Hello,
Wanted to contribute my lost item on the railways experience, since I know I was desperately searching for information everywhere on what to do.
Lessons learned from this experience:
-put some piece of identifying information inside each and every one of your bags
-I had been procrastinating on getting air tags, but this headache was so horrible and took so long. Just get air tags.
I lost my backpack (leather and expensive) with ALL of my makeup, my jewelery, my prescription skin care, my retainer (my teeth shift within days), and other day to day toiletries in it. Probably 1.5k worth of stuff… not to mention another set of braces… was absolutely distraught.
This was in Tokyo, and I was lucky enough to remember between exactly what stops I had left my bag on the subway for. If you do not know precisely when you lost your item, this will be much much harder to figure out.
If you lose an item, at first it is recommended to visit the stations around you to see if it has been turned in. I visited about 4 hours after the loss, with no avail. During this entire experience, no one spoke functional English, and I have no Japanese. If you have someone who can help you, this will be much more smooth. I asked the station officers to take down my information for reports, but it did not seem like they actually took down any reports. I was given many sheets with different phone numbers to call, that were only in Japanese.
The next morning, I visited the stations I started and stopped at again, then visited the major intersecting lines offices. In the next day or 2 after loss of an item, they get forwarded to the Tokyo Metropolitan lost and found in Iidabashi Station. They remain for 3 or 4 days, then get taken to the Tokyo metropolitan police center, which is directly nearby in walking distance. The station was not very much help, they didn’t use phone translating like the other smaller stations had, so it was a very depressing experience.
Afterwards, I walked to the police lost and found (just in case someone had brought it directly there), and filed an official lost and found report with them. They had forms in English, and the officers there spoke enough for me to get by without translation.
I left this 6 hour searching journey with 5 papers full of japanese-only phone numbers to call. I expanded my search to see where the subway line I was on went to next, to see if it connected with a different company. It appeared that it transitioned into the Tobu Railway, then the JR East lines intersected. The Tobu Railway had a 3 way interpreting option available by phone.
The angels at my hotel were kind enough to help me call the sheets I had been given in Japanese, which yielded no results. Next, I started to look into those other companies. I am so grateful to say that some kind soul had turned in my backpack to the Tobu Railway, and it was at a station about an hour away. I thought I had nothing with my name on it in there, but I guess they found something that did have it, and confirmed it was my bag.
Shortly after the initial conversation with the company, the station called me to ensure the time I would be coming to pick up the bag.
Feeling so thankful for everyone that helped me along this horrible journey, and the culture of safety that this country has created to be able to locate lost items like this! Cashed in a ton of karma today I guess!
by Neighhh