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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- A Japanese woman yesterday (March 28) finally found her camera over two years after losing in it the ocean in Japan after Taiwanese elementary school students stumbled on it at a beach in Taiwan's northeastern Yilan County, reported CNA.
As part of a routine beach cleanup on Tuesday (March 27), a class of fifth grade students from Yueming Elementary school in Yilan County stumbled upon a waterproof camera case covered in barnacles and shells with a black Canon PowerShot G12 camera well preserved inside.
The class deliberated for a while whether to look at the memory card's contents due to privacy concerns, but in the end, they decided the images might help them locate the owner of the camera, said homeroom class teacher Park Lee (李公元) to CNA.
The students found that the most recent photos were timestamped Sept. 7, 2015 and amazingly, the camera's battery still had some charge left. Judging from the scenery in the photos, the students and teachers deduced that the photos were likely taken around the Japanese island of Ishigaki, which is approximately 250 kilometers east of Yilan County.
That day, Lee decided to post on his Facebook page several images from the memory card with an explanation of where the camera was found and how to contact him in both Chinese and Japanese. To date, the post has received 24,000 views and 12,628 shares.
Yesterday (March 28), a Japanese woman identified as Serina Tsubakihara, who is currently majoring in English at Sophia University in Tokyo, contacted Lee saying that she remembered losing the camera when diving off the coast of Ishigaki over two years ago. Tsubakihara is so grateful that the students have been able to find her camera, she is planning to travel to Taiwan to thank them personally, said Lee to CNA.
Tsubakihara is no stranger to Taiwan as she today sent Lee a photo of herself eating ice cream during a visit to the country last year. The image Tsubakihara sent of herself clearly shows that she is the same woman in the photos found by the student.
On her Facebook page, Tsubakihara confirmed that she lost the camera while scuba diving and was thrilled to have someone contact her nearly three years after losing it, saying:
"I can’t still believe this is happening but the only thing I want to say is thank you so much for every single person who was involved with this! I am so lucky and happy to have such a wonderful experience to feel the kindness of people. Borderless. I talked with Mr Park Lee and surprisingly I could have very precious opportunity. I am going to Taiwan to meet him, students and more people in June! I am very excited to be there and meet them. Again, thank you so much for everything!!!"
