Found something I never imagined — a manga edition of *Super Campeones*.

I can still picture myself as a kid, glued to the only TV we had at home in the ‘90s. I was watching a “cartoon” soccer match that seemed to last forever — two or three weeks just to finish one game.

That show was Super Campeones — or as I only learned much later, Captain Tsubasa.

That was my first glimpse into anime. My first taste of Japan.

After that, more shows followed — big names like Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, Dragon Ball — and some lesser-known ones too. They all shared a similar aesthetic, the same kind of humour and rhythm. And together, they started shaping this image of Japan in my mind — not just a country, but a feeling, a world I wanted to know more about.

Then, in secondary school, I met Andrés.

This is Andrés, at his secondary school graduation ceremony — probably one of the last times we saw each other. We met when we were 14, I think…

He’s probably the person most responsible for planting in me a deep love for Japan.

At some point during those years, he got the chance to visit “the land of Goku” — and when he came back, I couldn’t get enough. I wanted to know everything.

Andrés was more than happy to share. I still remember him telling me:

“Dude, when you cross the street over there, you stop and bow at the car in gratitude.”

I was amazed.

Back home in Bogotá, you just sprint and hope for the best. No bowing. No eye contact. Maybe just a quick swear if someone honks at you. Any longer than that, and you’re probably not making it across.

After high school, life pulled us in different directions. We haven’t seen each other much since. My teenage years rolled on — uni, friends, distractions. But Japan never left. It stayed in a quiet corner of my mind. Small, but never gone.

Fast forward to 2010. Uni was done. I was trying to figure out what to do next… and just like that, Japan came back.

I found a scholarship opportunity — a master’s degree at Tokaido University.

I pulled my documents together, translated everything (including my graduation project), and paid what felt like a kidney to get it all certified. I applied.

A few months later, the letter arrived.

I didn’t get it.

The dream felt over. But maybe not entirely.

Instead of giving up, I dove deeper. I went back online and began living Japan through a screen again — blogs, YouTube, forums, anything I could find.

And of course, I never stopped watching anime.

In 2017, I got a little closer. I moved to Australia. Still not Japan, but a new beginning.

I started drawing again. Can you guess what I was trying to draw?

This is Kaori from *Your Lie in April* — probably one of the best anime I’ve ever seen.

Then in 2023, Jade — my partner in many crimes — asked me:

— You’ll be 40 soon… how do you want to celebrate it?

I didn’t think. I didn’t plan. I just said it.

— I want to go to Japan.

So we did.

In April 2025, I made that childhood dream come true.

And it was phenomenal. Everything I had imagined about Japan — from the shows I watched as a kid to everything I’d read, studied, and dreamed — it was all true. But it was also so much more. A thousand times better than I ever thought possible.

I saw it. I lived it.

The places, the people, the small everyday moments — all of it felt like something I had already known… and somehow was seeing for the very first time.

It was like walking inside the pages of my own memory. I kept comparing everything to scenes from the anime I grew up with. And the wild part?

I discovered this location yesterday while watching Suzume — great movie! It’s in Ochanomizu, near Suidobashi Station.

I’m not going to write here about everything we did.

It’s been three weeks since we got back, and life has settled again. But my heart hasn’t.

There’s a part of me still walking the streets of Tokyo, still hearing the melodies at the train stations — each one tied to a moment, a memory, a part of the trip that comes back to me every day.

I know now that I want to go back — again and again — and keep this dream alive for as long as I can.