My loving keitai (mobile phone)

Can we ever live without a mobile phone nowadays?


Well, we were challenged with that issue recently.

Both my hubby and I have mobile phones. Not yet iphone 4G but still, we both love our mobiles. We call each other regarding tiny tiny things like, ' Dah makan?', 'Dah sampai rumah?', 'Dah masak?', 'Bila nak balik?' and etc. Yeah, I admit they are very unimportant matters. But then again, who will not take the advantage of calling, instead of sending sms when one can have the access to call the family members within Japan, for free 24 hours a day, by just paying monthly fee of ¥1780 per person? (under the same mobile company that is...in our case, we use Softbank).


Last Friday evening at 6pm, just like any other day, my hubby called me from a playground's car park, which is not far from home. He had just finished his routine soccer practice with Sya. 'Ayang bila nak balik? Nak saya ambik tak?' was the question. I was very busy so I asked him to go back and I would come back on my own. It's just a five-minute ride from University anyway.

And that was the last time I heard from hubby's mobile.

When I came back, just before midnight, I asked him where his mobile was because I had been calling to inform that I would be back in 10 minutes time but there was no answer (again, very unimportant matter). He said, 'Ah...must have left it in the car.' (By the way, our car park was an open parking space, we rent it on monthly basis). I told him to get it because we pretty much depend on mobile's alarm to wake up in the morning. With only one mobile's alarm, I was not confident we were able to wake up early on cold mornings like this.


He went to the car park to get his mobile. It must have been quite a while because when he came back, I was half asleep. I mumbled and asked him whether he had got it. He said, 'Tak, tak jumpa, takde dalam kereta la yang'. Apparently he had looked in the car, went to the playground, looked around both the car parks but still couldn't find it. So, that totally woke me up. I used my mobile and called his phone in case it was placed at home but to no avail, we couldn't locate it. That night, we both slept at 4 am trying to find and figure out where the mobile could have been left. We were hoping that the mobile would just appear the next day. You know, like when you desperately looking for something, it just wasn't there. And when you don't need it, it just happily shows its appearance in front of your nose. Yeah, we were hoping something like that would happen. But unfortunately, that didn't happen.


My hubby had to work on Saturday, without his mobile. So, there was no call during his lunch. There was no phone call telling me when he'll be back for dinner. Yeah, yeah...I sort of missed that moment when you can just pick up the phone and talk about something unimportant. So feeling bored, while my hubby was at work, I decided to spend the whole day doing spring cleaning. Hoping in distress that the mobile would somehow appear. However, the phone was still nowhere to be found.

My face was not this sweet while spring cleaning

Then, I decided to call the mobile company and requested them to search the location of hubby's mobile. We can do that nowadays provided our phone uses GPS system. To cut the story short, they managed to tell by estimation where the phone was. She could only locate the city and section of the phone's location. It was impossible to locate the exact address, she said. I was not surprised when they told me about the location. It was SK8, the same section as our home address and we were advised to look within 1.5km from the center of the section, which, pretty much means that the phone could have been dropped at both the playground or our apartment car parks. Or another possibility was, that the mobile could have been there always, inside our home! So...was the info helpful? Yes and no. Yes, I was happy to know that the phone was still there and not taken away by some strangers...that we can rest assure. No, if the phone was within the vicinity...how come I still couldn't find it? Musykil, musykil.


Saturday was spent with me feeling miserable. Hubby kept his cool. Though he pretty much felt bad for not being careful and lost the phone. And yeah, I have to admit that I never thought losing a phone would mean so much to me. To discover that our lives were quite dependent on a small gadget like that, was even more depressing! Really depressing.

Depressing cat

That evening, I decided to make a police report at the section SK8 police station.

A typical Japanese police station

Hahaha...Can you believe that? I actually went to the police station and filed a report of the missing mobile. The policeman was grinning all the way when I described about the phone and trying to recall back how my hubby could have lost it. His first impression was, 'You sure it's not at home?'. My answer was, 'Yes, I did massive spring cleaning yesterday but I still couldn't find it'. 'Ok, if we ever found it, we would call your mobile and inform you. If not, you can use this copy of report and get a new mobile instantly without having to be questioned much by the shop attendant.', the policeman smiled at me. I thanked him and left.


Sunday, no calls from the police station. I didn't feel so bad because we spent time lazied at home, did some house chores and went shopping together. But in actual fact, deep inside, I was slowly losing hope.

But this is life. Life has unexpected turns. God has his own way of doing things. On Monday, after finished doing my routines, I had received a phone call from an unknown number. I was a split second late before the caller hung up. I quickly called back.

'Moshi moshi, this is N.S police station. Can I help you?', a woman answered.
'Moshi moshi, I received a phone call from this number....', I stated.
'Oh...really, do you have any idea why we could have called you?' (smart policewoman I thought)
'Yeah, I filed a police report regarding a lost mobile phone on Saturday, the report no. is...xxxx'
'Oh...alright, regarding the phone, we have found it.'
'Really? Thank you, thank you. When can I go and get it?'
'Any time at all. Don't forget to bring your ID, ok.'
'Thank you. Will be there in 15 minutes.'

The mobile was found! Wahahaha...I was so happy! We went to the police station and identified the phone and got it back. Before I left the police station, I managed to ask the policewoman who handed me the phone, 'May I know where the phone was found?', just to free myself from all these puzzle. She said, ' Sure, it was found at a parking lot in SK8'.

My favorite singer in police costume

So the mystery was solved. My hubby dropped the phone at the car park near our apartment, while trying to carry many bags from Sya's nursery (it's a routine where every end of the week, the parents are required to bring back the kid's mattress and blanket from the nursery). Some saintly man must have noticed the mobile that evening after my hubby left. Since my hubby realized it late and looked for it at midnight, the mobile must have already been noticed and picked up my that stranger. Thank you so much stranger. We owe you! May God repay you with more good things in your life.

I was so happy. My hubby lagilah...he was estatic. Well, it must have been miserable to see my long face every day. Sorry sayang, we women tend to take things too seriously sometimes and that itself would occupy the whole mind. Unlike men who can just cut and block themselves from all sorts of problems. What to do...this is 'woman nature'. You married one then you will have to deal with one, right? *wink*


But I believe, my persistency definitely paid off. And persistence is one essential criteria in doing research too. Have I got it all? hahaha...I don't know. But I know what my prof would say, he would say...'you still have a long way to go, girl!'

~The end~