Japanese crank phone calls

[NichG]

I just had a very surreal experience, of receiving an extremely persistent crank phone call in Japan (in Japanese, of course). The thing that gets me is that it took about 40 minutes of awkward back and forth in my very limited Japanese for the guy to finally break down and explain that he tricked me, and that claiming to be a 55 year old prisoner who wanted to get married was actually a deception (he was patient enough for me to go to my Japanese-English dictionary to translate 'shuujin').

So I'm really not sure how to take this experience. Free Japanese lesson? Annoying crank caller? Mystery as to why this guy actually had the perseverance to spend over an hour to try to follow through on a crank call to someone who obviously didn't understand the situation?

But I thought it would at the least be amusing to share as possibly my most surreal experience in the last several years.

[Brother Oni]

It's a scam, relying on Japanese cultural expectations. Another common one is calling up a person while pretending to be a relative in trouble then asking for help via money to be wired to an account.

[NichG]

It's a scam, relying on Japanese cultural expectations. Another common one is calling up a person while pretending to be a relative in trouble then asking for help via money to be wired to an account.

Yeah, I got that impression, but it was interesting that after some 40 minutes of discussion with me not exactly getting the point or quite what was going on (but sort of treating it as an opportunity to practice Japanese) he felt it necessary to explain that he had tricked me and to walk me through the joke.

From my point of view, I'd received a call earlier and tried to explain it was probably a wrong number (machigaemasu, etc). They seemed interested in talking especially after they realized I wasn't Japanese, so I figured it was the usual sort of 'huh, I wonder what brought this foreigner to Japan and why they know some Japanese?' reaction that I often get. But then it just kept going, which I guess I subconsciously realized was a bit odd. I didn't really understand that it was an unusual situation until they actually called back immediately after.

It was kind of a weird mix of 'hey, I get to practice my Japanese' versus 'this is really awkward'.

[Winter_Wolf]

That's actually pretty funny. The fact that the guy felt the need to explain himself rather than just hang up cracks me up. As an aside, the criminal element in Japan was actually really nice to me. I suspect it's because they figured that I wouldn't have the cultural background to be terribly intimidated by 'em. An accurate assessment insofar as I couldn't bring myself to be afraid of the guys I did meet. Maybe they just felt the need to be good "hosts". Maybe I just give off a criminal vibe (but I hope not).