Ok, so I should trust my instincts more....

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So, I learnt a valuable lesson today. Trust my instincts more. I thought the random woman who invited me out tonight was a little odd.....and in fact both her and her friend were a right couple of weirdoes.

Sigh....what a waste of an evening. I was tired anyway from my ninja exploits and really didn't want to go out anyway, but I'd agreed to meet them at 7.15 and go to one of their houses for (I assumed and I think it was mentioned), dinner. Ogura-san picked me up in her car (with, oddly, yet another strange old man sat in the back of the car...nit the same as the last time). We drove 15 minutes to Toyoka (the next village along) and went into Noriko-san's house. Noriko was younger than Ogura and spoke a little more English. The strange little old man came in too for a bit, but he didn't stay long (he was a neighbour or something).

Anyway, they gave me some tea and I told them a bit about where I came from etc.....but it was obvious there was some agenda for inviting me and they weren't overly interested in the small talk. There was no sign of dinner whatsoever....and by now it was 8pm. They produced a newspaper clipping about an earthquake that is being predicted by scholars sometime soon in the prefecture below Nagano.....nothing that odd about that given the amount of big earthquakes that have occurred recently. Anyway, Ogura-san then asks me if I know about Buddhism.....and then they both proceed to try and explain to me in a mixture of Japanese and a little English that there is a very powerful Japanese Buddha we need to pray to in order to change the future and stop this earthquake....I get a short lecture on re-incarnation.....and then they ask if I will go upstairs with them to pray. To this I try feigning ignorance at first, but after they persist I explain I am an atheist and although I respect this is their belief, I would feel uncomfortable praying (not an easy thing to get across I can tell you!).....this still doesn't put them off - they show me pictures of a house that survived the recent tsunami - the reason it survived being that the occupiers had prayed very hard to the great Japanese Buddha......so that is why we REALLY need to pray now.

By now I was feeling extremely awkward and wanting to run away as fast as my legs will carry me. I explained that as it was now 8.40pm I really needed to get home for 9 to speak to my family on Skype, so please could I be taken home. Reluctantly they agree but want to know when I can come round next week....I'm thinking never you total nutters, but I don't have the Japanese to explain this clearly, so I tell them I need to consult my diary which is at home.

I get driven back to my car by Ogura, all the way she is trying to convince me in Japanese the importance of praying to stop this earthquake from happening. I reply each time that I am an atheist and I don't pray, but it doesn't seem to compute......we leave it that I will let her know when I'm free next. I'm home now, and after stuffing down some toast (I'm starving!), I have to try and figure out how to text her a message in Japanese along the lines of I'm busy for the rest of my stay in Japan...sorry! (And NO I will not pray to the great Buddha to change the fate of Japan).

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Comments

[Jon]

Just don't reply
That's what japanese people do often when they're not interested in someone. You'll suffer it sooner than later. Interesting blog.