Get LostIn this post, I will talk about my experiences on dealing with lost and found in Japan. First off, although it is kind of embarrassing, I will admit that I got lost on my first day to YNU’s campus. It was early in the morning the day after we had just arrived and a rather large group of students were waiting to be guided to campus by some of the resident advisers in the dorm. I had gotten ready early that morning and left with about half of the group that were also ready to head to campus. After we had all loaded our commuter cards for the train, we quickly rushed down to the platform as a subway had just arrived. I was in the middle of the group and had accidentally followed people to a women-only car. After noticing this, I rushed to go find another car, but as I had passed them by, they all looked full already and before I knew it the doors were closing. In a panicked state, I jumped on the next subway in an attempt to try and catch up to the group. This is where I panicked more as I had forgotten the name of the station in order to get to YNU. I panicked more and tried in some desperate attempt to use my phone although I had no service or connection. I got off a few stops later and quickly went to go and find an employee and try asking them where YNU’s campus was and which station do I get off at. After my attempt to ask in broken Japanese, he told me that it was at Bandobashi station, which was two stations back toward the dorm. Relieved, I got on the correct subway track and headed for Bandobashi. Once I had gotten there, I ran up to the ground floor and saw nothing or anybody familiar that could point me to the direction of campus. I went back to the station and tried to read the local map and searched for the kanji for YNU (横浜国立大学) and was unable to find it. I panicked again and went to go ask another employee in broken Japanese where YNU was and at which station. I remember him misunderstanding me and thinking I was asking where the hospital was, but I corrected myself and eventually got an answer. It was something long that ended in “kamichou” so I went to go look at the subway map and sure enough I found it: Mitsuzawa-kamichou, or at least I hoped it was. Almost certain I was running late, I got on the correct subway track this time and headed off to campus. At this point I realized that all of this could have been avoided by waiting for the second group after I had missed my first subway. Once I got off the at the station, I quickly rushed up to the ground level and looked around and saw nothing that gave me any clear signs of where to go. I went into the nearest conbini, a 7-11, and scrambled to ask the cashier for directions to YNU. He pointed me in a direction, told me I had to cross a bridge, and that it was past a Lawson (another chain of convenience stores). At least this is what I hoped he was telling me. I set off in the direction specified, found a bridge and crossed it, and then came to a Lawson but still did not see YNU anywhere, so I decided to do the same thing again and ask the cashier for help. I didn’t really quite understand most of the directions other than to make a right at the bridge (a different bridge). I followed the directions and once I had crossed the second bridge, I was at the entrance to campus. With some quick thinking, I was able to figure out that the orientation was probably in the International Student Center, which was right near the entrance to campus. I ran to the building and was able to catch up to the group just as they were leaving and getting ready to start orientation. I remember feeling very relieved at that moment, not only because I made it on time to orientation, but also because I was able to communicate and understand in Japanese on my journey to campus and I felt ready for the year to come. And that was the true beginning of my study abroad experience. Losing My PhoneMy next experience about “lost and found” in Japan came when I had forgotten my cell phone on a bus to DisneySea in Tokyo. It was over break, and our friend Alicia was visiting for about a week. After missing our bus to Osaka for our planned week, we then decided to completely redo our plans and do some stuff in the Yokohama and Tokyo area. One of these plans was DisneySea. We left early in the morning from Yokohama and took a charter bus directly to DisneySea as it was the most convenient option. It was going to be about an hour long bus ride and I decided to take a nap as I was still tired. I woke up when we arrived at DisneySea and in a rush of excitement, we quickly got off the bus. As the bus departed and we headed for the main gates, I realized that I had accidentally left my phone on the bus in one the compartments you can find on the back of the chair in front of you. Then I started panicking and told my friends the problem. We knew which line of bus we took in and waited for the next to arrive to see if it was the same driver. After around four buses came and went, our driver was not to found. I had asked one the other drivers if he could call or report that I had lost my phone and see if any of the other bus drivers had found it. After about an hour of waiting, we decided to go into DisneySea with the mindset that it would take some time to find my phone and hopefully they would drop it off at the park's lost and found office. I had heard some cases of people losing things and having them returned properly in Japan, and my own partner had lost her phone three times at this point, only to be returned again, so I was optimistic. But with my American mindset I realistically thought it had probably already been picked up and was gone for good. This was also not the best day to lose my phone as I had no way of taking any pictures and it was my first time at any Disney amusement park, so that was a real bummer. However, I kept positive thinking that it would be found by the end of the day. As we left DisneySea, we stopped by the lost and found to check for the phone. Nothing. We asked if any bus reported anything. Nothing. We asked if they could call the bus line and ask if anything had been reported internally. Nothing. This was when I began to panic more and more as I had to come to terms with losing my new phone, my new phone case that I had just gotten, and all of my pictures up until that point. The next few days weren’t easy. I informed my parents about it and they were sad that all of my pictures and new phone were gone, as they had little faith that it would be returned or found, given previous experience with losing things in the U.S. The next day I tried calling the bus line on my own but couldn’t communicate in an effective manner so I gave up on that. I then decided to ask the landlords of the dorm if they could call for me and they gladly agreed to. I gave them all of the information about my phone and had even translated it into Japanese to help out, like the phone type, case, color, etc. First they called the bus line. Nothing. They were then referred to call the local police station. Nothing. They apologized that there was nothing more they could do but possibly try and call again another day. I remember feeling kind of hopeless at this point but still would not give up on finding my phone, so I waited a few days to check back in. Same thing: nothing. This process went on for almost three weeks until they finally got a hit. A phone matching the description was at some random police station about ten miles away from DisneySea. The landlords helped me with directions as to where it was and I would head there at my first available chance, which would be after school the following day. I traveled on a few train lines that I had never used or even heard of so I was feeling hesitant that it was actually my phone that was found. Once I got off at the right station, remember I felt lost heading to the police station and it took about twenty minutes or so of walking to find it, so that didn’t help my situation. It was my first time entering a police station, in both America and Japan, so I was intimidated on how to approach the situation. After mumbling that I had lost my phone, I was directed to the proper counter in which they asked me for my information and to fill out paperwork. This was all in Japanese, and I was lucky enough to have had some familiarity with the vocabulary used on the form, so I filled it out the best of my abilities. It had asked for information like my address, what I lost, when I lost it, etc. After about ten minutes of waiting, I was called to the counter and there it was: my phone in the same condition that I had lost it in. It was a long endeavor that sometimes felt hopeless along the way, but it eventually worked out in the end. This feeling of relief and happiness lasted for a good while after I had found my phone with all of my pictures intact. As soon as I made it back to the dorms, I told the landlords and thanked them for all of their help along the way. What I learned from this experience was that things are rarely lost for good in Japan, and you should never give up if it is something that is important to you.
I also lost my phone once again at an arcade, but I went back the next day and the employees had put it in the lost and found, so not as interesting (or panic inducing) as the other story. Comments are closed.
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AuthorI am Kyle Sablan and I studied abroad at Yokohama National University (YNU) during the 2016-2017 academic year. This blog was created as one of the requirements for receiving the Gilman Scholarship. The purpose of this blog is to share my personal experience with everybody and encourage interest in studying abroad. Archives
April 2018
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