Among the millions of items that were registered with Tokyo's lost and found center last year was an urn containing someone's ashes.
And yet this should perhaps not surprise you — urns are handed in to lost and found centers more regularly than you might think. Last year alone, the Metropolitan Police Department's lost and found center in Bunkyo Ward tried to reunite as many as 10 urns with their owners. In every case, relatives of the deceased refused to come and collect them.
Umbrellas are one of the most common items that accumulate at the center, so much so that a 660-square-meter room has been dedicated to storing them in the basement. The room wasn't quite full as of late April but Shoji Okubo, head of the center, says that this situation will change once the rainy season starts in June.
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