Passport Lost and Found

Today was slightly harrowing.
This morning, in a rush to get my scattered crap together to make check-out time and do some sight-seeing and gift-buying during my last morning on Ishigaki, I lost my MOTHERFUCKING PASSPORT !
I had turned all my crap upside down looking for it, in all my bags (realizing that I really brought way too much crap from home that I didn't need). Yesterday, I had rented a scooter and gone around the island, stopping many places. I brought my passport and International Driver's License, needed for renting the bike. When I stopped at the Yaeyama Cultural Center, I took the passport out and stamped it with an Ishigaki stamp that was on display in one of the traditional Ryukyu village settings. Later, I stopped at Yonehara beach and jumbled my clothes around in my bag so I could do some snorkeling, which was fantastic. (Anyone who wants to know where awesome snorkeling is in Ishigaki should know about Yonehara. Next time, I want to bring a tent and camp there.)
Anyway, this morning I could only figure that maybe at Yonehara the passport and IDL had fallen out of my bag and were still laying somewhere on the sand, although I thought it odd that I would not have noticed the conspicuous dark blue US passport on the white sand beach.
Not really knowing what to do, I went to Ishigaki City Hall. My first brush with Japan's famed bureacracy. Many Americans in Japan have blogged about what a nightmare it can be to navigate the Japanese bureacracy. Maybe because it was Ishigaki and not a massive metropolis like Tokyo, or maybe because they took pity on a tourist and I was not a foreigner trying to obtain a resident alien card or something, the experience was very smooth and nothing to complain about.
I waited for about 10 minutes until an English speaking staff person could meet me. I did not feel up to the challenge of communicating in Japanese at this level. Fortunately, there was a guy working there who studied English in college. Most Japanese people seem to have had exposure to English in junior high, but their level of fluency ranges widely. Some people claim not to be able to speak and actually do fairly well, while others try to use English because they think they are being helpful, and actually it is easier to understand their Japanese. Haha.
Anyway, this guy (whose name I forgot! haha, but whose business card I have at my hotel) was very fluent and very helpful. He found the phone number for the American Consulate in Naha (Okinawa main island) and then drove me to the keisatsu (police station) to fill out a report. I was supposed to take the report, fly back to Okinawa main island and give it to the Consulate and hopefully have a new passport issued.
While we waited at the police station we chatted a bit. He asked about my job and what I had been doing in the Yaeyamas. I told him I had done a lot of diving and had gone to Yonaguni, and he perked up. "Which diving service?" he asked. I told him SaWes. "Aratake? He is my uncle!" So it turns out his mom's brother is the guy who owns SaWes diving service. He said he had a cousin who was living in Torrance, but moved to Sacramento. He went to Torrance once for a month and enjoyed it. I told him if he ever winds up back in California to come for a visit in LA, but in the madness of the moment, I forgot to say "Ni fai yuu," which might have impressed him since he was an Ishigaki native. He said his parents were from Yonaguni and I said I wanted to move there, buy a house, find a job, get married and call it a day. He told me, "Yeah, let me know. I'll help you." Hahaha. So all I need now is money.
Anyway, that was the easy part.
I got an early plane to Naha, Okinawa and jumped in a cab (expensive! about $35) to the Consulate. It was kinda amusing because the cab driver had no idea where I was requesting to go. That was when I was grateful that I had brought my electronic dictionary (and had not lost it).
When we figured out what I was talking about, we headed off. He asked me if I was "ami," or "soja." By now, I have learned these words: Japanese for "army" and "soldier." I said no and he goes, "Atama ga ii ne." You're smart. "Soldiers aren't very smart. They're no good," he told me. What could I say to that? I figured there was probably a lot of legitimacy to what he was saying. He and I seemed to hit it off pretty well though since I could communicate with him in Japanese a bit.
When we got to the Consulate, I had to speak to the guard to explain why I was there before they would open the gates and let us drive in. Kinda weird. Not really the kind of stuff you want to be doing while on vacation. Once we drive in, the cab driver starts pulling out my bags and another guard walks up and tells me in Japanese that the passport staff were already gone, as of 3pm. It was now just about 4. The cab driver looked at me like he wanted to drop me off the nearest bridge, probably thinking, "This guy is the world's biggest moron." He stuck my bags back in the trunk and we started to turn around. In my defense, I told him that the woman I had talked to on the phone told me they were open until 5. You should have complained to him, he told me. We paused for a minute and I considered jumping out to do so, but we looked at each other and thought Fuck it. "Ashita, ne." Handle this shit tomorrow.
I asked him if he knew an inexpensive business hotel, thinking I might get stuck here a couple days longer than expected. In Japan, a business hotel caters to traveling businessmen and is a little bit cheaper than a regular tourist hotel. They average around 5500 yen per night, which is about 50 bucks and they usually come with free breakfast. He said there were a lot around Kokusai Doori, which is the main drag in Naha, chock full of shops and restaurants and hotels. As we drove, he reached in his glove compartment and handed me a can of tea, apologizing that it wasn't cold. "Taihen da ne." Tough day.
When we got to the business hotel, he pulled over and said "Just a minute," running inside to check that the price was good. He came back, excitedly telling me that it was only 43000 yen per night and came with free breakfast! I thanked him profusely for all his trouble and checked in, tired and sweaty.
Like most people I have met so far, the guy was super kind and I thought about how he commented on his dislike for soldiers and how his perception of them undoubtedly extended to most Americans. It's a weird situation. I can't trash soldiers because I know who they are. They're mostly all just kids and don't know shit about Japan and don't necessarily care about it. On the plane from LA to Tokyo and again from Tokyo to Naha I sat with one Airforce guy and another Army guy. They looked tired. They looked like people do when they are at work. Their work involves traveling to foreign countries and doing whatever it is they're told to do, whether it is driving trucks in Okinawa or killing people in Iraq. I think those young guys are aware of not being necessarily well-liked here, which probably only adds to feeling alienated and uninterested in this place. It all depends on the individual of course, but my experience here is very different since I choose to be here and want to engage with people here. It seems like, even being a total dunce with Japanese language buys me the key to the city because I make an effort to fit in a little bit. I asked the cab driver if no other Americans here speak Japanese and he said none do. While we were driving down Kokusai Doori, he spotted a blonde "gaijin" (foreigner) and said, "Tomodachi?" (Is he your friend?) It's funny that Kokusai Doori (International Street) has few foreigners on it. Actually, although I have not seen much of it yet, Naha reminds me a little bit of Tokyo. Throughout Japan, you seldom see foreigners really. Which contributes to peoples' amazement when they see one, or when they see one use chopsticks, or when they see one who speaks Japanese a little bit. Which is why, even though my Japanese sucks, I get compliments (Jouzu desu ne.)
Anyway, Naha seems very crowded. There are tons of flashing lights and businesses. It may not be as easy here to make friends as it was in the small islands. The small islands are very laid-back and peaceful. Coming here is a weird way to decompress on the way back to LA.
Finishing up this story, once I had checked into my hotel, I once again tore apart my bags, thinking how much it would suck to be going back to the Consulate again tomorrow morning. And, there, buried in dirty clothes in a plastic bad with suntan lotion (so it would not get soggy at the beach) was my GODDAMN PASSPORT!
I thanked the heavens and stars and called the Consulate to apologize to the kind lady there and tell her not to expect me the next morning. Now, I am keeping it on me. Very close. In my underpants.
So, tomorrow, hopefully I will see Shuri-Jo. It is a historic castle from the days when Okinawa was the autonomous Ryukyu Kingdom. Maybe I will make it all the way north to see Churaumi Aquarium. Everything I have heard is that it is amazing, but that plan might be too ambitious. There are many things I did not get to do while here which I had wanted to, such as visiting an awamori distillery or the Orion beer brewery (I guess I could do that tomorrow), or going to the Observatory at Hateruma (the southernmost point in Japan), or camping on the beach. But that leaves me with an agenda for the next trip.
I really like Okinawa, more than any other place I have been to in Japan, and maybe any other place in general. Being here and meeting people and hearing the island music and being introduced to hougen (island dialect) really got me interested again in achieving fluency in Japanese. I know I would have benefitted so much more from certain experiences (such as the cross-island trek - the guide was an encyclopedia of knowledge or hanging out with Toshio-san or Furugen-sen) if I had been more fluent. I think when I return to LA, I will dispense with the silly community college classes and try to find a class taught by native Japanese people that is geared towards conversational fluency.
Anyway, I think I will sign off and have a look around Naha. The day after tomorrow is a long day. Crossing the International Date Line from East to West sucks! I will leave here in the PM and arrive the same day in the AM. Let's see if I can meet anyone here.
Ato de mata ne.