.... somebody in Japan saying if they lose stuff then its supposed to be left there.Seems to be a superstition?
No, not a "superstition". I think it's a super strong (over extended, if-you-ask-me) notion of lost & found. So .... for example .... if you leave your wallet on a park bench at the bus stop, you can be assured it will be there when you return. If you forget and leave your umbrella @ the entry-holder of the restaurant, you can be assured that the next person won't think "finders keepers". There is not "finders keepers" notion in their vocabulary, I guess.
I saw this , firsthand, when some Japanese tourists, @ Carmel beach, came up to me and handed me a digital camera. At first, I thought they were asking me to take their picture. But ... after some meager English attempts, they indicated they had found it. And they were handing it to me, because they thought I was a worker (because I was swinging a detector). I wasn't able to explain that I DIDN'T work for the city, so... I gave up and graciously accepted the camera.
I floated a CL "found" ad, and was able to re-unite it with the owner (long story). But the point is, you can see how none of them seem to think "lucky me, look at the cool camera I found". Instead, there's almost zero "finders keepers" mentality.
I'm sure this same notion would likewise apply to us, in the USA (if you have any moral scruples whatsoever) for recently lost items (like a camera right on top of the ground). But in Japan, that seems to extend to .... even objects that .... who knows if they've been lost for years ?
This is an object of USA legalities too. Because, when you think of it: The law makes no distinction of when YOU think the object was lost (deeply buried vs shallow, etc...). It merely dictates the lost & found procedure. Lest an unscrupulous person merely *assume* that anything they find, has been "given up on". How do you know ?
.... However, having said that, these guys truly seemed interested in what I was doing and continued to watch me retrieve my target ....
Yes: they are curious (since they sometimes have never seen such an instrument) and watch you. And .... in my experience, once they figure out what you are doing, then it just progresses to phase II :
"Why would any sane person do such a thing ?"