Geocache girl

Jim and I loitered at the entrance of a shopping plaza for a few minutes, trying to poke around discreetly. It wasn't until I got down on the ground, put on the photo light on my cellphone, pushed away some damp ivy, and stuck my arm under the magazine kiosk that I found the little tupperware box. I know that doesn't sound so exciting. But it was! It was like Mission Impossible and an Easter egg hunt and a crossword puzzle all at once--with an iPhone.

I've never done it before so I don't have anything to compare it to, but apparently (a) the iPhone and (b) doing it in the middle of the city take a little of the mystery out of it. But still so much fun. And almost immediate gratification. We found two spots that were more or less on the way home from a walk down to Aoyama.

Do you already know all about this? There's a geocache iPhone app that links up with Google maps and GPS to pinpoint where you are in relation to stuff that people have cached nearby. These were both hidden in plain sight and therefore pretty small. They were both set up about a year and a half ago. You can take and/or leave something in the container if it's big enough. The one in the photo had a green tea cellphone strap charm and a US Navy patch along with the log book. (This book was the kind of pocket-sized notecards on a ring that we all use as Japanese flashcards for a few weeks and then stick in a drawer.) You write the date and a note in the log book. Some people have stamps made with their name or a logo and "found it" in Japanese. I think I have already said way too many nerdy things, so I will skip all the geocaching abbreviations I learned just in today's crash course.

Most of the log entries had Japanese names, though there were a few from Europe and America. A few people logged that they'd left Euros. They were gone, so it seems like people were glad to find them. I left the American coins that have been slowing me down at convenience stores for the last three months. Win-win.

Wedding parties were starting near the first and ending near the second of the spots tonight. People dressed up in pointy heels and suits walked (or lurched) past, all holding glossy matching souvenir bags. No one paid any attention as we practically dismantled a phone booth looking for a well-hidden stash. I think we were having more fun than they were.