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Some of you who are familiar with Japan travel might may have read the title and know where this story is going. Everyone else, hold onto your butts.

Sunday April 19th, 2026

Ey!

Good morning from Akihabara, Tokyo.

There’s a yakuta in my room and instructions on how to wear it.

This is nice. I might have to get one of these.

I figured out how to run the air conditioner in my room today.

The weather has been great and I haven’t needed it until now.

I also figured out how to turn on the bathroom fan, though there is some kind of heating behind the mirror which keeps it from fogging in the middle.

You’ve done it again, Japan!

I have a small garbage and a small recycling bin in my room, both of which I will set outside of my room.

I’ll put the towel in a bag and hang it from the hook in the hallway as well.

I think that today I’ll head out to a rural area.

Someplace that’s easy to get to by train without being too expensive.

How about… Takasaki in the Gunma prefecutre?

That’s about three hours by train.

I have arrived!

First stop.

Um.

The mall?

Yes.

The mall.

I don’t have a plan.

I’m just wandering today to see what the day brings.

Of course there’s a cat cafe.

Oh no! This is a toy that my partner Lauri wanted, but didn’t buy and when she went to another store to buy one, they had removed them since they weren’t selling well!

I should buy this for her, but I’m still nervous about spending too much money and it’s early in the day. I don’t want to end up carrying around a ton of weight.

I’m sure I’ll see this again later.

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Future Levi here. I did not see this again later.

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We’ve got gashapon machines.

We’ve got Crayon Shin Chan toys.

Big Bird foot prints?

Gundam models.

Playstation 2 games.

I mean, I’m going to look at all of the video game items to see what they’ve got.

There’s loads of stuff that’s released in Japan that never makes it to the West.

There’s loads to look at here, but I’m starting to get hungry.

I’m hoping to find some Attack on Titan merch that has Levi on it.

Y’know, since my name is Levi.

While looking at these a young man approaches me and asks if I like anime.

I tell him that I do and with my broken Japanese, his limited English, and a translator on my phone we have a short conversation.

He helps me to find the Attack on Titan area (though it goes by a different name in Japan) and I find myself an acrylic Levi keychain.

His name is Hoshino and he tells me he’s off to meet with a friend, but that we should meet at one o’clock.

We swap phone numbers.

It’s 12:45 now, and I agree. I also ask him where is a good spot to eat in the area and he tells me about a shop in a neighboring building at this mall.

I head to the other area and I figure he’ll be meeting me here with his friend and I send him a few text messages, but he’s not responding.

It’s 1:15 now and I’m hungry.

Maybe he wants to meet at the restaurant.

Or maybe something was lost in translation.

I take this photo to translate the items on this menu at the restaurant.

I wait to be seated, but I am told through pointing that there is a machine to select the food that I want and pay in advance.

I order a chicken curry rice meal, pay the machine, and receive a small piece of paper.

I write some postcards to friends and have a nice meal.

After finishing the meal I wander around outside again.

There’s an anti-war protest happening.

I receive a text message from Hoshino.

I think that when he said to meet at one o’clock, that he may have meant “In one hour.”

I do not intend to ask.

We meet at a nearby restaurant where Hoshino and his friend Mori are waiting for me and we have a few sodas and chat about anime, manga, Japan, and the U.S.

This restaurant has free refills on melon soda.

A fantastic feature for a restaurant.

It also has one of those drink serving robots that you can find at conveyer belt sushi restaurants.

After chatting for a bit Hoshino and Mori ask me if I would be interested in learning more about Japan.

I say “Yes.” and they invite me to a Buddhist temple.

Hoshino also asks me if I can read Japanese, and I say that I can, but that I’m not very fast.

I’ve been so glad to get lots of experience with reading everything in Japan.

We hop in Mori’s car and take a short trip to the temple.

As we arrive I am handed a small piece of paper and am asked for my name, address, and phone number.

Every hotel has been asking for this.

Something to do with legal details for renting rooms to foreigners, I think.

So I share my details.

I’m handed a small prayer book and prayer beads and everything starts to go very fast.

I take off my shoes before stepping up into the temple, and I leave my shoes in a cubby.

Mori gives my info to someone at the front desk and then we rush up the stairs where a. Um. “Sermon?” is about to start.

There are folks in Japanese praying positions around the room, but Hoshino and Mori work their way to the very front and an older man moves out of the way so that I can sit between them.

A woman comes in and rings an urn with a drum stick and Hoshino helps me open my book and everyone begins to chant.

It becomes very clear very fast that I cannot read at the same speed as everyone else, so Hoshino runs his finger along the spot where we are reading and I get a few of the sounds right here and there, but I’m going to be honest with you.

I mumbled most of it to hide the fact that I couldn’t read quickly enough.

The chant lasts for about twenty minutes.

My legs are killing me.

Hoshino whispers to me that I can sit however I like, but I try to hold the Japanese prayer position for as long as I can.

Eventually I give up and sit cross legged, which is difficult to do while also trying to read Japanese and chat at a moderate speed.

When it is all done, Hoshino and Mori offer to help me stand.

I can do this myself, I’m not in as much pain as they think that I am, but I do go down the stairs as we leave very slowly.

My shin muscles that I didn’t know I had are killing me.

Mori asks me how I feel.

I replied “Focused.”

I didn’t know what to say, but that seemed like a nice thing.

He smiles and gives a nod, so I think it what he wants to hear.

I wonder what we’ll do next, but it’s clear that they’re taking me back to the train station to drop me off.

They must have other obligations.

I get a selfie in the car with Mori, mostly to show the steering wheel on the opposite side of what we’re used to in the US, but also to remember this day.

Heck. I forgot to take a photo of the temple.

Here it is on Google maps street view, if you’d like to take a peek: https://maps.app.goo.gl/U81bEuxJ1Na97o3j8

One last photo of this town and then it’s back to Tokyo.

Hoshino explains to me that if I pray to Mount Fuji every day that I’ll have eternal happiness.

I think that something is lost in translation again.

I am told to keep the beads and chanting book. Hoshino places them in an envelope for me.

I ask Hoshino if he would like to meet again and he asks me how long I’m in Japan and I tell him that I return to the U.S. the Wednesday after next.

He tells me we can probably meet on the Tuesday before that.

That’s a long ways out, but I figure he must be a busy guy.

Now that I am back in my hotel room, I can take this photo of these gifts.

It has turned into a busier day than I expected, and now I must sleep.

See you tomorrow.

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Now for the difficult part of the conversation.

On my flight back to New York I share this story with a couple from the U.S. and they say “Ha! The cult got you?”

And I say “What? No, they weren’t a cult.”

And the couple says “Did they find you at a book or toy store, ask you about anime, and then say ‘Do you want to learn more about Japan? That’s a cult.”

This group is called Kenshōkai – Nichiren Buddhist new religious movement and here is their website: https://www.kenshokai.or.jp/index.html

From what information I can gather this religion is referred to as a cult due to their heavy handed methods of recruitment. Specifically how they find foreigners, ask them if they like anime, invited them out for lunch, then ask them if they’d like to learn more about Japan, and then take them to one of these prayer events.

Some of the stories involve long drives to distant rural areas where people feel forced to go along since they don’t know where they are or how to get back if they object.

They’re not a death group, they don’t have any group suicide stuff, and so I am not comfortable with calling them a cult, but they are a complicated topic and the information that I can find in English is limited.

Please feel free to look them up.

You be the judge.

Looking back at this day I do wonder if there was ever any intention for friendship as many of the surprises about this interaction were the way that these two seemed to be interested in me, yet they did not seem to want to spend much time with me after the chant.

I don’t like how this feels.

Was I tricked?