An American vacationer who misplaced her engagement ring in Tokyo says she obtained it again because of TikTok and town's distinctive misplaced and located system

• Ariel Winton-Jones was reunited along with her engagement ring after shedding it in Tokyo. 
• Winton-Jones informed Insider that she credit each TikTok and Tokyo’s distinctive misplaced and located system.
• She mentioned she did not assume the ring would have been returned if she had misplaced it within the US.

Ariel Winton-Jones, an American girl who’s touring round Japan, says she thought her engagement ring was gone endlessly after she misplaced it in Tokyo final week. 

However to Winton-Jones’ shock, the ring was returned after two days because of strangers on social media, the kindness of the Japanese public, and town’s distinctive misplaced and located system. 

Chatting with Insider on Tuesday, Winton-Jones, 29, mentioned she and her husband, Kevin, stay in Boston and are at the moment on a 12-day journey round Japan for Kevin’s thirtieth birthday. They seen the ring was lacking the day after they landed in Tokyo on Might 23, shortly after attending an train class within the early hours of the morning.

Later that day, Winton-Jones made a public enchantment on TikTok and Twitter to ask if anybody in Tokyo had seen the ring. 

Winton-Jones defined that the ring had sentimental worth because it had the identical diamond that her father used to suggest to her mom. Her father died unexpectedly three months earlier than Winton-Jones’ marriage ceremony in October 2021. 

Chatting with Insider, Winton-Jones mentioned she felt “paralyzed and numb” after first realizing she misplaced it, and in contrast the sensation to “the early days of grief.”

“I could not snap out of it,” she mentioned. “It is by far probably the most vital materials object that I’ve left behind from him, so it actually sucked.”

Winton-Jones mentioned she and Kevin instantly retraced their steps and requested workers at native companies, practice stations, and the lodge they had been staying if that they had seen the ring. Additionally they handed out flyers with images of the ring.

After they realized that no one had discovered it, Winton-Jones mentioned she determined to make an enchantment on TikTok regardless of by no means having posted something on the platform earlier than. 

“I had seen movies on TikTok… folks will publish, ‘I met this man, assist me discover him.’ Possibly I can do the identical factor, however for my ring. It appeared sort of ridiculous as a result of I haven’t got a following on TikTok,” she mentioned.

The following morning, she mentioned she woke as much as quite a few messages from folks on-line who inspired her to maintain trying to find the ring, whereas others knowledgeable her about Tokyo’s distinctive misplaced and located system and inspired her to fill out a misplaced merchandise report. 

In Tokyo, those that lose private gadgets are inspired to fill out a misplaced property type and hand it right into a police station or full it on-line, in accordance with Tokyo Metropolitan Authorities’s web site. If an merchandise is discovered, the one that listed it is going to be contacted with the main points they offered within the preliminary type, or they will additionally test on-line to see whether or not the merchandise has been discovered utilizing the police’s official database, the web site states. 

Two days after the ring first went lacking, the couple acquired a name at their lodge informing them that the ring had been handed in to a police station after it had been discovered at Tokyo Station. 

—Ariel Winton-Jones (@arielrwinton) May 24, 2023

Winton-Jones informed Insider that the police had been capable of establish the ring that had been discovered utilizing the knowledge she offered within the misplaced property report in addition to the picture of the ring on the flyer. 

“Quite a lot of Japanese folks have commented on my Twitter publish, saying they’re taught from a younger age to carry gadgets to the police, which I do not assume is a factor within the states,” Winton-Jones mentioned, including that she would not have anticipated to ever get the ring again if she had misplaced it within the US. 

“A diamond ring? They might simply take it dwelling and promote it,” she mentioned. 

Along with touring, Winton-Jones mentioned she is at the moment specializing in selling the Gregory S. Winton, Esq. Scholarship which helps aspiring pilots who cannot afford flying classes in honor of her father, who was a pilot and flight teacher.