I recently moved to Tokyo and a couple weeks ago these two girls were waiting outside my apartment and approached me when I left. They asked me if I had seen this certain newspaper article and if I wanted to go pray with them in Ikebukuro. I gave them a gentle no (which ended up being a mistake lol) and they returned knocking at my door a couple days ago. I ignored them and they eventually left but I’m confused on if I should be worried for my safety or not/what I should do? I plan to contact the police tomorrow but is there anything else I should be doing to help this? Has anyone else had an experience/heard of an experience similar to this?
30 comments
Rather than call the police, perhaps this is a good chance to practice saying ‘no’ in a stronger, more definitive way.
If you show any sign of maybe saying yes, they basically have to make it their mission to try to ‘save you.’
I tell them firmly no and say that I am already apart of a religion. Its not true, but I find religious people accept that as a firm rejection as opposed to just saying I am not interested. If you ignore them its possible that they will just keep coming to your door and like leave books and letters for you.
the Mount Fuji obasans strike again
When any Japanese person approaches you in the street for a conversation just immediately assume it’s cult related.
I’ve had really awesome encounters with strangers. But they’re momentary. People have places to be. Things to do. Anyone who takes the time to talk to you is only trying to sell you something.
Hey, it’s Monday again. Time for someone to ask about the fuji-cult-obasans. Time goes so fast…
They are harmless. Say no firmly, they’ll go away after (possibly) trying a time or two again. Use your best angry gaijin face. It’ll shoo them away.
buy a 110 yen whistle.
Next time you open the door to someone you don’t like,blow it.
Doesn’t work on NHK leeches.
they’re not much different from scammers in the digital world. they’re pretty much just checking how receptive you are and how easily you cave to pressure. for me personally it’s just a convenient excuse to actually be “not friendly” to everyone, since that’s my usual approach otherwise. so if they show up again, before they can finish their sentence just tell them loudly and clearly that you are not interested. you can get as creative as you like. any kind of pushback will make them give up and look for the next victim.
At that point I normally speak Chinese really loud. 你好嗎？什麼？什麼？
You may want to add a couple of steps in your escalation.
If they show up again, open the door and cut their speech with a “すみません。結構です/興味ないです。” Should be plenty enough without being rude.
Oh if it is my day off and I’ve got f&#$ all to do, I deliberately waste their time. Ex: them: so have you heard about the living Buddha (in our cult blah blah blah)
Me: you know…I’ve heard the weather is getting really cold in Aomori. Have you ever been to Aomori? …oh you haven’t?! Did you know Aomori is famous for apples?… Just walk them around in circles till they decide to leave you alone.
Honestly, this has happened to me back when I was living in Chiba.
For the most part, I saw everything (relatively) coming before it started.
I was standing in a crowd of people, and from the side of my eye, I could see someone dart directly towards me and ignore everyone else. I think I am cute, but like jump in the middle of an entire crowd of people cute? Yes. But not that day.
So I already expected that something was wrong.
Then she invites me out for lunch, and I am like sure, I have nothing better to do. And then while talking, she is pretty normal and it was fun. Then conversations steers towards religion really quickly, regardless of what I said it always routed back to that direction.
Since, bored and just out of plain curiosity, I went along with it and we went to go pray.
The moment I got there, everyone had the same atmosphere that you would normally see in horror movies. They were forwardly nice and had the fakest smile someone could muster. Then after praying (which was fairly normal and I enjoyed it, felt like I was part of a community), they stopped me from leaving as I was trying to go home.
They requested my address over and over again, and didn’t really take no for an answer. Even when I mentioned that I just moved to Japan and didn’t know my address, they were like “no problem, we will drive you over there and then figure it out”. And I was like “ooh, they full-on crazy”.
So, I pulled out my phone and told them I was going to call my boss. In reality, I called my friend and told them everything that was happening and let them know that I am using this phone call to eventually just leave. When they let me out to take the phone call, I just left and never heard from them again.
To be honest, at least to me (I’m kinda on the bigger side and stronger) they were harmless (brainwashing doesn’t work on me, as you need a brain to wash). So for the most part, I wasn’t afraid. Just when it came to personal information and other things to get to me, that is where I darted out of the building to never be seen again.
2/5 stars on Yelp. Would not recommend.
In your case, you should be fine, ***but do let the police know just to be safe.***
For fun, look up the most reputable deprogramming psychiatrics in Japan. Then, when these people appear again, tell them with syrupy sweetness that you are praying for them and give them the contact numbers.
I’ve lived here for decades and never once been approached by these people. What am I, chopped liver?
Answer the door naked and pretend everything is normal. Or pretend you’re a Scientologist and start telling them about it.
there’s a very simple and effective way of dealing with such. Just print out your own fake cult documents and whenever you are approached by them try and recruit them as well
Were they hot?
Two young women came to my door many years ago. Thought it was my lucky day, until they said they were from a cult. Well, they didn’t call it a cult. Nobody does. But apparently they had spotted something in the Bible that no one else had, which was that there were actually TWO Gods not one. As I had been reading a lot of New Atheist books, I thought it would be fun for them to prove it so I went off to get my King James and get them to show me where it said that. They thought they had me, “Ahhh! If you are an atheist, why would you have a Bible?” “I have a lot of books about religion. On Catholicism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism. Look, I’ve got a Koran as well!” They were taken aback by my having a Koran and started making their excuses and left.
Tell them you’ll press charges for harassment and stalking / disturbing the peace at your residence next time they show up. Google translate it if you can’t speak.
Maybe I should color myself fortunate. Since all I need to do to get anyone to go away is show interest in them!
Something similar to me in Miyazaki. This lady approached me and started talking to me in Japanese but I told her I don’t speak Japanese she then showed me this poster with what I think was Mt. Fuji and an old man on it and a whole bunch of writing in Japanese I kept telling her nah I’m good but she was being so persistent and then the crosswalk turned on and I walked away
>I plan to tell the police tomorrow
Imagine the report.
These two girls knocked on my door, I fear for my life!
Hmm, yeah, when I lived in the inaka they showed up on my door about three weeks in, one guy spoke good English but gave me strange vibes. They came back with musical instruments *the same day* and invited themselves in to jam with me *having spotted the really not very obvious instrument case in the room behind me*.
I told them that I was in fact extremely busy from now until the end of eternity and didn’t open my door to anyone for months, unless their visit was prearranged. They used to leave random gifts in my mailbox with quasi-religious messages in carefully handwritten English.
About a year later, long after they’d stopped coming over, I found out that the previous resident had to get the police involved.
“Sorry, but I’m not interested.”
“I’m closing the door now.”
Proceeds to close door.
*~ Fin*
I was invited to dinner by two girls. I went going with hopes and dreams.
I’ve been approached by two girls from a cult that tricked me into talking with them by pointing out my anime keychains and having a conversation about anime we liked. After chatting for a while they wanted to exchange LINE contacts so we could “get food sometime and go pray together after.” I shut the conversation down right then and there. From that point on there is no need for being polite, no need for soft “no’s.” Just be clear and firm and remove yourself from the situation.
No need to bring the police into it, and no need to fear for your life.
Have your wits about you, because as others here have said if a Japanese person stops you out of no where to have a long, drawn out conversation, 99% of the time it’s a cult fueled interaction.
Tell them you’ll go them later after they have a threesome with you in a love hotel.
I was approached by two men who were also handing out newspaper-looking fliers. It was in Ikebukuro, in fact. The cult’s name was 日蓮大聖人. Perhaps it’s the same organization as the girls who approached you? Well, unlike you, I wasn’t approached near my resident, so I’m not sure how much of my experience could be of help to you but here it is if you’re interested:
I was waiting for friend around the train station when they approached me. They asked if I had a little time to spare, so they could explain about their cult to me. I was extremely bored waiting for my friend, and there were a bunch of witnesses, so I thought what the hell? This is an interesting way to kill some time. So I let them proceed with their little presentation.
All they did was literally read the entire newspaper-like flier aloud. The total time must’ve been between 10-15min tops, but I got so bored listening to their dull voice, I completely spaced out. After they finished reading and asked for my opinion, I asked them if they could read it again since I wasn’t really paying attention. Then they obliged! They literally read the entire thing over, and I spaced out again. After finishing their second read, they asked for my opinion again, and again, I asked them to read the whole thing to me. Admittedly, I was beginning to have a bit of fun with this poor fella. The guy who was reading me the flier didn’t even seem to catch on to what I was doing. But I think his partner(?) did, and gave me a glare when I asked him to read the third time.
Right when the guy began reading the third time, I took out my phone and told them my friend had arrived so I gotta bounce. I thanked both of them, bowed to each of them, and just left before they could say anything more.
Well, that was my experience. Don’t know if it helped you in anyway but hope you enjoyed it nonetheless.
Probably Mormons 😂
Hahah it literally just happened to me in Ikebukuro , then opened Reddit to see this on the top of my page
Two girls have hair done in twin-tails? Wear all black with a red dress? Saying “only the fox god knows” 🤘🏽🦊🤘🏽