ore wa wasuremono no Oji da
(I'm the Prince of Lost Things)
A brief break from my regularly scheduled Tokyo updates...
I have a serious disease. I inherited from my mother and I really hope whatever future kids I might have don't get it. This silent monster causes irritated phonecalls from relatives and friends, missed deadlines, endless procrastination, and of course, lost things.
What is it?
Forgetfulness, of course. And my time here in Japan unfortunately hasn't cured me, either. I recounted my latest episode in an e-mail to Shiv.
- Part of my e-mail reads:
Basically, after work last night, I went out to eat with one of co-workers, Birgitta. We were both craving Vietnamese food, so we decided to eat dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in Ashiya. The food was yummy.
We had a conversation during dinner, but Biggie (that's my nickname for Birgitta, borrowed from a rapper) wanted to hang out more, so went to sing karaoke. We also invited some Japanese friends to come too. This was mistake for several reasons:
1. Birgitta is Scottish / German. She's pretty tough and probably can drink me under the table.
2. Birgitta didn't have to work the next day, but I did. Therefore, she didn't care how much she got drunk.
3. We went to a karaoke and had nomihodai (all you can drink)
Basically, karaoke was a great time, but I had maybe too much to drink... plus, I only had a little bit of food at the Vietnamese restaurant, which meant I got drunk much easier than I thought. Drinking straight whiskey wasn't smart, either.
So of course you know what happens when I have too much alcohol... sleepy time. So I fell asleep on the train home which than led to:
1 . Woke up in Sanda city train station after all the trains had left... I had to take a taxi back to Kawanishi, which costed me about $100. Ouch.
2. During the taxi ride, I realized that I had left my phone on the train! Aiyah...
At work today, my Japanese staff received a phone call from the train station "Lost & Found" office. That sounds pretty normal, except that the train station was in Hakata city... about 185 km away from my home city, on the island of Kyushu! Kansai, the area where I live and work, is on western side of the main island of Honshu.
I haven't even visited Kyushu island before and now my phone is there. Funny.
The train station staff informed my staff that they would kindly mail my phone back to me, but that it would take 1-2 weeks. Doh.
After work, I also went to my cellphone company's shop and had my phone service temporarily disconnected until I get the phone back. So now I have to survive without my phone for the next 1-2 weeks.
What a blunder of epic proportions, eh?
No cell phone for about 1-2 weeks, in a country where having a cell phone is almost a necessity to daily life. I got lucky, though... Japan is definitely a country where "Lost & Found" is taken seriously.
I suppose I have to have a good humor about the situation and laugh... there's a lesson in everything, eh?
Yeah, I suppose God is laughing too.
posted by G at 4:18 AM |
