Yesterday I was working over at Nozaki sensei’s house, getting ready to teach two classes of kids. All this week I’ve been over there in the afternoons, teaching many of the kids I taught several years ago, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing them growing fast both in height and in behavior. Some students that I was almost dreading came in yesterday and were some of the best behaved students of the bunch.
While I was preparing for lessons yesterday the doorbell rang, and I could see from the window that it was some religious visitors. Usually I play dumb at the door when they come around, and so I got up and headed to the front of the house to put on my “I don’t know no Japanese” act. I opened the door and a stunningly beautiful woman looked up from rummaging in her purse and began to start her prepared remarks. We both suddenly stopped out of surprise. She clearly wasn’t expecting a foreigner to open the door, and I wasn’t expecting this gorgeous woman to appear at the door. I recovered first and said hello in English, and the lady recovered soon after and said hello in Japanese. I noticed that she was accompanied by an older man with a big smile, but he was standing back as if he was in a supporting role only.
The lady evidently decided the situation wasn’t going to work out how she imagined it, and so she stammered that she’d come back later, and retreated to their car. I smiled and waved goodbye, and then went back inside to finish getting ready.
About five minutes later the doorbell rang again, and again I could see the same car and same pair of people waiting outside. I opened the door again, and the lady gave me a bright smile and said that she came to give me some literature and read me a passage from the bible. I gave her a bright smile back and said “sure”. Besotted by her beauty, and emboldened by the fact that I didn’t live there, I was more than happy to listen to whatever she said. For all I knew, Nozaki sensei had asked them to come back sometime and give her the pamphlets. After she finished reading me the bible verse she handed over some papers, and asked me in Japanese if I read the bible. I replied honestly that I didn’t really read it much, and she smiled and said goodbye.
Back in the house I put aside the tracts for Nozaki sensei. What a cunning move – sending around her around to convert people. The only religious folks that show up at my house are old ladies dressed in their Sunday best ready to chat the afternoon away. In an odd way it made my afternoon, and as such it obliged me to write about it here.
