Fan’s Japanese hunt for heirloom hat lost during celebrations
A WELSHMAN in Japan has launched a search for a sentimental family heirloom lost as he celebrated his country’s most recent win in the Rugby World Cup.
Dewi Griiffiths, from Cardiff, recently journeyed to the Far East to begin an English teaching placement and, before he left, his mother Elizabeth told him to take along the knitted hat made for her on St David’s Day 60 years ago by her own mother.
The item, emblazoned with a leek and the word “Cymru”, had been a Griffiths family staple on international days for decades and they felt it would be a missed opportunity were it not to accompany Dewi to a World Cup match in his new country of residence.
However, after a few too many beers in a local bar after watching Wales trounce Uruguay last Sunday, Dewi misplaced the treasured possession and has spent the last few days desperately trying to retrieve it.
“I’ve been out here since August and had originally meant to go to the Fiji match but couldn’t make it because of work,” says the 31-year-old.
“So I was determined to make it to this game and rented an AirBnB for the weekend in nearby Kumamoto, which is about a two and a half hour drive from where I actually live.”
Decamping in front of the big screen in the city’s designated fanzone, Dewi watched the action with dozens of other Welsh fans before heading off to the area’s various bars to raise a glass to his national team’s victory.
“It turned into a hell of a night, as you can imagine, and I’ve been told I fell into a cab at around 4am. Thing is, I was so drunk I accidentally asked the driver to take me to my permanent address in Miyazaki as opposed to the place I was renting. That’s a distance of about 120 miles.”
Waking up on the back seat to the realisation he now had a £300 fare to pay, Dewi also realised he no longer had the hat with him – so he spent the next day travelling by bus back to where he believes it was lost.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t remember much about it all, except that the hat was on and off for most of the night,” says the Welshman.
“At one point I was interviewed by a local Japanese TV crew and I definitely still had it at that point, as was the case after the match because I filmed the fans going mad and took a video selfie at the end.”
Dewi adds that having fruitlessly phoned all the bars in the region – and even the taxi firm that took him on his needless marathon journey home – his only hope is that there’s a Wales fan out there who may have picked up the item.
“Honestly, I can’t explain how gutted I am not to have the hat anymore, especially after it had been safe at my parents’ house for all those years – I still don’t know what my mother was thinking letting me take it with me,” he sighs.
“Also, I’ve not actually told her I’ve lost it yet. I’m just hoping that if she finds out this way she’ll at least realise how much effort I’m making to get it back and go easier on me. Sorry mum.”