One small screw-up

I’ve lost my passport.

I wouldn’t have even realized it if not for my dad bringing it up out of the blue yesterday, when he mused that it’d been two years since my family visited me in Japan. And I’m grateful, because it’s just over a month until my trip back to Japan. Any closer to the departure date would’ve been pretty risky.

We’ve ripped the house apart looking, and it’s nowhere to be found. The last time I took it anywhere was for orientation for my new job in September, so it’s hard to retrace my steps back that far. I feel like I had to have just misplaced it somewhere at home, but it’s just not here.

Besides kicking myself for my clumsiness, the thing I really regret is that I’ve lost my Japanese work visa. They took my alien registration card when I left Japan in August…so the visa was the one official document I still had that attested that I had indeed spent two years working there. And the multiple reentry permit, too…that’s something else I couldn’t have gotten as a visitor. At least I still have my Japanese driver’s license, but it’s not quite as “sacred” as a passport.

And what are the chances of my ever getting a residency visa for Japan (or for any other country, unless I’m incredibly lucky with work or grad school acceptances) ever again?

I also regret losing my entry/exit stamps from South Korea, since I really don’t know if I’ll ever make it there again. The other stamps I had were from Japan, India, and Italy, and I know I’ll be going back to all of those in the future.

This really hurts. Even if it turns up the day after I declare it officially missing to the government, I’d like that because at least I’ll have it. That’s all I care about.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *