UPDATE
Today is 27 December 2022. It’s Madeleine Day.
The one year anniversary from when I found the first arrow and everything started unfolding.
After I made the trail in Ouji a series of interesting events happened about Madeleine... So I decided to write an update today.
It’s been one year from when I found the first arrow.
And it’s been three months from when I made the trail in Ouji.
Let’s go back to that moment...
I made this web page, wrote the QR message, and I was ready to go to Oji the night of September 27th and started making my trail around the city.
I wasn’t sure how much chalk I needed, so I bought 6 boxes. 144 in total.
And I wasn’t sure how long it will take me to make, since it took me about 4 hours to follow the trail I found in Sugamo.
I already had in my head an idea of where the trail will go, and a couple of days prior I went to Oji and try to follow my itinerary to see if it was possible to make a trail that followed that path.
And as I was imagining, Ouji was the perfect place for a Madeleine adventure.
So my plan was to go to Ouji the night of the 26th around 23:45, wait for midnight (so it will be the 27th) and start drawing the arrows...So by the morning after they'll be ready to be discovered by "The Baker" (the creator of the original arrows). Because if you remember, I was trying to predict the location of the next Madeleine and make my trail as a gift, and as a way to finish my Madeleine saga.
So I texted S さん something stupid like "I'have an appointment with destiny" (she knew I was going to make my trail that day) and I left the house riding my bike in excitement.
I got to Ouji and quickly started to make my trail as planned, and also recording the process as usual. This time I decided to talk directly to S さん in my recording, like I did the time in Nippori/Uguisudani, because it felt the most natural, compared with speaking to a general audience like i did for the Sugamo one.
I was very excited when I draw my first arrow. I didn’t practice but I study the style of the original Madeleine so I could make it similar to the original, and to my surprise it was really similar.
I started the trail from Ouji station (*more on this later) wrote "TLH3" in a very visible spot hoping to get the attention of the original Madeleine makers, then I moved to the Ouji park, that was going to be the "gathering park", and started the loop from there.
For conveniency I previously place my bike on the other side of the park (I didn’t want to bring the bike up the stairs) so I could start drawing the trail and then keep writing it while riding the bike...otherwise it will take me forever to make the whole trail if I did go by walk.
Well, turns out riding a bike while filming and stopping every few meters to draw an arrow with a chalk that keeps breaking it’s a real pain in the ass.
I quickly realize I couldn’t do it.
It was taking me longer then If I just did it by walk, but doing it by walk wouldn’t work either because the recording will be super shaky, and the pace of the video too slow.
I was committed to it and I was going to make it no matter what.
So I held on and kept drawing arrows, but it was a real struggle. With the rush of writing fast chalk kept breaking and my fingers kept scratching the pavement, I quickly broke my nails and my bike fell on me a few times, and it was very hard to try to be entertaining while filming in that situation.
I wasn’t enjoying it as i thought I would. Which was a shame because the atmosphere of those places at night was really cool.
At some point I passed a small park and I notice the clock. It was 02:45 in the morning, and I didn’t even get to 1/4 of the trail.
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention that I had to work the day after....and I don’t even live in Ouji. But luckily I was working remote that day in the morning.
I kept going till 1/4 of the path, where i draw the first pizza graph. Remember? :)
At that point I knew I was not going to make it in time, and i was also struggling with the recording because I tried to talk to my friend and be entertaining but in reality I was just me complaining the whole time.
But I suddenly had an idea that will make the whole thing work.
I will stop recording the video when it hit the 25 minutes mark. As I did for the previous videos.
I'll go home and sleep a few hours. Wake up super early in the morning and make the trail before going to work, without recording it, just riding the bike and draw the arrows. So the trail will be ready for the Madeleine people (In case I was right and Ouji was the next location of their event). Then after work I'll go home, get my bike and go to check a few stations on the Yamanote where I suspect there might be the new Madeleine (Just in case I was wrong about Ouji). Then, I'll go back to Ouji and keep filming from where I left, the first pizza graph (1/4 mark) so I don’t have the hassle to draw the arrows anymore and when I'll show the videos to S さん it will keep going from where I left and it will also look like the other editions of Madeleine, Just me by bike following the arrows.
Perfect.
And that’s what I did.
The morning after I went back to Ouji and draw the whole trail. A classic Madeleine trail. With a couple of twists I’m very proud of (*More on this later).
I placed the QR message to this webpage on the announcements cabinet close to the Ouji park as I planned the day before.
While drawing the arrows I came across two people that were following them, first a guy, and for a moment I thought it was The Baker, but it wasn’t him...and then a girl who was very interested and thought it was cool and wanted to follow the arrows too... it made me think that even if nobody was going to follow my trail it was worth making it anyway.
Then I went home and work till 18:00.
After work, before going back to Ouji and keep filming the adventure for S さん, was time to go check a few stations where I suspected they could have made a Madeleine event.
I wanted to check Machiya station, because I had a dream about finding the arrows there (yeah yeah I’m crazy I know).
Then I wanted to check Okachimachi Station. I don’t think it’s a good candidate for a Madeleine adventure, but one of my theories was: "what if it’s Tabata, then two stations after (Nippori/Uguisudani), then two stations before (Sugamo/Otsuka)....and then it’s two stations after again? (Okachimachi/Akihabara).
So I rode my bike to Machiya and check every exit on the station...but found nothing. And I did the same for every station on my way to Ocachimachi. Which means i check all the exits of ShinMikawashima, NishiNippori, Nippori, Uguisudani, Ueno (took forever), and when I got to Okachimachi I found no arrows.
I want to remind you that I’m by bike, and I’m going further and further away from Ouji, where I have to go back to complete the recording.
Once in Okachimachi I thought I could check if there are arrows in Akihabara, and once in Akihabara I thought I could check Kanda...and so on till Tokyo station.
Then from Tokyo station I across the center of the city till Mejiro, checked Mejiro, Ikebukuro, Otsuka, Sugamo, Komagome and then decided to go back to Ouji from there.
By the time I went back to Ouji I was exhausted.
But I only had to film and follow the trail that i made. This time I really enjoy it, I was more relaxed and I was able to show the places and also explain how I did them.
I went through all the places like a tour guide, showing the special arrows, the pizza graphs, showing where I placed the paper with the QR message etc.
And once I went back to the beginning of the loop in Ouji park I really felt completed. I thought it was cool that I did it. Even if the night before I was struggling and complaining, and even if my legs were in pain due to all the pedaling around the city, I was glad I did it. And I was happy it was over.
For the record...I ended up using only one box of chalk. I still have all the others...and I’m looking at them right now lol
As I mentioned in this message, I didn’t write the arrows with the "P" symbols that leads to an Izakaya/Restaurant. That was eventually for the Madeleine people to do, if they would have found my trail....or at least that was the original plan.
So in the last moments of the recording I say to S さん that Madeleine was an incredible adventure for me and even if I was wrong about the next Madeleine location and I couldn’t find other trails that day, I was happy that at least one Madeleine trail existed. I thought was the perfect way to end my Madeleine journey.
I’m standing over the last arrow that says MADELEINES, I say "credits", and I stop recording.
This time Madeleine felt different, not because I made it, but because there was something missing...like it was not meant to be.
During the Nippori/Uguisudani adventure I just felt there was going to be another one, that’s why I could predict the Sugamo one. I just knew it.
But this time I didn’t feel that way.
And almost right away when I stopped recording it occurred to me... "Shit...The name of the original event is THL3.... 3!!"
I don’t know what that acronym means, and I don’t want to know. I want it to remain a mystery. But I started to believe that 3 means that from the beginning it was planned to happen only three times. Only three adventures.
And so I was kind of sad that I didn’t realized Madeleine was over three months prior. That the Sugamo one was the last one.
Still, I was still happy that I made my own trail and that Madeleine existed one more time.
I went home a bit melancholic.
This time the song that was playing in my head was...."Trough the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce.... .....for some reason.
That was the end of Madeleine.
Weeks went by,
S さん got a new job. Her working place is very close to mine.
I work in Ichigaya. Her new company is in Yotsuya.
I found out there’s a tiny park exactly half way from our companies. So I went to check it out, and the next day we arrange to take lunch breaks at the same time so we can meet at the park and eat bento together.
It’s 9 November 2022.
We met at the park, had lunch there, talked about different tings...
It’s time to go back to our offices.
We stand up and started walking to get out of the park. After a few steps we both notice an arrow drawn on the ground. S さん says "Hey look, just like Madeleine", and I say "Yeah it looks like".
I didn’t tell S さん about the meaning of the 3 in TLH3 (that only 3 Madeleine adventures were planned, and the Sugamo one was the last one).
And so when we saw that arrow at the park I knew was not Madeleine.
After a few steps there was another arrow, and then another one.
They were drawn with a different style, definitely not made by the same person who draw the original Madeleine arrows.
Then, a few steps ahead there was an arrow pointing on the left, but the arrow was crossed as if it was erased, and on top of it there was another arrow pointing in the opposite direction....
....and there was written “C B”.
I had goosebumps.
"No...it can’t be...it can’t be..."
S さん asked me "what? what it can’t be? Is it Madeleine?"
I’m trying to think rationally.
What I’m thinking is: "These arrows weren’t here yesterday when I came to check out the park... So they mast have been made today".
And then I thought: "This is a prank. S さん made it to prank me. Because she’s the only person that knows about my Madeleine adventures....but wait a minute...I didn’t show her the Spring Edition (Nippori/Uguisudani) yet, so she cannot know about the arrow with written "C B"......Oh my god this might be a real Madeleine trail!"
So I’m telling her "I believe this is Madeleine....but I’m not 100% sure (I actually was sure, but I just couldn’t believe it, and I wanted to be 1000% sure) ...let’s follow the arrows until a crossing road, and if the arrow before crossing the road has two lines crossing it I will cry".
We follow a few more arrows till a traffic light, and right there, covered by some leaves there sure was an arrow with two line crossing it.
It was Madeleine.
We both started yelling "OH MY GOD!! HO MY GOD!!"
And I was Shocked... I couldn’t believe it.
I told S さん, "Madeleine it’s Happening tonight!"....Then she had to go back to her office. And I had to go back to my office too... but before I went back I recorded with my phone a little trailer for the new Madeleine adventure I was going to have that night.
On the way back to the office I kept thinking "I can’t believe this is happening!!! I can’t believe it!! I can’t believe that I decide to meet with the only person that knows about my Madeleine adventures in a park for the first time, and a new Madeleine it’s happening exactly that day right there".
But at the same time I had so many questions..."But today it’s not the 27th and it’s not 3 months apart from another Madeleine.....it’s the 9 of November...was I wrong about the 3 months gap?? No I wasn’t...because I predicted the Madeleine in Sugamo....So Why today? And why here??? Why in Ichigaya/Yotsuya? Is the original Madeleine an event way more popular than I thought and it’s made in all areas of Tokyo? Maybe the Tabata one was not the first one...But this one has a different style, it’s not made by the same person who made the original Madeleine....".
I had so, so many questions.
The whole day at work I couldn’t think of anything else and I kept smiling the whole time.
"I can't believe this is happening....and the coincidence of finding the arrows with S さん at the park it’s just mind-blowing"
I can’t believe I will have another Madeleine adventure.
The plan was:
I'll finish work, go to eat something while waiting for S さん to finish work, rent bikes, and start the adventure together.
I actually struggled a lot about this, because for me the format of Madeleine only works if I’m alone, that’s what it is for me, me, by myself, following arrows at night in the city.
But at the same time I felt it was such an incredible coincidence that we found the trail of arrows together that I should make S さん part of this adventure.
After a long consultation we decided that I will do it alone. So the plan changed. I went home, got ready and rode my bike back to that park in Ichigaya/Yotsuya, by the time I got there was almost 23:00.
I wasn’t as excited as the previous editions because I didn’t know what to expect this time.
But once I started filming I was immersed again in those adventures, and if felt extremely nostalgic.
I won’t describe the whole course because this update it’s already way too long, but instead I’ll just list the highlights and some of the thoughts I had during this unexpected adventure.
The first thought I had was that it was made by someone else. Not by the original Baker. The style of the arrows was different, the frequency and size too, they were very big compare with those of the original Madeleine.
The arrows that signal to across the street were drawn in a slightly different way, like if the main stroke of the arrow went underneath the two lines that crossed it (it’s kinda complicated to explain, so, instead of this ----|-|---> were like this ----| |---> ) that made me think that the person who made it kind of "followed some instructions" on how the arrows should be drawn. Was the original Madeleine a bigger event that I imagined?
When I found the first pizza graph I was very excited, it was a normal pizza graph from the Nippori edition, like those i draw in Ouji, not a flower graph like the ones from Sugamo.
But it didn’t have any numbers on it...I thought was strange because without numbers you wouldn’t know at what point of the trail you are. And I started to wonder if I was wrong all along about the meaning of the pizza graph too.
Except going through a graveyard, most of the elements of Madeleine were there, and at one point the trail passed in front of a super cool temple and right in front of it there was written SHRINE on the pavement, with an arrow pointing at it.
This trail was very well done and went through many different cool areas, I lost the arrows a few times because there were some road works and they removed parts of the pavements, so I wondered around for a bit, but at the end I was able to find more arrows and go back on the trail.
I’m not very familiar with the areas of the center of Tokyo, so the whole time I really had no idea where I was, but that made it mysterious and interesting. And a few times I found myself looking around and recognizing places from years before..."Oh my god I’m here! I remember I had a date in this place like 5 years ago!" and it brought back memories that were lost.
I really liked that.
Remember when I said that the Sugamo trail was hard to follow and therefore i thought was made for people who experienced the previous two Madeleine adventures....well, this new trail was very easy to follow and had a lot of detail and instructions...there were a lot of arrows with written ON2, arrows with written UP when you had to go up some stairs etc.
*more about the ON2 later.
Some of the places were scary and uncomfortable to pass through at night (but I enjoyed that too), some other places were quiet and with a beautiful architecture, and some places really surprised me...especially when at some point I went out a little street onto a main road, and for a few seconds I stared at the entrance of a building thinking "hmmm...that place look familiar... Oh shit! That’s my company! That’s where I work!!"
And I was very excited by thinking that, that day, while I was there working, somebody was drawing arrows in front of the building and I could have seen him from the window...
Wow...Madeleine spread until the center of Tokyo...Amazing.
When the Sugamo Madeleine happened, the following days I went to work keep thinking of how cool that adventure was, and every time I got off work and walked to the station I kept looking at the ground thinking how cool it would be if one day I'm walking out of the office and I find some arrows right there...
Till this day, I still can’t believe that it really happened.
When I got in front of my office I knew that the adventure was about to end, because the park where I started from was near....I found the last pizza graph. This time there was an arrow near it with written "3"....and then kind of erased..? But no numbers on the pizza graph again.
While I’m filming the pizza graph my phone stopped recording because it run out of storage. And incidentally the street lamp I was standing under turned off too at the same time...that was strange.
I kinda panic because I was so close to complete the loop of the trail, and so I started to delete apps from my phone and old pictures. I managed to regain enough storage to be able to film one last short video.
I start recording and I started running towards the park while explaining what happened....I was running and giving my last thoughts about the whole experience and how unbelievable it was that it happened again so randomly right there.
I’m getting inside the park, still running, I decided to have a slide on the small slide of the park (mandatory Madeleine experience), keep running towards the starting arrow...I was rushing because I was afraid my phone will run out of storage and stop recording again, but at the same time it was really cool to complete the adventure by running. It made those last moment of the adventure adrenalinic and very exciting.
It was like the big "crescendo" before the end in an orchestra.
I get to the last/first arrow. I completed the loop. I know I don’t have much time left. I’m filming the arrow. I say the last words before stop recording.
"I genuinely cannot believe this happened again. It was amazing.... Last time, when I just finished my Madeleine adventure I thought I'll never randomly find an arrow on the street ever again. But this time I knew one day it will happen again when I least expect it, so I will always keep an eye on the ground.
......credits".
Before going home that night I went real quick to check if the arrows started from the station, and if there was written HTL3 anywhere...but I couldn’t find anything.
A couple of things were odd in this edition of Madeleine. The trail didn’t start form any station, and there was no gathering point. Was just a loop. And there was no "P" symbol that lead to an Izakaya either...and to me that definitely means this Madeleine was not made by the original Baker, but by someone else.
That night on my way home while riding, the song that was playing in my head was "Stickerbush Symphony" by David Wise, from Donkey Kong Country 2.
1 December 2022
I decided it’s time to save all the videos I made About Madeleine into my computer and share them with S さん, so she can watch them at her own pace.
And I suddenly remember about the Chat Mail system I set up for this page...
"OH... MY... GOD!"
"There’s a lot of messages...what’s going on?"
I immediately notice that all the messages start from the 21st of October. Which is strange, because it’s almost one month after I made the trail in Ouji (27 September). The chalk of the trail couldn’t have lasted that long, and has been raining multiple times, so something else might have happened...
Maybe the paper with the QR code was found by somebody else?
I start to open the mails and read the messages.
I can’t describe how excited I was. I never had this type of interaction before.
Most of them were saying things like "It was interesting" or "I enjoyed it" etc. That made me happy.
Others where asking "What is the meaning of the arrows" or "Who do you think drew the original arrows?" etc. To which I don’t want to respond because the beauty of Madeleine is its mysterious nature.
Some others just stopped by to say "hello" :)
But still, I couldn’t figured out why everyone just started messaging from the 21st of October.
Then I opened an e-mail and there was just a link....
It’s not safe to open links from senders you don’t know (never do that) but I was extremely curious about what it could’ve been.
My first theory was that someone was sending me a video to show me they also found some other arrows or something...
So I check the link source and it seemed to be a video from Youtube, but to be safe I open it in an old phone connected to a safe network.
And what I saw blew my mind.
I’m sure that if you’re reading this most likely that’s how you discovered this page.
But here’s what happened.
A girl in Ouji found some of the arrows I made for the Madeleine adventure, and started following them till the paper with the QR code. She thought was odd and she contacted a well known horror and mystery channel/online platform who took interest in those mysterious arrows and made a whole video about their experience following the arrows and the message I made.
The name of their channel is ゾゾゾ, and I guess that’s why most of you are here.
Watching their video about Madeleine was an emotional rollercoaster. I couldn’t believe it.
You have to understand that I made that Madeleine adventure for myself and I was expecting nobody to take part of it...and now I’m watching a video about it that has been watched by almost 200,000 people.
That’s the craziest thing ever.
I will comment the video first.
I wasn’t aware if the existence of ゾゾゾ to be honest, and suddenly watching a professional video made about my Madeleine was surreal.
I didn’t know who those guys were or what their personality are like, but their tenacity on following the arrows and wanted to know more immediately resonated with me...
It was extremely interesting to see them going throughout the same thought process I had when I first discovered the arrows..."What does this mean?" or "Oh this arrow has a different color, is it on purpose or he run out of the previous color?" or when they discovered the pizza graph and they didn’t know what it meant etc.
It was extremely entertaining and extremely cool to see someone going through the same experiences I had with Madeleine.
And I have to say, I’m extremely impressed by the fact that they were able to complete the whole loop. Especially because by looking at their video, and by knowing where I draw the arrows, I could tell that they got lost at least twice and they didn’t find all the arrows, but somehow they managed to get back to the trail and complete the course anyway. Impressive.
I remember when I was under the bridge over the train trucks, and I thought it was cool to start drawing the arrows on the ceiling, and I thought to myself "This is so cool...but I know nobody is going to follow the arrows, so it’s pointless... I wish somebody could experience this"...and seeing those guys doing it gave me so much joy.
(*that’s what I was proud about)
Another of my favourite moments was the super narrow path in between two houses. When I draw the arrows there I was thinking "What am I doing? Nobody is going to go through this" and then again, they did it, and I was crazy happy about it.
I would have never imagine that somebody would actually follow and complete my trail while also filming the whole experience. That’s the closer someone can get to what I experience with the original Madeleines.
It exceeded all my expectations. And now more then ever I’m glad I made it.
I have to say one thing though.
(*as I mentioned before) The trail actually started from Ouji station. Went upstairs to the park, the gathering point, and then the loop started from the park. (*this is important for later)
The video itself was amazing. But the thing that excited me the most was reading the comments.
There are about 530 comments on that video, and I read every single one of them.
Usually the comment section on youtube videos it’s hell, people really give their worst. But on this one, every one was really nice and polite.
A lot of comments were from people complimenting the guys from ゾゾゾ (yeah, they did an amazing job) saying that this video was different from their usual videos, but they found it really entertaining.
Thank you to the people who commented to check out the QR code. Some people were moved from what I wrote in here. That makes me feel super grateful.
And a lot of other comments were about people telling their feelings and theories about Madeleine, the way they explained how it made them feel, and the personal experiences they described really touched me. Thank you for sharing those.
And a couple of people guessed exactly what Madeleine is for me....but I'm not going to tell you.
I also like all the strange theories and cheerful comments.
Many people wondered if by marking the trail on a map an image will appeared...I also thought that on my first adventure....I tracked every trail I found, but the courses are random and don’t produce any images when watched from above.
But it was amazing to see that so many people had the same questions I had when experiencing Madeleine.
For me it was a gift to be able to read about your feelings and theories and questions. I would never have imagined that something like Madeleine could resonate with so many people.
But then I read one specific comment...
"I will make a Madeleine adventure too"
And in that Moment all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Everything made sense...and as usual, I couldn’t believe what just happened.
The Madeleine trail me and S さん found the 9th November in the park were we met in Ichigaya/Yotsuya, was made by a person who watch the Madelaine video on the ゾゾゾ channel and made his corse based on mine....and I accidentally found it and played it.
What are the chances of that happening? No seriously, how is this possible?
It’s like destiny.
I remember a recurrent joke that I kept saying to S さん while filming different Madeleine adventures: "What if the person who made the original Madeleine it’s me from the future? I time travel back to the past and made that special moment for myself, a moment that I will enjoy so much that in the future I will go back in the past and made it for myself again...and so on and so on....and now I’m stuck in that time loop...and that loop is represented by the loop of the trail...and the arrows represent the passage of time".
It’s scary that by a series of random events something like that actually happened.
I found the original Madeleine ---||--> I decided to make one ---||--> Someone made it famous and someone else made a new Madeleine ---||--> I find the new Madeleine.
This is Unbelievable.
And remember all the (*) I wrote on this update, they all make sense now.
The style of the arrows was different from the original because the person who made it never experienced a Madeleine adventure himself, but only watch it through the ゾゾゾ video, so size and style of the arrows are difficult to emulate.
The people from ゾゾゾ didn’t know that the trail actually started from the station, they thought it was only a loop. That’s why the Ichigaya/Yotsuya trail it’s only a loop.
I didn’t make the "P" symbol arrows in Ouji, that’s why there were none in the new Madeleine, because the person who made that adventure didn’t know how the"P" symbols look like.
The ゾゾゾ people didn’t know for sure the meaning of the pizza graph, and they didn’t show the first one I made in their video. The person who watched the video didn’t know how to make them and that’s why there are no numbers inside the pizza graph in the last Madeleine adventure.
The sign "SHRINE" was exactly like my sign that said "MADELEINES", same color too.
Also the CB and crossed arrow, they were how I described them on this page, but they were quite different from the originals...because the person who wrote it never saw the original.
etc.
Now everything make sense. And it is amazing!!!
(the only thing I can’t explain is the ON2. I’ve never seen that before)
I know I wrote this many times already...but how incredible is it? I made one Madelaine adventure and told only S さん about it, I thought Madeleine was over, and a few months later somebody made a new Madeleine, and the it happen that me and S さん found it.
That’s crazy.
Did I created a cult? lol
On a serious note, I’m happy that it reached so many people, and that people are passionate about it at the point that they’re going outside drawing arrows and making new adventures.
And now that I know how annoying it is to walk around for hours drawing arrows every few steps, I have so much respect for the people who do it (and also for the original Baker).
The following day couldn’t stop thinking about that.
So I started wondering...What if that person made more than one Madeleine adventure? Or what if there are more than one person making Madeleine adventures and it’s spreading around Tokyo?
So I wanted to know if somebody was going to report any Madeleine founding on the ゾゾゾ social media...and exactly that day (coincidence again) the 2nd of December, on ゾゾゾ twitter, somebody posted a picture of a Madeleine adventure they found.
I made a twitter account only for contacting that person, and I ask where did he find that arrow...I wanted to go there that night and have another Madeleine adventure....but he never replied....luckily.....because I was making a big mistake....I was crossing the line, I wanted to know too much.
And then I did something stupid.
I clicked on the hashtag # of that tweet, and I shouldn’t have done it. I wanted to know if somebody else found any arrow, so maybe I could go to that place at night and have a new adventure.....the hashtag redirected me to a page with soooo so many pictures taken by people who found Madeleine arrows in so many different places! In a glimpse I could see arrows I've never encountered in my adventures, and new types of pizza graphs......and I quickly close twitter.
I felt bad. I really did.
I was overwhelmed with the amount of information I could deduce by those pictures I saw.
I didn’t like that feeling.
Remember my "magic trick" analogy? Instead of seating back and enjoy the mystery of the magic trick, I purposely tried to see if there was a string...
Knowing that so many Madeleine were made ruined my perception of the adventure. If everybody does the same magic trick, the trick loses its magic, even if you don’t know how the trick works. Because you’ve seen it so many times that it’s not intriguing anymore.
That is not the way I wanted to experience Madeleine.
I don’t want to know where the arrows are so I can go there and follow them. That’s not Madeleine.
I want to be surprised by it. I want to forget about it, and then one day accidentally see one of those arrows and know that that night I'll be immersed in an unexpected adventure...
Madeleine is not only about the mystery and the exploration. It’s a kind treat that comes to your routine and makes you live an unexpected Adventure.
And that’s the way I want to experience it.
I don’t want to know anything else about Madeleine.
I don’t want to know who made it or what is it and I don’t want to know where the trails are.
Madeleine will come to me.... like it did before. I’m sure of this.
I really want to thank all the people who wrote a message on this chat, without you I would have never been able to discover what happened, thank you very very much.
And also thank you to those who wrote a lot of kind messages on the ゾゾゾ video’s comment section, it really warmed my heart reading them. And of course thank you to ゾゾゾ (sorry for making you go to a government office).
While reading the comments of the ゾゾゾ video I found really interesting how so many people were interested in me, and were wondering what I'm doing and if I’m still drawing arrows. And I thought was cute that some of them called me Madeleine さん.
I don’t want to reveal my identity, I feel I already revealed too much about myself.
And I like the Idea of you thinking of me like a mystical creature that goes around the city at night drawing arrows....
So... sorry, but I’m keeping my identity a mystery.
And who knows, maybe one day you’ll see me at night following a trail of arrows...
See you next year on Madeleine Day for another update .