Residence Card

When I foolishly lost my wallet on a sightseeing tour of Tokyo, I was less concerned by the loss of cash than I was of the idea of getting my official documentation back, particularly my residence card. As it turns out, I needn’t have been so worried. Recovering your card just takes a couple of simple steps. Step 1: Lost Report Certificate The first thing I did was head to the nearest koban (police box) to explain the situation. This worried me at first, as my Japanese is barely passable and I was unsure how I could explain the situation. Luckily, I remembered the word for wallet, “saifu,” and mimed it disappearing. If I had been paying more attention in my Japanese lessons, I would have said, “Saifu wo otoshite, Zairyū kādo wo nakunarimashita.” (I have lost my wallet and my residence card). Fortunately, the police officer knew what to do. Using a multilingual form, he took down my details. Then, he took out a book with explanations of situations in various languages that helped me (after pointing out that, although the characters look alike, I required the English section rather than the Portuguese) understand what would happen next. If you…