I had to face the horror of losing my house keys…
Last night I had to pop down to the post office along Aoyama-dori to post Beauty Box orders and I was in a trance of sorts.
”What shall I have for dinner?”
“My raw ravioli looks quite disgusting.”
“Shall I have a cooked dinner instead? It feels quite cold now….”
“I can’t wait to watch another episode of Change.”
The journey to the post office and back home usually takes me about 40 minutes and it’s during this time I let myself daydream or think about what to do the next day.
When I got home, I couldn’t find my keys. The blood from my head zoomed down to my heart. I couldn’t believe I was so spaced out, I didn’t know I lost my keys.
“OMG WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?”
“The kangaroo is in Amsterdam and I don’t have my keitai to call any of my friends!”
I re-traced my steps back to the post office but I still couldn’t find my keys. The post office staff said they didn’t see it either. I spotted the Aoyama-itchome police post and headed over.
Of course the policemen could hardly speak English and my Japanese was not coming out in my panic-stricken state. I filled in a “Lost” form and drew a sketch of my keys. I felt even worse when I couldn’t produce my alien registration card. It was like strolling into the lion’s den because if they wanted to be strict, they could fine me 200,000JPY. I kept apologizing, “Sumimasendeshita…”. I read somewhere that if you get into trouble with the police, you should apologize repeatedly and they would let you off with a warning.
It turned out a kind stranger found it on the pavement outside the post office and dropped off my keys. The Japanese are so considerate in this respect and I’m grateful to be living in one of the safest countries in the world.
Buuuuut, the police chap refused to return them to me until he saw my alien card, so he wheeled his bicycle to my apartment. He seemed like a cheery young guy who was very meticulous about his paperwork. He made at least three phone calls regarding my keys and shut the police box down so he could follow me home.
Phew. I wouldn’t have known where to go or who to call because I couldn’t remember anyone’s contact number, except my parents’ in Singapore — and that would’ve been useless!!
Photo credit: here
Related posts:
July 4th, 2009 at 5:27 am
When I was in Tokyo there were a couple of times when I came home late and found that I didn’t have my keys. I ended up staying in an internet cafe.
I kept a set at my work so I was covered.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
That’s an idea if this ever happens to me! An internet cafe would be perfect… If I stayed in a hotel, there won’t be any Internet for a web geek like me…