So, you wanna hear a saga? I got a good one for you.

OK, I'm a nong. Found the passport after moping around dejectedly all weekend and filling in all the paperwork for the new one and making detailed lists and complaining loudly to anyone who would listen..... it dropped out from a folded piece of A4 paper in my travel documents folder last night after I polished off a bottle of white with Charlene.

I played the disco playlist and danced around the room with my arms in the air like the fool that I am. Thanks to everyone who sent me kind emails - sorry to have worried you all!

Technorati Tags: life, news, tokyo, trouble

As regular readers will know, I'm off to Thailand on the 24th July for a 6 weeks trip that is part holiday and part study.

Last Friday (as in the 7th), I went to the Thai embassy to try to organise a 90 day tourist visa so I wouldn't have to leave the country after 30 days when my regular tourist stamp expires. I didn't have enough documentation so they handed back all my paperwork and sent me on my way. I was a little disgruntled, of course. The embassy is kinda in the middle of nowhere in some Meguro back streets, and the visa office is just a crappy pre-fab building with not enough seating and too many people. It was a steaming hot day too. Anyway, headed off and taught a lesson, met a friend in Shinjuku and then went home. Emptied my bag and ..... hmmm, no passport. I figured the Thai's must have accidentally kept it cause my last memory of it was in the woman's hand as she waved it around and got advice from her colleagues about my case. So I emailed them, It was the weekend and the embassy keeps business hours. I figured email was a good way to inquire about my missing passport.

Anyway, Wednesday night (it's been a busy week), I realised I still hadn't heard back from the Thai's. So I called them Thursday morning and was told someone would take a look and call me back. No-one did. I emailed the Australian embassy and explained the situation.

Friday morning. I called the Thai embassy 4 times and couldn't get on to a human but left increasingly pleading messages for someone to call me back. I also had a long talk to a woman at the Australian embassy who was extremely helpful and reassuring and immediately put a pack of paperwork for passport applications and lost passports in the mail for me. I also got my student to check the cafe where we had our lesson on the previous Friday. It wasn't there. Finally, at around 3 pm Friday afternoon, the Thai embassy called me back. She said they didn't have it.

Saturday morning, the papers from the Australian embassy regarding lost passports and emergency applications arrived.

What's to come?

A conversation with the police about my “lost” passport (there is an English phone line that is only available in business hours...)
An emergency passport application and interviews with the embassy staff
A visit to Tokyo Immigration to get the emergency passport stamped and also some kind of supporting letter for the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok to prove that I have an approved visa and re-entry permits
A visit to the Bangkok Australian embassy to apply for a regular passport to replace the emergency passport which I will not be able to leave Thailand on as it is only valid for 6 months
A visit to the Bangkok Japanese embassy to get my forthcoming regular passport all stamped with the valid stuff to allow me a trouble-free re-entry into Japan in September.

And guess what? Today's a public holiday so I can't do anything about any of this. I have 4 working days to get this sorted before I fly out next Monday.

And I'm not totally convinced that the Thai Embassy doesn't have it.