Live from Japan!

So, today i got to have a good long conversation, IN JAPANESE! Danielle and I were cleaning up our apartment in preparation for my parents arrival on monday, when there was a ring at the doorbell. We were not expecting anyone, and both danielle and I were in our PJ’s so Danielle asked me to get the door. I opened the door and there was a masked man there. (Side note, after being in japanese winter for a few months now, I am no longer surprised or at all effected by masked men.)

As always happens in these scenarios we stared at each other for a few moments before speaking. “Oh a foreigner… uh… Japanese?”
“Yes, a bit.”
“Uh, I see…” Another blank stare.
This is how these conversations always occur. We have had a few such visits, from Volunteers (or Boranteeru) for various things. Usually they want to hand out literature on some local problem, or get a signature, or sell some fundraising, or something. Sometimes they basically just run away other times they will had us a card with a short spiel written in english. He started to reach into his bag, before deciding to try talking to me more. Below are some selected portions of our conversation.

(I will provide rough translations. however all of this conversation happened in japanese.)
“Can you speak japanese?” (This question again, although more formally)
“I am sorry only a little.”
“Oh, I see, where are you from?”
“I am from america.”
“Where in america?”
“Chicago in america”
“Oh, Chicago!”
“Are you an english teacher?”
“Yes, I teach at a high school”
“Howlonghaveyoubeeninjapan?”
“I am sorry, once more please”
“How long have you been in japan? 1 year? 2 years?”
“Oh, for six months.”
“How long will you stay?”
“For about two years.”

(This is a standard conversation, I have had this exact conversation maybe a hundred times since coming to Japan. I can have this conversation no problems. I can even handle most of the standard variations.)

“So, you are a christian?”
“I beg your pardon?” (NOT a standard variation)
“Are you a christian?”
“Oh, uh, yes.”
“Ah I see! (VERY excited by this.) Catholic or Protestant?”
“Um, Protestant…” (I am starting to get a bit nervous, this is not a conversation I have had yet in japan.”
“Ah, I am a Jehovah’s Witness!”
(Oh, boy….) “AH, A Jehovah’s witness.”
“Yes have you talked to us before?”
“Yes, I have.” (True! I have twice before talked to door to door proselytizers. One of them a Jahovah’s Witness.)

Here he went into his spiel full on. Some of it i understood some of it I think I guessed what he was talking about alright. But I decided to get what I could out of it, So I stopped him when I didn’t understand him.

… “Around the world there is suffering. Bad things happen, but… (blah blah) happen, but…”
“Oh i am sorry (Blah blah)? what is the meaning of (blah blah)?”
“Ah… um bad things… Nagasaki, Hiroshima… many people die…”
“Oh, I see”
“Yes, (Blahblah happen), but… we can change…”

In the end he thrust his book of multi languages into my hand and I read the spiel. Very similar to the one he had told me. I was pretty happy with how much I understood!

He then asked how old I was, and if that woman was my wife. (Yes, she is my wife.) He seemed very happy and excited that I was married, and I guess not living in sin. Overall I think he was pretty happy with the whole thing, as was I. He promised to come back again with some literature for me and went on his way. I am a little afraid of what I may have started.