them with her, as originally planned...and eventually, only once she finishes watching all of them (especially season 4 where I placed the QR code), at some random point I will tell her about the messages I received, and I'll show her the ゾゾゾ video revealing that I accidentally started this cult and became Madeleineさん...lol

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I wrote the last sentence with a sarcastic tone, but I actually like the name Madeleineさん.

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So that was the plan, to just keep going with my life till one day she’ll say "I watch all the seasons", and that will be the time for the big reveal....

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A few months has passed, in one of my days off Sさん invited me to take part of a scavenger hunt thing (謎解き) around Tokyo. It seemed fun.

The game had hints hidden in many locations, and we figured out we couldn’t cover all the locations in one day, so we decided to split it in two weekends.

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On the first weekend, one of the locations of the scavenger hunt was a park in front of Myogadani station. I've never been to that station before. 

When we arrive at that station we started walking towards the small park and and the side of the road there was a small yellow arrow written on the pavement. We joke about it, "Oh look! looks like a Madeleine arrow" then we kept walking, and sure enough few steps later there it was. A big arrow, yellow chalk, with written F3H3 underneath.

It was the first time I saw an arrow with that specific writing. But there was no doubt about it, that night I was going to have another Madeleine adventure.

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It’s 19 February 2023, at 12:19.

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I was super excited, as usual. Another adventure came out of nowhere, in an area I've never been before. And this time with the knowledge that a considerable amount of people are aware of the "Adventures of Madeleine".

The rest of the day I couldn’t focus much on anything else, and that evening I went home earlier and prepare for the adventure I was going to have that night.

Madeleine season 6.

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Remembering what happened at the end of season 5 (yotsuya/ichigaya) this time I decided to clear some space on my phone, to avoid running out of memory. I fully charge my phone. Googled the coordinates on how to get to Myogadani Station by bike, and left the house earlier planning to get some dinner in some place next to that station. I wanted to take it easy and take my time enjoy the adventure.

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I remember on the way there, I randomly met an australian man on a bike who asked me for directions on how to get to Nippori, and then he told me "I think having adventures at night by bike around tokyo it’s amazing, more people should do that". With that sentence he said way more than he think he did.

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I went through a lot of nice areas to get to Myogadani station, I was surprise how cool and atmospheric Bunkyo-ku is, and I was even more excited about my upcoming adventure.

Eventually I got to the station and I decided to eat some ramen in a chinese place on the left side of the station, just next to Sayzeriya. I took my time and enjoy the atmosphere of the place (I remember there was a family talking about baseball)  Then when I was done I decided to start my adventure. I first went to the place where I earlier found the arrow, to place my bike, then I walk back to the station, where there was another F3H3 mark, and started filming from there...

 

"19 February 2023, 21:13, Madeleine Season 6!!! ...I can’t believe it’s season 6!"

I walked to the place where I left my bike, while explaining how I found the arrows that day, then hop on my bike and say "okay, let’s start this adventure, Madeleine season 6".....

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......and my phone just died. 

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No memory space problems, no battery problems, just died.

I kinda laugh thinking "of course something was going to happen".

I thought of what could I do, because I really wanted to enjoy that adventure, then I remembered a had a small camera at home that I haven’t used in years. I could use that. It’s not going to be the same thing because I like the atmosphere of using a phone to record madeleine, and it’s easier to talk to a phone, but I didn’t have other choices.

I run home by bike, spent a lot of time charging the small camera, and saving and deleting stuff from its memory card. Got everything ready. Ride my bike back to Myogadani station rewatching all those nice areas I saw earlier on my first trip.

Got to the point where my phone died and start filming again from there.

February 2023, 23:23. My adventure finally began.

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I remember it was a bit weird to use a camera in stead of a phone, but I thought it was cool to have a Madeleine adventure in a new format...

I’m not going to describe every step of this adventure, I'll just describe some memorable moments, like I did for the previous season on the previous update.

But there’s one thing I want to say first.

Madeleine Season 6, was THE BEST Madeleine adventure I had, BY FAR!

It was amazing, it had all the elements of a Madeleine adventure...and many more.

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Here are some of the things I enjoyed:

The gathering park was huge and pretty cool. I think is part of some university. It had a  playground with a fountain, statues, a baseball field, some strange concrete structures and it was pretty fun to follow the arrows around that park and getting distracted by all the cool things in it.

Another thing I really liked about this adventure was the overall atmosphere of just riding around at night in those areas. Bunkyo-ku it’s pretty cool. There were many places with big slopes with really cool views, cool and weird structured parks....

Remember "Temple Review" where I find a near by temple, go explore it, and give it a 1 to 5 star rating. In this Madeleine adventure there were 3 Temple Reviews. One at the beginning, one in the middle, and one towards the end (they were well distributed) at the first temple there was an arrow that pointed inside the temple with written "Stop and pray". Like it’s a mandatory step not only for my adventure, but also for the Baker too (if you don’t remember, the Baker is the person/people who draws the arrows). The second temple was a super tiny one in the middle of a very long street on a top of a hill, and it was hidden between two mansions, but it hat a very long entrance/runway that really felt suspicious. Like it was set with a lot of boobytraps or something. And the last temple was on a top of a hill as well, and the arrows led me there from the back of the temple, and then towards the actual entrance, so I was standing on top of a huge staircase with an amazing view of the city framed by a big gate on the top of the stairs.

There was an arrow pointing to the entrance of a park with written "CB" that indicates that path is blocked (I started to call it Course Blocked. Was the same type of mark I saw in Season 2 in Nippori) that park looked like a place I once saw in a dream, but I couldn’t explore it cause the gates were closed. 

There were a lot of things happening, a lot of new arrows with new instructions and all the instructions were written in English. There was a point where the arrows split and gave you an option, if you go right you take a shortcut, if you go left you take the long way. A lot of things felt like mini games. There was a point where the arrows led you to the beginning of a long straight street, and right there there was written in big letters "Are you ready for a 300m sprint? Ready, Set, GO!!" That was amazing. Because so far, in all the other seasons, all the playful things I did during my adventures came from my head, I was adding some fun between the exploration and the mystery of the thing, but this time those playful moments came from Madeleine.

At some point, next to the trailI found a park that looked cool, so I parked my bike and went to explore it. It had a small path that went uphill and once I reached the top there was a closed gate with written CB underneath, and I realized it was the same park I couldn’t explore an hour earlier, the trail went all the way around that park and it was happy I could explore it.

In season 3, while wondering around the graveyard, a feather from a raven fell into the basket of my bike, and I decided to took it as a souvenir. And in season 5 I found a piece of chalk left by the Baker next to one of the arrows, and I decided to took that one as a souvenir of that adventure.

This time I was following the trail inside an empty 商店街 and right next to one of the arrows there were two small polaroid pictures on the ground. They were pictures of a couple in vacation somewhere. And it instantly reminded me of a story I hear once about a world wide scavenger hunt that none was ever able to complete, because one of the hint was a picture of a Japanese guy on vacation in a small town somewhere in Europe, and the hint was just "Find Me". So I thought there was a mysterious similarity with those polaroids I found, and I decided to keep them as a souvenir of this adventure.

The moment that I loved the most about this adventure was when I was following the trail into a small dark street of a residential area, and I arrived in front of a concrete wall at the exit of a small park, the wall had one of those political election posters on it, on the ground there was an arrow, and right above the concrete wall there was a neon light that gave a strange atmosphere to that area, like it wasn’t real, I remember thinking it looked like CGI, and while I was entering into that small park I was saying while recording "This place looks like CGI....wait..." and I could finish my sentence because all of a sudden I realized I was standing in the park from Season 3, the one in the Sugamo adventure. I remember thinking "this place looks familiar... OH MY GOD, how is this possible?!? How am I here?!?" It was the strangest of feelings. I was in a completely new area for me, and suddenly not only I'm in a place I’ve already been to, but a place I've only experience through a previous Madeleine adventure. It was surreal, like when you dream the same place twice. And I was also excited because I thought was super cool that two different Madeleine trails were connected by crossing paths in that park. It was a cool callback to season 3. Or maybe season 3 was a cool foreshadowing of season 6.

I really enjoyed the area towards the end of the trail, where I started to feel I was getting closer and closer to the gathering park. It had a park that went uphill, with a lot os stairs, (I don’t remember if I mention this in the previous updates, but often during a trail there are areas where you have to climb stairs, so I get off my bike, I lift it, and carry it upstairs while still filming with my phone. It’s tiring but it gives you a sense of gratification once on top) so this time too, I started to climb those stairs and there was an arrow saying "up". My camera started a countdown because the battery was dying. 5 minutes left. then another set of stairs, carried my bike again, another arrow with written "ON2". I was excited cause I could feel the end of the trail was near. My bike broke down, I injured my shins, and at the time I didn’t notice but when the bike fell on the ground I lost one of the two polaroid pictures. Carried my bike again. More stairs. And once I arrive exhausted at the top of the stairs I see it... "Beer Near".

It was a nostalgic feeling mix with excitement. I started running to make it in time to the gathering park. I was still recording and I was super excited for the whole adventure I just had, and when I reached the gathering park I just said "This was the best Madeleine ever.....5, 4, 3, 2, 1....Credits.

And the camera died. 

I've decided to get to a konbini and rent a battery to charge my camera, so I can go film looking for the "P" mark. There was a konbini just in front of Myogadani station, and the second I entered in the konbini a big car crush just happened in front of the Konbini and a car flipped over and stopped in the middle of the street. Luckily none got injured. But it definitely was something that you don’t see every day. Rescues where quick. I rented a portable battery, went to the station where the F3H3 was, and started to follow the "P marks". The trail led me in front of that chinese place where I eat earlier that evening, but it was pointing at a staircase and there was written "Basement".

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This time too, I was surprised that all the signs were written in english. And it made me wonder again what the original "event" with the trail of arrows actually is...but as usual, I don't want to know. 

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It was time to end the adventure, but I decided to go all the way to that place where the trail split and take the "Short way" on the right this time. It brought me almost immediately at the back of the gathering park. I ended the recording wondering what song will play in my head this time on the way home...

There was no song this time....my mind was silent. In bliss.

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 If you made it through this long, boring and pointless description, congratulations. And thank you. The thing I wanted to convey with all this detailed description is how this time I was completely immersed in the adventure. And how the sense of mystery was slowly replaced by familiarity. The exploration was more fun, it felt like going playing outside with an old friend. And I wasn’t trying anymore to figure out who made the arrows and why, because it didn’t matter anymore.

The way I experience Madeleine was changing into something different. 

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4 March 2023

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Two weeks has passed from the adventure. It’s the weekend again. I met Sさん to go complete the Scavenger Hunt thing we decided to split in two weekends.

One of the location of the scavenger hunt was in Ginza. There’s a lot of people as usual. We’re there not even 10 minutes...and I found an arrow. 

I remember thinking "what?....Ginza it’s not a good Madeleine adventure location....and the previous adventure was only two weeks ago..." 

I pull out my phone, and I recorded the arrow I was standing on and just said "season 7".

(I can believe it’s Season 7!)

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Later that evening I prepared for the adventure. I borrowed a portable battery this time. And I thought was kind of a shame that I couldn’t fix my phone to be able to record with it. So I had to use the small camera again. (I wanted to have only Season 6 filmed with the small camera, because I thought it would have been cool if only that one was recommended in a different format). 

I left the house taking it slowly. My bike was still kinda broken. And Ginza it’s pretty far from where I live.

On my way there I was thinking "I'm a grown up man going around late at night following a mysterious trail of arrows...." but instead of thinking "what am I doing with my life?" I was thinking "This is amazing!".

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Okay, this time I promise, I won't waste much of your time in pointless descriptions of what I saw. Because Madeleine it’s something you experience...it’s about the atmosphere, getting lost, and the sense of adventure. So there’s no point of describing it in detail. It’s like describing a dream to someone, the person you’re describing it to will never experienced it or even imagined it the way you did. 

So here are the points that are worth mentioning.

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I had low expectations because I don’t really like the Ginza area, and I don’t think it’s a good place for a Madeleine adventure. The structure of the area is in blocks and it’s full of big streets and modern buildings....but surprisingly, I enjoyed the area a lot. 

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The thing I notice immediately was that the handwriting was the one of the original Baker, from Season 1. I’m 100% sure.

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This was the only Season where the trail went also inside of buildings. I thought was pretty cool! At some point the arrows entered in one of the stations of Tokyo Metro, wondered around the subway, and come out of another exit. 

And in another place the trail went inside a sport center (?) building that had a park on the rooftop. But by the time I got there at night the building was already closed and I couldn’t get in. 

I found it very interesting. Not only because it gave me an idea of a time frame for when the arrows were drawn, but also it meant that whatever the original event of these mysterious arrows is, is not meant to be "played" at night.

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In this Season to have fun I decided to walk on those painful paths made out of rocks that you find in parks sometimes. You know, those pavements with rocks and bumpy shapes that you walk on and they supposed to help your feet circulation...? I found 3 of those in different parks, and it was fun to imagine a foreign man, late at night, walking on those in pain, while filming it.

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The thing I liked the most about this season was the search for the "P" mark. 

I couldn’t find it.

But the amount of information I got in that little search was pretty interesting.

I find the TLH3 sign written on the floor at the exit of a Tokyo Metro station. And then, near by, I found a TH3 (like the original one in Tabata) at the exit of JR Yurakucho station. So the original arrows event has a different name based on what station you start from? That was interesting.

But the best thing about Season 7 was that while I was looking for the "P" mark, I found the Gathering Park instead. And on the ground there was written a big explanatory map of all the different types of arrows and signs you can find during the trail. Normal arrow, arrow written with only one stroke, the arrows with two line across(go across the road), There were signs for the CB(course blocked*), BN, Beer Near, ON2, ON ON, the pizza graph, etc.

It was awesome. It felt like I've unlocked some special map on a video game...

But most importantly, It meant that my theories were right, and whatever the original event is, there are two steps on it.

1- The Baker makes the trail and let people know in which area the event is taking place.

2- People gather at the Gathering Park, and the Baker explains how the thing works. And the people follow the trail while the Bake is waiting at the gathering park....with beer :)

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Happy of having unlocked that new knowledge I stopped recording and I headed home.

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The song that was playing in my head on the way home was the credit song of Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, for Game Boy.

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....Credits.

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After that adventure I had many thoughts about all my Madeleine experiences so far... 

And since the previous adventure was only two weeks earlier I started wondering if I should have more these Adventures or not. Finding a Madeleine trail in a random place once every three months it's cool. I will forget about Madeleine and then all of a sudden I'll know that night I'll have an adventure....waiting is part of the enjoyment.

But if I find a trail every two weeks, that too much, and I wonder how many adventures can I have before that sense of magic fades away...

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Some time has passed and one day I decided to check again the e-mail system I set up for this page...and to my surprise there were quite a few new messages.

The messages I received the first time where from people curious about the meaning of it, asking me why do I do it, or what do you think the original event is etc... but this time was different. All the messages were either from people telling me they really enjoy my story and they wanted to also be part of one of the adventures, by following a trail or even making a trail...or from people thanking me because they accidentally found a trail of Madeleine arrows, follow it, and had a fun time having their own Madeleine adventure.

(I want to take a moment to tell all of the people who texted me that I really appreciate you sending a message to me, and I really enjoy reading that you had your own experience with Madeleine and that now it also mean something to you. I become very emotional when I read them. So even if I don’t reply to you, thank you.)

When I was reading those messages I start to realize something...  whatever the original event is, I don’t think is as important to the people taking part of it as it is important to those who know about Madeleine and had a meaningful experience by getting lost in their own adventure following some mysterious arrows. Whatever the arrows were supposed to be  it doesn’t matter anymore. Madeleine as we know it has become bigger than whatever the original event is. The "cult" we started is now what those arrows mean. What was born from shadow of that event is now the main event itself. 

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In the following weeks I had 2 dreams where I found a trail of Madeleine arrows.

-One where I was on the banks of the Arakawa river, and I follow the trail next to the grass. And then I found a flowery pizza mark in front of an art gallery close to where I live.

-And one where I was in Yokohama with some friends and I found the arrows on the way to the amusement park, but since I can’t go to Yokohama by bike and I was with friends I just followed the trail a little bit and then gave up.

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After having those dreams I decided It was time for me to make another trail, and having someone else experience a Madeleine adventure made by me.

Sさんwent on vacation and was about to go back to Japan, so I thought it will be cool to make a trail in Yotsuya so she can find it and tell me "There’s Madeleine in Yotsuya!" and I will just pretend I didn’t know.

I was planning to do it the 8th of May. Cause I knew that day she'll be back at the office. 

So the day before I prepared a potential trail in my head, and prepared the chalks I have left from the Oji adventure.

But the night before it started raining so I decided to postpone it indefinitely.

The day after, the May 8, rained till 4pm. And when I left the office around 7pm I received a message from Sさん saying "Is that your way of saying Come Back?".

I had no idea what she was talking about, and after a few minutes she sent me a picture of a big CB mark with a crossed arrow written on the ground in front of her company.

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(only when she texted me and sent me that picture I realize that CB doesn’t stand for "Course Blocked", but stabnds for "Come Back")

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Once again I was in shock because of the absurd coincidence of Madeleine. I wanted to make a trail of arrows that day, right there, for Sさんto find. But I couldn’t because it rained. And someone else Made a trail of arrows, right there, and Sさん found it.

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Which means "those Madeleines were freshly baked".

Which means I was going to have another Madeleine adventure that night.

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8 May 2023. Season 8.

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Remember me joking about "Myself from the future is travelling back in time and is making the arrows for my present self to find"...? Well, now I think I might have some sort of weird personality disorder where my personality splits and one draws the arrows and the other one goes and find them...

...or maybe I'm connected to this whole thing at a deeper level I can’t comprehend.

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I got there at night. 

I’m used to ride my bike till Yotsuya now. And I enjoyed. 

Still I didn’t fix the problem with my phone so still filming with my small camera.

I was going to start following the trail from the CB mark Sさん showed me on the picture, but before I could get there, I accidentally spotted an arrow in front of Yotsuya station. The arrow was very big and easy to spot, and had a particular orange/yellowish color, and I immediately understood was made from the same Baker who made the previous trail in Ichigaya/Yotsuya. 

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When I found out about the ゾゾゾ video, I remember telling myself that from now on, if I find a Madeleine arrow accidentally, I will go back on that spot the same night and do the adventure. No matter what. But only if it happens randomly. 

I don’t want to know where the trails are by having someone telling me or by searching where a Madeline Adventure has been spotted by someone on twitter. 

...so this time I kind of broke that rule by having Sさん telling me where the trail was.

But I think was such a coincidence that I counted that as an exception.

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So I got to the spot, fount the arrow with the CB mark and started my adventure.

I always start to record the video by saying the date and the Season. "8 May 2023, Madeleine Season 8, Yotsuya.....I know I say this all the time, but, I cant believe it’s Season 8!!!"

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This time too, I’m not going to describe the whole adventure, so here are some key points and thoughts about Season 8.

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The baker was the same as the previous adventure in Ichigaya/Yotsuya. Same style and color of arrows. Same big ON2 written everywhere. There was no P mark, only the trail.

I call him the Yotsuya Baker.

 

I really enjoyed the previous adventure in the same area, was one of my favourites. And this time I remember describing the feeling and atmosphere of this adventure by saying that it has the same feeling of when in WarioLand you complete a level, then you go back and play the same level again and a lot of things have changed inside of that level. So you’re familiar with the places, but everything is new. And if this analogy is too foreign to you, here’s another one that you might understand...imagine you go back to the place where you grew up after a very long time... You don’t recognize places anymore, but everything feels familiar you. That was the feeling of this adventure.

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It lead me to the same temple as Season 5. Probably my favourite temple in my Madeleine adventures. I left the bike in front of it to check the temple, and when I went back to my bike there was a big strange leaf right next to it. So i took it with me. And that was the souvenir of that Adventure.

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The last thing I want to tell you about this adventure was that I had a strange thought while I was preparing for this adventure....I never wanted to know what the arrows actually are, or who's making them. And I think it’s actually cool that the person/people making those arrows has no idea about what they mean to me (and now to a lot of other people too). I find intriguing that there’s a person making his own event and from the shadows of that event something way more meaningful was born...and he we'll never know.

Well, while I was preparing for this adventure I had the thought that might be cool if the people behind the original arrows event start to understand that something is off, and there’s something more going on behind what their doing.

Because like I mentioned earlier, this is bigger than them now. But it still thanks to them if this keeps happening....so why not get them involved too, and make them experience some of the mystery?

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So in this adventure I brought a chalk with me.

My idea was...the arrows were just made right after the rain, so chances are none has followed them yet. So in two parts of the trail I wrote "MADELEINE". So whoever will follow the trail will wonder what that is...and my plan was to do the same to every future Madeleine adventure I'll have. Until someone realizes there’s something going on behind their event...and I will slowly give them more clues to make them aware of what Madeleine is, but never enough for them to discover directly what it is. And then I'll just see what will happen.

So I wrote "MADELEINE" right next to the TH3 sign (It was in front of one of the exits of Hanzomon station), and another one below the second pizza graph somewhere.

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That night on my way home there were no songs playing in my head. But I sang a lot of songs from "Sayonara Wild Hearts". And when I was almost home I decided to go see if there was a pizza graph in front of that art gallery in my area, just like I saw in my dream. Just in case...

Obviously there was nothing.

I had enough coincidences happening that day. And I enjoyed that adventure.

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...Credits.

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The following week my company had a drinking party, and at the last second I decided not to go. I went back home and once I arrived to Tabata station I remember thinking "Hey, I can smell some Madeleine in the air..." so I carefully look at ground of every corner while exiting the station. There was nothing. 

For some reason I decided to take a different route to go home, so I suddenly turned into another direction and started walking down stairs....  "noo...hahaha...what? This is happening too often now"  I could see a shiny white arrow at the bottom at the stairs....   you know the rest :)

 

17 May 2023, 19:12. 

 

I pulled out my phone and filmed a little trailer for Season 9. Every time I found a Madeleine arrow, even though I can clearly recognize is Madeleine, just to make sure I walk till the first crossing to see one of the "go across the street" arrows, the one with two lines crossing it. This time next to the crossing there was already an arrow saying TLH3. 

 

So I did the usual preparation for Madeleine. And then went back later that night.

 

While I was preparing for the adventure I kept thinking two things. 

The first one was the same thing I was thinking after Season 7 in Ginza. "How many of these adventures I can still enjoy before they become boring...This is happening too often, the previous one was just last week...

The second thing was. Unlike Yotsuya, I know this area very well. And this will be my second doing an adventure in Tabata...I don’t think will be much of a Mystery this time. 

Well, I was wrong.

 

"7th of May 2023, Madeleine Season 9!!! I cant believe it’s Season 9!! I can believe I did 9 of these adventures already!"

 

This time I decided to start filming not from the first arrow I found, but instead from the spot where I found the first arrow ever, the very first one, the one that started the whole Journey.

It felt more fitting.

 

Here are the highlights of Season 9.

 

There was no gathering park. I think the gathering park and the P mark place (the izakaya where they gather at the end) were the same place...because almost all the arrows in the beginning had the THL3 sign written next to them...and they lead to an Indian restaurant.

In front of the restaurant there was an arrow pointing at the restaurant saying "TLH3" and another one pointing towards the end of the street saying "TRAIL".

I imagine they replaced the gathering park with the restaurant, so there was no point of having a P mark. 

 

Hey remember the the "pizza graphs" that was supposed to signal how far away you’re into the trail, but after Season 8 I realized apparently that’s not what they are signalling...

Well this Madeleine adventure had 11 pizza graphs! 11!

So definitely I don’t know what they mean, but was fun to keep finding them in the most random locations (*).

 

At some point I found a crossed arrow (that indicates there was a change of mind and the trail changed course) but there was no CB written next to it, so I decided to keep going in the same direction till I'll find the CB mark. I found one, but for a good minute or two I didn’t understood it was a CB mark. Because the CB was written inside of a circle (for the first time) and looking at it from my angle looked like a smily face with glasses. I remember thinking "Hey there’s a smily face making fun of you because you kept going in the wrong direction despite the crossed arrow!! haha that’s funny". 

Only when I took a picture of it I realized it was an upside down CB inside of a circle.

 

Now the mind blowing part of this adventure...

I don’t expect you to believe what I’m about to say. To be honest, there were many unbelievable coincidences in my Madeleine adventures. The whole experience is unbelievable and surreal. but this one thing I'm about to tell you is so weird that if I were you I honesty wouldn’t believe it. 

The trail went to a completely different area from the first adventure in Tabata. And it was way longer. It went from Kita-ku, to Arakawa-ku, to and industrial area of Adachi-ku...and then I realized where it was bringing me... And just like in the dream I had, I was following a trail of arrows on the banks of the Arakawa river. The atmosphere was surreal. The sound of the wind moving the grass, the buzz of the cars across the bridge, and the lights in the distance. I was in bliss. But at that point I started to wonder one thing...  "maybe....   no, it cannot be...  but maybe..."  and eventually, later on in the trail the arrows brought me in front of that art gallery close to my house, and right there, on the floor, exactly where i dreamt it, EXACTLY where I dreamt it, there was a pizza graph. 

I screamed...a lot...

I took several picture and while recording I yell several times. "This is the place I told you in the previous adventure!! The pizza graph in front of the gallery!" 

(since I mentioned it in the previous adventure I recorded I guess I have a prove I didn’t make it up)

You might think I’m exaggerating, but I literally have goosebumps only by remembering this. 

It was amazing.

 

The "Beer Near" was written exactly where the one from Season 1 was, which makes me think the Original Baker made this trail...

 

Unlike what I thought before starting the adventure, I really enjoyed this Season 9 in Tabata. There were many exciting moments. 

I completed the loop of the trail and went back to where I first started filming. To the place where I found the first arrow ever. In Season 1

Standing there, where that first arrow used to be, I felt like that was the completion of a bigger loop. It felt fitting. So I decided that that was going to be the end of my Madeleine adventures. 

I found that first arrow, it made me have incredible adventures and generated a series of unbelievable events, and now was time to put an end to this amazing Adventure. Right there where it all started.

 

So this is the end of "The Adventures of  Madeleine".

 

....Credits.

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After the credits I walked back to the Indian restaurant and wrote MADELEINE, right next to the THL3 sign. 

 

I felt like it was the right time to end this amazing experience. Before it looses its magic. Leaving the future adventures to whoever found the arrows and decided to follow them out of curiosity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a mistake.

 

A mistake I regret.

 

21 July 2023.

 

I found a Madeleine arrow in Kagurazaka. I told myself that I retired from the adventures and that Madeleine was over. I went home with other plans in mind, but halfway through the evening I started thinking things like "I really love Madeleine, why should I stop doing it if it’s something I love?" 

Kagurazaka is an area I like...and I couldn’t resist the curiosity.

 

Later that evening I was back in Kagurazaka where I found the arrow, and I started another Madeleine adventure.

 

"21 July 2023, Madeleine Season X....     I know I keep saying this, but I can’t believe it’s season 10!"

 

I have only one thing to say about Season 10....     

 

IT... WAS... ENDLESS.

 

It was a good Madeleine adventure, but every time I though I was close to the end it just kept going...forever.

I found the P mark arrows Immediately, but I decided to follow the normal trail first, and it just kept going further and further away from Kagurazaka and it never ended. After several hours it became very tiring...especially cause I kept thinking I also had to go back and follow the P mark arrows.

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It was the first and only Madeleine adventure where I saw the sunrise.

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I wonder around following arrows from the evening until 7:30 in the morning...I was exhausted.

I never rode a bike for almost 10 hours straight ever in my life. I never did anything in my life for 10 hours straight. And I also had to go back all the way home from Kagurazaka.

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In the morning, when I went back to where I found the P mark arrow, to follow it, so much time has passed that there were some working roads on that area, and the pavement had changed...so I couldn’t find the P mark izakaya place exactly.

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The trail started from one of the exit of Kagurazaka station, where I found the THL3 sign. I wrote "MADELEINE" above it.

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One interesting thing.

This was the only Madeleine where all the signs and instructions were written in Japanese. 

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This was an intense adventure, and a different one. But I was so exhausted that I couldn’t really enjoy it. There were moments I enjoyed...but the whole adventure, the only think I could think of was "I should have retired from Madeleine in Tabata last time. I made a mistake".

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...Credits.

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Season 9 should have been the end of Madeleine. The perfect loop. And now I was unsatisfied.

I didn’t want to end my Madeleine adventures like that. And I was started wondering if I had to retire anyway, or if I had to keep finding trails and keep having adventures till I eventually find an ending that is fitting. But what could’ve been more fitting than ending it where it started?

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The fact that my curiosity had the best of me really bothered me.

And now I don’t know what to do.

I decided not to think too much about it. 

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I was enjoying my days. Was full summer. I like summer. 

Every once in a while I was thinking about Madeleine. Every time I was outside at night, and the weather was nice I was like "This is the perfect weather for a Madeleine adventure"..."I wonder if in this very moment there’s a trail somewhere".

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And then I started wondering...

The second adventure in Yotsuya was made right after the rain on the 8 of May. And the ground was still wet in many areas... why the Baker didn’t just wait for the next day to make the arrows?

Did the trail needed to be ready for the 9th? Wait, the the first adventure in Yotsuya was also the 9th. (9 November). 

And I started wondering again if the Yotsuya Baker was someone who started making the trail after he discovered "The Adventures of Madeleine" and he was following the original rule of making the trail the same day once every three months.

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I would have been cool to have a third adventure in Yotsuya....a "Yotsuya Trilogy"

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So I waited until the 8 of August. It was a rainy day. I asked Sさん to check if the day after (the 9th) there were arrows around Yotsuya station on her way to work....but the day after, the 9th, was supposed to rain all day too. So even if the Yotsuya Baker was planning a Madeleine that day, it couldn’t have been possible due to rain.

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The morning after I woke up to go to work.

9 August 2023.

 

Sky was gray, ground was wet, but in that very moment early in the morning it wasn’t raining. The weather looks like it was about to rain heavily on any second.

By the time I got to the office had started raining lightly.

Half an hour later I received a picture from Sさん of a few big blue arrows drawn in front of Yotsuya station.

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I was right.

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There is a pattern that the Bakers follow. 

 

It stopped raining soon after... and on my lunch break I walked from Ichigaya till Yotsuya. 

And found the trail, what was left of it. There were only a few arrows, on the same spot as the previous adventures. I took a few pictures in excitement, and headed back to the office. On my way back it started raining heavily, and whatever was left of that trail was gone.

I’m happy I managed to see it.

And I thought was very interesting that the Baker tried to make a trail that specific day regardless of weather conditions.

It felt like a failed attempt to make a Madeleine trail... but also full commitment to Madeleine.

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11 September 2023.

I just came back from a little trip. I’m at the office after taking a few days off.

It’s lunch break and as usual I’m going to get my takeout food at the usual restaurant. I walk there and when I arrive in front of the restaurant there’s a barely visible P mark arrow pointing at the entrance of the restaurant.

"Whaaat? There was another Madeleine here?? And they gathered in the restaurant where I always get my lunch??" I then noticed there was a few arrows written on the pavement around that area. They looked a bit old, maybe were made 3 or 4 days ago. I follow them backwards imagining they started from one of the exits of Ichigaya station. And yes, there it was...TLH3.

Took a few pictures and went to the restaurant to take my usual takeout. While waiting I realized I could have just ask one of the waiters about a group of people gathering there the day before or so. The place is not very popular, and there are only salarymen. So whatever other group of people would have been easy to remember. 

I had the solution of the mystery right there at the reach of my hand... but of course I didn’t ask. I don’t want to know who the Baker is. Even though, as I mentioned earlier, at this point doesn’t matter. But in that moment, while I was waiting for my food, I found it exciting how the coincidences of Madeleine keep crossing my path...and how none else know about this, other then me.

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I told Sさん I found another trail of arrows in Ichigaya. But I wasn’t going to follow it. This time there was going to be no adventure.

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The following day I worked from home, and I kept thinking if I should have gone back to Ichigaya that night and follow the arrows or just retire from Madeleine for good.

I still regret not ending it in Tabata, and in my head I wished I'll have another opportunity to do so...but realistically speaking, what are the chances that another Madeleine happens in Tabata? And even if it happens in how many months or years is that going to happen? And in the meantime how many trails of arrows I will find? and how many other adventures could I have while waiting for one to happen inTabata? And what if it never happens?

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With all those thoughts in mind I decided not to follow that trail of arrows. Even if I thought would have been cool to have a "Yotsuya Trilogy", and that could have been it since was the same area.

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The day after that I went to the office again and on my lunch break I decided to have a walk and follow the arrows a little bit.

The gathering park was just right there at the end of the road. But then I couldn’t find any more arrows. Maybe they’ve been already erased by people walking on them, or by those trucks that wash the roads at night.

But I found the "Beer Near" sign. Half erased and barely visible.

That got me kind of excited. I was having a bit of the good old Madeleine adventure feeling. And I wished the arrows were still visible so I could have come back that night and follow them...

But too many days has passed from when the arrows were made, and it was impossible to find them anymore.

That was a lost Madeleine.

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That day when I was going home I was thinking it was better that way. I thought it was a good opportunity to stop following the arrows. Because it will be delusional to keep following trails in the hope of eventually finding one in Tabata only to be able to end the Adventures.

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But Madeleine has a strange sense of humor. 

And that same day, in Tabata, there was a freshly made big TLH3 written just right in front of the station.

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13 September 2023.

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I saw it even before exiting the station.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!?"

I said that out loud while walking out of the station.

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My wishes of another final Madeleine in Tabata came true.

The spirits of the night listened to my prayers... A final Madeleine in Tabata.

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Madeleine Season 11.

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I decided not to tell Sさん about it and then in the future surprise her with the "Tabata Trilogy".

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Here are the highlights.

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This Madeleine adventure started from Tabata station but went in a different area towards Komagome.

The P mark was just next to the station and lead to an izakaya at the second floor or maybe Gusto.

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From the station until the gathering part one every two arrows had the TLH3 sign written above them. There were 11 TLH3 on the way from the station till the gathering park. And then close to the park there were other 5 arrows at least with written "TRAIL".

Usually the arrows are low key...I don’t know why this time they were so much advertised...  

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But the most interesting thing about this adventure was actually a specific piece of information.

All those TLH3 signs were leading to the gathering park, but this time, instead of finding a "ON/IN" sign pointing at the entrance, there was an arrow pointing at the entrance with written "BAGS".

 

Remember what I saw in Season 1 the first time at the gathering park?

Those two people guarding the backpacks... They were the Baker.

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As I’m writing this I stopped and checked my very first madeleine video, to try to see again those two figures guarding the backpacks. And I realized that at some point one of the two leaves towards the trail without his bag, while the other one sits on a bench next to the bags.

So that means that the people who join the event don’t join all at the same time.

The person leaving seems younger but I cant really tell due to poor image quality.

Then after I checked the ON IN sign on the other side of the park, when I come back through the park you can see one "clear" frame of the person I now know for sure is the Baker.

 

So my very initial theory was correct. The Baker makes the arrows and then give appointment to a specific location. The participants get to that station and follow the arrows till the gathering park. Where they leave their bags. The Baker explains them the meaning of the different arrows etc. and then send them to follow the trail. While he waits there, guarding the bags and preparing the beer :) 

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It’s pretty cool to understand only now, after 11 different adventures, that in the very first one I actually saw the Baker without understanding it.

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While following the arrows I did a little detour because in the distance I saw a park with a very interesting playground. It was "Madeleine’s mandatory slide" moment. I had fun playing there for a little bit. And there was a chinese guy sitting on a bench speaking at the phone that looked at me weirdly the whole time. Understandable.

I also liked the position and the atmosphere surrounding the park. I remember thinking "If I was the Baker, I would have have have made the trail of arrows go through this park.

Then I went back to follow the trail.

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For the whole video I talked about all the Madeleine adventures I had, remembering the best moments for each one...and ranking them. I thought it will be fitting for the last episode of Madeleine. But in reality it felt forced.

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I did another little detour to have "Temple Review"....and this lead me to my next point. Which is the sum of my feelings towards this Season 11 in Tabata.

"It was boring".

All the streets it went through were very similar and there was nothing special about them. It felt like the Baker purposely avoided all the cool things there were on the way. No temple, no narrow streets, only one park, no graveyard, no big stairs, no interesting buildings...etc.

It wasn’t a bad adventure, cause Madeleine is always enjoyable, but there was nothing memorable about it. And that made me think again "This is not how I want to end the Adventures of Madeleine...I should’ve ended with Season 9. Last time, in Tabata".

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Close to completing the loop I found an arrow with written BN, and I remembered seeing one like that also in the adventure in Kagurazaka, and not understanding what it meant...and only when I was close to the gathering park I realized "Hey, there’s no "Beer Near" this time...OOOOH, BN stands for Beer Near!! Of course! I saw that explanation when I found all those marks back in the Ginza adventure...How could I forget?"

Well the reason why I forgot this kind of basic things is because I was so worried about ending the saga in a cool way that I couldn’t enjoy the adventures at their fullest anymore.

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After completing the loop, and taking a lot of pictures,I went back to Tabata station and wrote MADELEINE right next the TLH3 sign.

Then I had a little speech about how that was the last adventure and how from now on I want you to be the one who find the arrows, or make your own Madeleine adventure for others to find. The city is yours. Carry the legacy of Madeleine.

Then I thanked the Baker, and I thank "Madeleine" for giving me all those special moments I'll never forget.

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This was Madeleine. 

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And this was Madeleineさん, signing off...

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...Credits.

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I myself wasn’t believing in my own words. It felt forced, unnatural...  I should have ended in Season 9. I lost that opportunity and now I was trying to fix the unfixable. But more importantly...why??  Why was I putting so much rules on myself? Why not just having the adventures only if I felt like having one. Only if I wanted to. Without thinking too much about them. Maybe that’s what was ruining my experiences. Overthinking about them. Not how frequently they occur. If there are too many adventures I can choose not to do them. I don’t need to put a rule where I have to do one every time I find some arrows. I can decide in that moment what to do, based on how I feel.

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From Season 1 to 9 every time I found a trail of arrows Madeleine was transporting me to a mystic world where nothing else mattered other than what was happening in that very moment. But now, every time I found a trail of arrows it was me trying to transport Madeleine into a world of rules I had in my head. And that’s not what Madeleine should be.

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So I decided to stop overthinking about if I should retired from Madeleine or not and just see how I will feel and what I want to do next time I found some arrows.

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The week later I found the arrows in Komagome.