(A small) Theft in Tokyo

I could not believe my eyes.

I just left my bike for less than 5 minutes and the two plastic bags I left in the front basket were gone.

Vanished.

Well, I just did some grocery shopping, left the bags in my bike’s basket and went to the store next to the supermarket to get a few more stuff. It did not took me longer than 5 minutes to grab a carton of milk, some yogurt and a tray of egg and paid for them because the shop was not busy.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw the empty basket.

Hubby was holding Huzaifah as he witnessed me arranging the two bags in my basket. I told him I wouldn’t be long as I rushed to get some stuff from the store next door, but he chose to follow me into the shop. I don’t blame him – we never thought somebody would take our stuff just like that. This is Japan after all, where the people are supposed to be decent, trustworthy, honourable… I mean, they were just two bags of groceries, not like we were back from shopping in Takashimaya, Matsuzakaya or Mitsukoshi…

I’ve done multiple-place-grocery shopping before – in Tokyo and in Gyotoku - leaving plastic bags in my bike’s basket for a short while as I entered other shops to get some stuff, but they had never disappeared just like that. And this is different from the lost-wallet-episode I had last year because last time I had dropped the wallet somewhere and it might or might not be found by anyone. But this – this was blatant theft! In broad daylight too.

Hubby tried to look around for the bags, but nobody appeared to be carrying our stuff. It wasn’t that much – carrots, cabbage, shiitake mushroom, shimeji mushroom, cooking oil and some ice cream. The total cost was a little over 1000 yen – not much, I know, but still… When hubby suggested me to go inside and buy more to replace what had been stolen, I was still so upset with the incident that I just refused to do so. We ended doing our alternative shopping elsewhere, buying different items (except for ice cream – I had a craving for it) because it just hurt to buy similar stuff at higher price when I knew I had a bargain at the first supermarket. When we reached home, I confessed to hubby that if I were in a more rational state, I would’ve gone and just buy stuff to replace what was lost at the supermarket – but when I was there, the frustration was still too raw…

When we told him what happened, Ridzuan, who used to live in Japan for quite some time, admitted that “memang ramai orang buat kerja tu… orang tua-tua pun buat…” Yup, as it happened, that particular supermarket was filled with mostly senior citizens when we were there as it was still midday (the yuppies were not back from work yet to do their shopping. That’s why there are plenty of 24 hours supermarket/food store in Tokyo – to accommodate yuppies and their grave hours)

Well, so there, a lesson for us never to be too laid-back or too trusting (or careless) again – even when dealing with the so-called honest Japanese…