I got back to my hotel yesterday feeling happy I had my passport, visa and plane ticket all fixed up. I was organizing my money and passports when I couldn’t find my ATM card. I searched in a panic looking in all of the obvious places. I generally don’t always carry around my cards unless I am going to get some cash out.
I retraced where I went the day before and came to the conclusion that I must have left it in the ATM. I had just withdrawn some money to pay for my visa. There was a chance still that I dropped it somewhere along the way, but if that was the case there would be no chance of getting it back.
The ATM was a machine in the front of a hotel. The guy at the reception desk said the machine would take back the card if you didn’t take it away. There was still the chance of course that someone could have swiped the card, as the machine faces the street.
The hotel doesn’t have access to the ATM and told me to come back the next day. I went in at lunch time the next day and a different girl told me someone only comes out once a week, so she kindly called the bank and said they would send someone in a couple of hours.
Fortunately they found my card in the machine. I was so happy. I gave the receptionist a generous tip which they were pretty happy with.
I have other cards for different accounts, but this was my Japanese bank account. I just knew it would have been a huge hassle to get a new card from Japan.
The experience reminded me I need to be more careful with my stuff.
