Losing my passport in Osaka

I started "nomading" nearly ten years ago. A lot has changed since then—the state of the world, the proliferation of remote work, the tools that make it easier, and me, too.

As long as I have my passport, credit card, and phone, I'm pretty non-plussed. If I get on the wrong train, miss the tour, or accidentally capture my clothes in a 5-hour wash cycle at an inopportune time, I know it’s going to be fine.

There’s a lot of privilege behind this—my passport is from the US, that credit card is an AmEx Platinum, and I'm a white woman who speaks English. There are few things that aren’t fixable for me.

My first week in Japan, a pair of jeans ripped in an unfortunate way. Finding new pants in my size here is a non-starter, and I was traveling so quickly that the thought of finding a tailor for a rush job coordinated via-Google Translate sounded annoying.

I went to 7-11, bought a sewing kit and a pair of men's shorts for under $10, and did the worst patching job you’ve ever seen from my hotel bed. Problem solved!

Flash forward a couple weeks, and I’m pulling up in front of my hotel in Kobe at 3am. I consciously missed the last train because I was having fun with some strangers, took a cab home, and then realized… my wallet wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

I ended up dumping out my entire purse on this abandoned sidewalk, hoping it was stuck in a crevice.

It was not!

That wallet had my passport, credit card, debit card… and the room key for the aforementioned hotel that was locked and unstaffed at 3am. 🙃

Thankfully, gaining back in was easy enough, and drunk Caro was able to talk herself down enough to go to sleep and deal with the rest of the consequences the next day. And said consequences were still playing out in Japan.

The taxi app was happy to help this poor tourist who didn’t speak Japanese (Uber would never), one bar quickly responded to my IG message, and the other played Japanese-English Taboo with me over the phone with me until I was 98% sure they had my wallet.

An excerpt from that conversation:

“Passport! Bonvoy?”

“… Oh, yes! Marriot Bonvoy, my room key is in there.”

“Mexico?”

”… Yes! There is a Mexican visa in my passport.”

[And so on lol]

I took the hour-long train back to Osaka the next day, gave the bartenders tiny bottles of mezcal as a thank you, and went on my way.

It was a stressful 12 hours, I did a lot of frantic Googling about how to replace a passport abroad while waiting for replies, and learned that my credit card comes with serious perks I did not know about. But it all worked out!

I didn’t have a crazy-busy itinerary planned for the week. I didn’t have nonrefundable-plans for the day. And, even if I did, I knew it wasn’t the end of the world because I could always come back to Japan.

And, really, that mindset is the ultimate travel hack.

I have met a lot of people who treat every trip as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Which can be a really beautiful way to approach things! It encourages you to say yes when you might otherwise waffle, and to make the most out of every opportunity.

But I’ve also seen it have the opposite effect.

When you think “these seven days are the only time I’ll ever get in Japan in my whole life,” it can lead you to stack an itinerary.

You can clutch your plans so tightly that there’s no room for spontaneity—the kind that could be the highlight of your trip, but also the kind you need to solve unexpected problems. (Whether that’s poor weather rescheduling a tour, or even yes, a day trip to recover your lost passport).

And, for most of us, travel is also vacation.

So, if you want to spend a rainy afternoon in your Airbnb with Netflix instead of wandering around another temple you don’t really care about but feel like you should see because it’s your only chance!!… then you should cue up Law & Order: SVU and go to town on your favorite season.

The vast majority of people in this world do not have the strong passport, reliable income, and vacation days required to travel at all. So, if you do have those things—I encourage you to grip that plan a little less tightly. To embrace the risk of a “wasted” day.

You will never see every single thing a city has to offer no matter how long you stay there and there’s real pleasure to be found when you let go of that expectation.

You might decide it’s worth missing the last train to have a conversation with a professional wrestler in Japan. Or, you might need to take a day trip back to Osaka to get your passport.

Bopping around Kansai

Most people focus on the “golden triangle" during their first trip to Japan, which includes Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto. And for good reason!

Tokyo is, well, Tokyo. Kyoto has all the history and traditions that people think of when they think of Japan. And Osaka has everything else.

It’s a little more gritty, a little more affordable, and feels more like a “regular” city in a way that Tokyo and Kyoto never do for me. (It’s also referred to as the “belly of Japan” and who doesn’t want that.)

Kyoto and Osaka are less than an hour apart by train, and Nara (the deer spot) and Kobe (the beef spot) are about the same distance, too. It makes it easy to stay in one city and explore the others with day trips via the awesome train system.

I spent a month in Osaka last year (fresh off my tech job and restless in a way that made me crush hella Google Maps pins) so I opted to base myself in Kobe this time and just pop over to Osaka to see friends and revisit some favorites.

My top 5 in Osaka:A great spot for all-you-can-eat Japanese barbecueThe vertical aquarium that I am mid on but everyone else lovesAn English comedy night that’s a funny peek into local cultureMy favorite cocktail bar in Osaka—plus, the spot with my favorite cocktail (a wagyu old fashioned that will ruin you for all other old fashioneds)

Up next: playing sake brewer for a day!

xo,

Caro