Since I travel extensively throughout the year with speeches and workshops, my family complained that they never went traveling. So end of December we booked a trip to Japan as it was my twin daughter and mother-in-law’s birthday. The trip is meant to last one week. However, it started off like a nightmare.

We flew out from Taiwan’s Songshan Airport and landed in Haneda Airport in Tokyo. Things were pretty hectic on the plane because besides my twin daughters who are turning 7, we have my newborn Cello who is 9 months old. Due to the chaos and grabbing everything for the baby and kids, when I got off the plane I accidentally left my passport bag in the front pocket. It had both my American and Taiwanese passports.

I remembered it immediately after leaving the plane so I told the staff I wanted to go back in and get it, but they said no. For security reasons only their staff can look.

So I thought, “Okay. It is in an obvious place so they can get it for me pretty quickly.”

Since we booked a full and tight schedule in Japan (spending about $15K USD), I told my family to first enter the border since we have an arranged shuttle to take them us everywhere.

Unfortunately, the airplane staff told me they didn’t find my passport bag. I was surprised but not too worried at that point since I know it’s right there. So I said I’m sure it’s there please look again and I described it a bit better. They then told me they check thoroughly and it’s not there. I had lost it myself. 

I was detained there for an hour and they said since I lost my passport they were now arranging my ticket to return back to Taiwan (but I needed to pay for the ticket).

At that point, I was in shock and frustration. I said, “I’m pretty sure it’s there. I had it when sitting on the plane, and when I got off I don’t have it anymore. It’s on the plane.”

But they looked a little annoyed and said no only the flight attendants but even the engineers looked and didn’t see it.

And I said, before they arrange for my return flight, I wanted to wait until the whole plane is cleaned out and there is a full Lost and Found summary.

After a couple hours, I was begin to lose hope and was prepared for the worst…”Oh crap. If I lost my passport, going back to Taiwan would be a hassle too. I won’t be able to get one to buy a ticket the next day to catch up with my family who must be even more hectic without me helping, and perhaps I would even be unable to travel to my next speech in Texas for January!”

While I was waiting I wanted to just burn time by watching some anime or playing games, but instead I quietly prayed. I also used ChatGPT, explained my situation, and ask it to recommend some Bible scripture to encourage me. It did that, and also offered a prayer I could use. It did a pretty good job!

Then after this repeated frustration, after 4 hours at the airport, they said they found my passport bag on the plane. So it was resolved and I could go in.

Obviously I was a little annoyed that they took so long to find it when it should be in a simple place I described, but since I had already prepared for the worst this is still extremely welcomed news. Then I had to catch up with my family while being stuck in Tokyo rush hour traffic.

…and that was just the beginning of the troubles for me that day.