There is no way in the world I am ever going to find it, I thought to myself as I stifled a sob rising in my throat, hopelessly scanning the streets of Umeda for a hot pink wallet (brandless, nameless, no distinguishing features, no ID, but all my monies inside it. I was majorly screwed.) In Tokyo, barely a year ago, I geared up like a tita and evenly distributed my worldly possessions in three different pouches, strategically located in different bags. When I packed for Osaka, I thought, yey, small, charming, cultural, little city. What could possibly go wrong? I had mentally beaten myself up with a spiked leather whip by the time I reached the Umeda Sky Building. I pressed the button up to the 39th floor and found myself in a breathtaking open-air deck that is the Floating Garden Observatory. As the biting cold wind seeped into the marrow of my bones—I was way up 173 meters high, cosseted only by a thin cardigan and insides that had frozen with fear and regret—I dejectedly surveyed [...]
