Poor Me

Literally. I am 16,000 yen short (around $160 US) because I had my wallet stolen on Saturday.

I had been running errands in Nago in the morning: purchasing (what I hope to be) the last installment of toe medication, some groceries, breakfast, and a full tank of gas. On the way home, the weather and the sea were looking so nice, I decided to make a detour and take a look at one of the small islands (accessible by bridge) that I'd never been to before.

The name of the island is Kouri, 8 kilometers from the main highway that leads from Nago to the northern villages. I was enjoying the crystal blue water, the warm breeze, the bright sunshine. I pulled into a sight-seeing parking lot, left things as I normally do, and took a walk.

Now, leaving "things as I normally do," I found out, is a bad idea. Nago is not Higashi. Higashi has a low population with few outside visitors. Nago has many visitors, many of whom aren't even from Okinawa. Add to the mix a failure to lock my doors and completely roll up my windows, and you've got the perfect situation for a stolen wallet.

I came back from my walk, after about 30 minutes, sat down in the driver's seat, and noticed it was missing. I assumed I had dropped it on the floor again or put it somewhere totally random, but after about five minutes of intense searching and sweating, I was pretty sure it was gone. I retraced my steps many times before finally calling my supervisor. He showed up, I told him what was up, and we called the police. The came and filed a report, noted all the missing items (like my alien registration card, insurance card, Illinois driver's license, credits & atm cards, etc.), and took us to the station to wrap up the paperwork. All the waiting and filing took a few hours, so not only had I been robbed, but I got a nice sunburn, too.

Today has been a day off from school, completing paperwork for new IDs, new cards, etc. I'm locking my doors at all times, even the front door to my apartment in case someone decides to make a random visit. I doubt this is likely, as everyone is of the mindset that the thief just took the cash and trashed the wallet. But it makes me feel good to keep it locked, so it's getting locked.

It was a bad day. And I realized the only bad thing about Higashi is that I got so comfortable here, that I forgot to take the same precautions I would have taken anywhere else in the world. Lesson learned, not so bad considering, and it's getting worked out as we speak.