The Lost Key

Short note: Congrats for passing your fifth year!

College was closed for six days beginning two days ago until next Monday due to the worsening situation of the influenza among the students. I decided to come down to Tokyo to attend the Informative Forum organised by MSAJ this Saturday, besides settling some other personal stuff. Anyway, dormitory is also closed and the international students are advised to avoid unnecessary traveling.

However, I thought instead of cooping myself in the room waiting for be infected by the influenza, it would be better to run far far away from Nagoka haha. Prior to this, I have never travel to Tokyo this often. I have now make two trips in as many months now and there would be more to come in the coming months.

Christmas decorations at Keisei Chiba station.

I crash over at WinD's place during my time here. However, it was not like the last time I visit him where we went around several places in Tokyo because he got classes and part-time job to attend. That means I am home alone the whole day FML. Thank God I have Internet access; otherwise I am very sure I will be bored to death. But Internet alone isn't enough, so smart me decided to go out by myself yesterday as he had left the house key for me. That was the beginning of the nightmare of 09-11-11.

Remember my experience of losing my backpack in the train almost two years back?

This little key cost me endless trouble yesterday.

This time, it was a similar setting, just different thing and place. It was a key, which I dropped it in the bus. I kept the key inside my left pocket together with my coins. I took out the key to take out my coins when I was getting down the bus. Although I felt that I left something after paying the bus fare, I just ignored the thought. It was until the time when I wanted to make payment at a supermarket that I realised the key was no longer inside my pocket. I quickly tracked back the route I took from the bus stop to the shopping mall but I could not spot the key. Along the way, I saw WinD cycling towards the same shopping mall to attend his part-time job. I was shouting to him that I had lost the house key and he didn't hear me, and left just like that while waving "bye bye" to me haha.

The next thing I did was to walk to the nearest train station and ask one of the bus driver what should I do to check since I felt that I had dropped my key in the bus. He asked me to call the bus company number which I did. I gave all the information I remember, like the stops I board and got down from the bus, the time and requested them to help me check on my lost key.

Too bad the bus was still running and they could not contact the bus driver. They asked me to wait, in which I did for the next thirty minutes. Later, a phone call came and the staff asked me to board the same bus which will pass the stop I got down at Unimo to check whether the key was still there. But I had to wait for at least forty minutes before the bus arrive. The fact that it was raining the whole day didn't help at all. Besides, the bus stop didn't have shade and I was only standing there with a small little umbrella. If that is not bad enough, some drivers were too-considerate by speeding on the road and the water on the road splashed on my jeans. Nothing could get worse than that, right?

Kominato Bus headquarters.

After the long-wait, the bus arrived. It was not something I enjoyed doing by boarding the bus and explaning the driver of my situation, and going around the bus to look for the key while the other passengers were staring at a weird alien. But I just ignored them and continued my treasure hunt haha. Again, luck was not on my side, and I got down from the bus feeling paiseh and disappointed.

I called the company again to inquire them what would be the next cause of action. It was that time that that guy asked me if the key had a white strap on it and I said "yes" immediately. I had to go to the company's office which is sixteen stops from the bus stop I was standing at that time. Only if I had just remained in that bus that I boarded to check on my keys, I wouldn't have to wait for another fifty minutes for the next bus. It was still raining at that time by the way.

"Good job for driving without accidents today", says the red board haha.

Buses everywhere. Look at the super-emo weather, in which I shared the same emotion haha.

The office where I got back the key.

Waited here before I take the bus home.

The bus finally arrived and the journey to the bus company's office was more than thirty minutes. The guy recognised me when I entered the office and after signing some forms, I finally got back that key. The final straw for my super unlucky day was to wait for the bus back home and that was another one hour. By then, I was super exhausted already from walking here and there for half a day, trying to locate that house key.It slowly got dark, colder and it started to rain again. Listening to my iPod was the only thing I could do to distract myself from being emo haha.

It took me more than five-long hours to get back the house key but I was glad that it was a happy ending haha.

After a long battle in the treasure hunt for the house key, we had Hokkien mee for dinner.

The point I wanna stress here is that although you lose something in public places in Japan, there are still high chances that you will be able to recover it back. The mindset of the Japanese is that when something does not belongs to them, they will not take it back. This is one of the thing I am very impressed about the Japanese, besides the efficiency of them to attend to the troubles and problems faced by the bus or train passangers, for example. My lost backpack and this time, house key have been two best example, although it could be troublesome going around making phone calls to this staff and that company.

If similar thing happened in Malaysia, the most likely reply would be, "Maaf, nombor yang anda panggil tiada dalam perkhidmatan."

P/S: Going out again today, but this time WinD didn't let me take out the house key and I will just leave it behind in somewhere secret haha.