Japan reached me long before I arrived.
Born in China, raised in France, took an MBA and spent years inside big multinational companies — none of which is the point. What shaped me had crossed every border to find a kid who'd never seen where it came from: manga, mysteries, stories that moved me before I could place them on a map. I wanted to see that place for myself.
So I went.
In Kumamoto, the Luffy statue reached out a hand — as if to take the boy I'd been off to find the One Piece. Below Osaka Castle, Conan and Heiji, mid-deduction. Under Tokyo Tower, a flicker of CLAMP's X across the sky. On Kyoto's Hanamikoji, I looked up the way you do in Snow Country — and the Milky Way came pouring down.
But the famous places were only half of it. What I wanted were the quiet, unnamed corners that inspired all of it — the ones no guidebook lists.
Tattoos, music, illustration, samurai, kimono — whatever you love, this place keeps handing you something new. Words are the least efficient way to carry any of it.
It was never about chasing a goal. It's about letting life keep pace with you — recording who you really are, moment by moment.
Maybe one day I'll pass you at a coordinate we both longed to reach. Two strangers, pulled toward the same place.
That’s why I made Shiori.
—Félix