Work has been a lot lately. Not too much, not crushing, but a lot. But this thing happened last Friday that was a joy, a challenge and a joy.
I was working at our Malanda Falls Visitor Centre when a local dropped off a wallet she had found that morning.
It was soaking wet (it rains a lot here) and Japanese: Japanese ID, Japanese cash. Also a baggage tag from a JetStar flight two days earlier and a business card. I could imagine the panic.
Here then the steps taken to try to get Yoshihiro his wallet:
• Email sent to address on business card
• Called the number and reached a woman. We didn’t share language
• Asked Amy in Sydney, who has some Japanese, to try calling. Still not enough shared language
• Called JetStar who opened a ticket but said it could be days before it was actioned
• Texted a work colleague who was not a work but speaks Japanese. She couldn’t call the number via WhatsApp and doesn’t have international calls on her mobile plan
• Amy drafted a message I tried to fax to the number for such things on the card – but that failed.
• Ah! The tour guide I used in Tokyo last year – he and I had communicated through WhatsApp. Would Francesco call? Yes, he would. (He’s Peruvian married to a Japanese he met in Florida.)
Turns out Yoshihiro has left that company but they would try to reach him.
• Later Francesco messages that Yoshihiro had tried to call him, but as it was from an Australian number, he couldn’t answer.
• I text the number and a while later get a message from Yoshihiro! He’s borrowing a phone from a staff person at his Cairns hotel and gives me his email.
• We exchange messages and on Sunday, I drop his wallet at his hotel reception. He messages later and is so very grateful. He offers to show me around Nagano when next I’m in Japan.
• Today, I found out he and his partner came back to Malanda Falls on Monday to thank everyone and leave this box of chocolates for me.
Please put a note in your wallet with your contact details.