When I was traveling through Australia a few years back, I had to cross into customs at the Sydney international airport. It was busy, and there were quite a few officers working the customs booth. I was coming from New Zealand and it just so happens that a couple of days before I was on the set of the Shire (close to Matamata) and when the tour guide wasn't looking, I broke off a piece of the party tree to take home as a keepsake - the one that Bilbo made his speech under in the Fellowship of the Ring. So as I was transporting it across, I kept it with me on my carry on luggage, being young and dumb at the time. The customs officer stopped me and asked if I was carrying any foreign floral or fauna, and not wanting to pay a huge fine, I admitted to having a tree branch with me. He looked at me sternly, and said the only way I was going to get into Australia, and then through Japan with this branch was if if I was a magician, him ready to confiscate it. I responded by saying well as a matter of fact I'm not a magician, but it was pretty much from over the head of a magician, and I explained the story. He laughed, said I had some cajones to do that and that "qualified me" as a magician, and actually let me keep the branch (after a bit of pleading with a sob story about how it meant so much to me).
Surprisingly, he then he checked my passport again, thought for a few seconds, and asked if I was from Calgary. I said I was. He then proceeded to ask if I knew a few family members he had from rural Alberta, where he spent a few summers in his youth. I said the names weren't familiar, and asked why he thought I would know them. He proceeded to tell me he loosely knew my dad back in the day and that they had friends in the same social circles.
After that, my entry into Aus was good to go.
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