Hi all – crazy experience from the other night I need some help on. I was at an all you can drink bar in Shinjuku until 4:15 AM, possibly a little later. I do not remember almost anything from about 3 and on – not sure if I was overserved intentionally or not. Credit card says I have $160 charges at that place, which seems excessive. Now onto the fun part.
At 5:10 AM, I bought something from a familymart, and by 5:48 AM I was on a train near Shibuya. This is where my phone was last seen by find my iphone. It has not been turned on since so I assume it has been taken. I came to on a train outside of town at 9 AM or so, totally disoriented. No idea how long I was on that train. Instead of my phone, I woke up with some poor local guy’s phone. He has everything in there, including passwords, library cards, etc. I have literally 0 idea how I got this guy’s phone. Had all my clothes on, undamaged, and not so much as a bruise, so seems highly unlikely that I fought someone for it, or that I got into some kind of tussle.
Biggest question – what should I do with the phone? Worried to give it directly to the cops in case I am somehow accused of stealing it. As far as I know it was an honest accident. This guy was not at the bar with us as far as I am aware. No clue if I found his phone on the train, somewhere in public, or anything else. Just want to avoid trouble.
Follow up – this person has a medical card for dialysis in their phone case that I saw when trying to determine how to get this to someone. Something caught my eye – there were a few (what looked like) test results in the bottom right corner of the card, including one that said “HBe 不明” and “HIV 不明”. Looking these up it seems like these are not of concern, but does anyone who can read Japanese in context know if I should be worried? Idk if I came into contact with this person, are these reasons to go to a doctor if I did? I am a guy, and have no signs of sexual assault or any other things that would be of concern, but I have OCD so of course my mind goes to the worst places.
Thanks to everyone who can provide input – I am definitely staying away from similar bars the rest of the trip and being much more careful. Really hoping I did not do anything wrong! Please let me know your thoughts.
25 comments
不明 to my understanding is “unknown”. If he is indeed a dialysis patient (nurse has to work with the pt’s blood) that would be important information for her to know that Hepatitis B and HIV results of the pt are unknown. She would likely wear extra PPE.
I don’t know about the medical situation, but I’d hand the phone into a police box (Koban) and say you found it on the train you were on. It sounds like he’s easily contactable from the info in the phone and Japan is well known for getting lost property back to its owner.
chances are your phone ran out of battery and you asked to borrow someone’s phone, but you appeared intimidating enough that the person assumed they were being mugged and ran off, leaving you with the phone.
If you’re worried, set it down very close to a police box – someone will hand it in within a short time.
If you’re paranoid, wipe your fingerprints from it beforehand. It’s quite unlikely, and I have no idea of how much information sharing goes on, but remember that your fingerprints were recorded when you came into the country.
Just drop it off at the nearest koban and say you found it. If that’s too much for you, just leave it somewhere obvious and someone else will find it and turn it in for you.
All you can drink bar? Shinjuku? Are you sure it wasn’t Kabukicho? It sounds like you’re a victim of a scam bar
Check the Police Station lost and found in Shibuya. It’s right across the street from Shibuya Stream on a corner. Your phone might turn up and they should have someone who speaks english. Check the lost and found at the train station it was last located at first though.
Edit; In case you don’t have a phone for directions. There’s a overpass walkway above the street intersection connected to shibuya stream. There will be a elevator on it that will take you down to the police station front door.
If you take it to a police box you can probably also file a lost item claim for it. I assumed that was like common knowledge for people travelling in Japan?
Dude you were in Kabukicho not Shinjuku. If you’re concerned about the “unknown” on the medical paper you found just ask to an hospital, search for an English speaking one.
It sounds like you got scammed on the bar. Similar situations has occurred in Golden Gai to my colleague. But luckily he didn’t brought any credit card and only took ¥20k for each day while the rest of the yen were left in the hotel.
The phone in your possession isn’t password protected? Even with all that personal medical information on it?
Sounds like a good night out!
Maybe you were so drunk you saw a guy with a cheap phone and offered to swap with your snazzy one. He also was drunk and agreed it was a good idea.
He wouldn’t leave such clear evidence of his ID if he committed a crime and you say there’s no evidence of assault, and you were out of your mind drunk so probably making bad decisions.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you eventually are able to swap your phones back in the sober light of day, but if not it’s just a lost phone and these things happen.
Maybe your phone died and someone gave you their phone to make a call and you walked off with it all drunk like ? 😂 At least you managed to get to bed. Hopefully the police can return it and check the train station CCTV to see where yours went
You should probably call some contacts on the phone and tell what happened. Chances are they might help you to track down this person, he might have your phone too. Maybe he gave you his phone because yours was out of battery and you might have needed a functional phone while drunk, and he took yours to ensure you’d give him the phone back? I don’t know lol
This sounds like those stories I hear a lot on the abroad in Japan podcast — shady bars that drug customers and swipe their cards for as much as they can.
Will be in Japan in 6 months and horrified me that this can happen. I will need to lookup and pre plan all the bars we go to at night so we don’t just randomly pop into one spontaneously.
I usually spend that amount in an average night going out with just a dinner and a few drinks in a fancy club. That’s not a scam. Nobody drugged you. You drank too much in that all you can drink bar in Shinjuku and you did something really stupid on the way back home. Go to your nearest Koban and give them that phone, play dumb, you only speak english and you found it around. Next time don’t drink that much, especially in a foreign country. Lesson learned.
Is it possible you had a wild drunken adventure with this guy and you accidentally picked up his phone and he picked up yours by mistake? Maybe try to find him, you might get yours back that way
Why ppl never learn don’t fucking go to Shinjuku specifically kabukicho stay away fr that trash hole
As
I am not a specialist in bars, crime, scams, drugs, and memory loss. iam just saying this as a normal guy who goes to japan a lot.
first. give the phone back. I might try to explain the situation and not just claim you found it in case further questions arise in the future. you dont need to go into too much detail. got drunk, dont remember everything, your phone is missing, and this phone isnt yours. done.
second.
$160 is not a scam. not really. if someone is scamming you, they will take a lot more. maybe you got overcharged, or did not read the fine print about the all you can drink part, or the cover charge is 150, or you insisted on paying for a group or shots were not included in the all you can drink offer, or or or…
doesnt matter. for someone to end up totally wasted and without recollection, I feel, you got off reasonable well. I would not worry further.
and in the future. dont drink too much. even if you like being totally wasted. if you go too far, you dont remember shit. so spending less gets you further 🙂
I am sorry. you may feel like shit, and like a victim, and you phone is missing, and it was over $100 – but… you wont change the past. and the harm was quite small. you still may get the phone back. best way to maybe do so is to go to the police and have them help you maybe find it. and get the other phone back to the owner. who might have yours…
That post title reads like a manga title. Jokes aside best of luck to you.
I don’t trust that we are getting the honest story. She woke up with a strangers phone in her pocket and doesn’t know how it got there? I suspect thats a lie.
She knows she shouldn’t have that phone. Turning it in is the obvious solution. So why can’t she see that? Why is she so paranoid if she did nothing wrong? Why would she assume that she’d be arrested for turning in a lost phone? Fishy fishy.
Take the phone to a police box and turn it in. This is common practice in Japan, and since you are turning it in, they will not accuse you of stealing.
Also file a report for your own missing phone. Chances are it will get turned in to the police within a few days. If it makes you nervous, you can file your own missing phone report at a different police box.
Also stop in at any train lines you might of taken and file a report there. I’ve gotten everything I’ve lost back over the years by doing this.
I really really want to know how this turns out. I’m glad you made it to your bed safely! I recently had a blackout situation in Korea, lost my wallet, and ended up getting it at the police station because some kind person turned it in for me