Lissette Lorenz

So, my umbrella may or may not have been stolen. I may have left in the bathroom stall at Musashi-sakai train station on my way to school this morning. But being in Japan, a safe and honest country for the most part, I assumed that the umbrella would still be in the bathroom stall, waiting for me after school. Lies. I’m dumb.

Even though monsoon season is officially over, it still rains, like, all the time. Because most people rely on their feet, their bikes, and their public buses and trains to commute, umbrellas are of utmost importance. (For example, I wished I had an umbrella on my first night here, when I hauled two fifty-pound bags for about half a mile in the rain, but then again, I had my hands full anyway. I guess a raincoat? But those are always so frumpy looking…but I digress!) Because umbrellas are such 大切な物 (taisetsuna mono, or precious items) and are often left in racks in the entryways of buildings, unlocked, umbrella theft is one of the most frequent crimes committed in Japan.

So why would I expect my umbrella to still be in a public bathroom, 8 hours after I had left it there? Because I desperately wanted to believe in the kindess of humanity.

But then again, maybe a nice cleaning person collected it for me and placed it in the lost and found. I considered this while waiting for the specific stall of interest to be vacated. (That girl was in there for 20 mintutes!!! And that whole time people kept walking in and out to use the other stalls, and I didn’t want to be conspicuous, so I kept pretending to wash my hands, fix my hair, and leave, only to return again as soon as the women who had already seen me in there had finished their business and left.) But by the time the stall emptied and I stepped in to find an empty door hook (on the plus side, the stall smelled of not poop, like I feared), my spirits were low. I didn’t have the energy or mental strength to have a functional conversation in Japanese with a train worker in order to figure out whether or not my umbrella had been stolen or stored for safekeeping.

I feel like I lost not only my umbrella today, but also some self-worth (and not to mention time). A stronger Lissette would have went straight to that train worker and inquired about the missing 傘. Oh well. I can always ask tomorrow. Maybe I’ll find what I lost.

***Next day: I found it! And I understood like 90% of all three conversations I had with various train workers. Yay!