Losing your mobile phone is one of the greatest frustrations in modern life. But sometimes great frustration can weirdly lead to great friendships, as was the case with the “Brother Orange” saga and now between Syahri Rochmat of Jakarta, Indonesia, and Shota Noda of Kanagawa, Japan.

It was not just a lost phone that connected the two, but a train transferred between their two countries. You see, many of the locomotives used in Indonesia are actually second-hand trains from Japan that were shipped overseas and refurbished for use on the archipelago nation’s railroads.

Last December, Syahri, a 24-year-old engineer working for Jakarta’s commuter train network, was inspecting one of these Japanese trains to make sure it was free from problems before it hit the tracks in Indonesia. Upon removing one of the bench seats to check inside, he found a mobile phone in a case that also contained a Japanese student ID card.

Rochmat wanted to find a way to return the phone but could not read Japanese. So he turned to Twitter for help and, through the power of social media, somebody in his network was able to contact the university listed on the card and track down the Facebook page of the phone’s owner – a 20-year-old student named Shota Noda who attends Yokohama National University in Kanagawa.

Japanese news report about Rochmat and Noda’s unlikely friendship

It turned out that Noda had lost his phone and ID card on a train car on December 5, 2015, a train that was decommissioned the very next day so that it could be sent to Indonesia.

(READ: Before being shipped to Jakarta, Japanese train given touching farewell message from its conductor)

Noda was shocked when he received a message in English with a photo of his student ID asking if it was his, but immediately understood what it meant.

Noda got in contact with Rochmat online and tried to ask him to send him his phone through the mail, but language barriers and the high cost of shipping made it difficult to arrange something. Eventually, Noda decided to come to Jakarta himself after the end of his spring school semester so that he could meet Rochmat and pick up his phone in person.

Pertemanan itu gak mandang status sosial, agama, ras, negara dan suku bangsa A photo posted by Omat Bonceh (@syahri.rochmat) on Aug 2, 2016 at 7:14pm PDT

The two finally met at a train station in Jakarta on July 27 where Rochmat gave Noda back his mobile and ID card. The two quickly struck up a friendship which then led to Rochmat coming to visit Noda in Tokyo in August.

A video posted by Omat Bonceh (@syahri.rochmat) on Oct 21, 2016 at 11:01am PDT

Noda and Rochmat’s tale has gotten a lot of attention in Japan (see the video above) where it was seen as a touching example of cross-cultural friendship in the modern world. Noda said he has gotten a lot of friend request from Indonesians who have heard their story. “This smartphone and new friendship are precious to me,” Noda said, as quoted by Japan News.

Their touching tale is obviously not the first we’ve heard about a lost phone connecting two people across continents. Many of you are probably familiar with the story of Matt Stopera, an American reporter for Buzzfeed who tracked his stolen iPhone to China and ended up becoming a good friends with “Brother Orange”, the man who had purchased the stolen phone.

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