A family trip to Japan took a tense turn for “It’s Showtime” host Jhong Hilario and his partner Maia Azores when their four-year-old daughter Sarina briefly went missing—only to be found safe and happily shopping alone at a toy store nearby.
Jhong recounted the incident in an episode of their family vlog “Tokyo Family Takeover 2025”, where he shared the nerve-wracking moment they lost sight of Sarina at a café on the first day of their trip.
“May insidenteng nangyari. Unang araw pa lang, biglang tumakbo nang mabilis [si Sarina],” the celebrity dad shared. “Sa sobrang laki ng café, hinanap namin. ‘Yun pala, umakyat na agad sa taas. Nakita ko, nagsho-shopping na. May dalang basket ng mga toys niya.”
Fortunately, Sarina was shortly found safe and happily holding a basket of toys from a nearby toy store.
Jhong also shared that Maia became emotional during the brief but stressful search for their daughter, with the help of security and staff from the area.
On their Instagram pages, a video of Jhong was posted where he can be seen calling out to his daughter: “Sarina, we’re looking for you.”
The unaware Sarina responded with a smile, “I’m just shopping,” while holding a small basket of toys.
“You have to tell us. Don’t go away from us, okay? That’s not nice. We are so worried. Don’t do it again,” Jhong calmly informed her, before asking the child to apologize to her mother, grandfather, and uncle, all of whom had gone out searching for her.
According to the same post, this was Sarina’s first time getting lost.
“Her first time getting lost… and it wasn’t just a quick one. Mommy was already crying, we had reported it to the management, and everyone was looking for her,” her parents wrote.
“After 10 minutes, Daddy finally found her. She had managed to go up to the second floor on her own and was calmly chilling with a basket full of toys. She went shopping. By herself. 😂”
