Japanese at Kroger. Fri, Nov 17, 2006.

11/17/2006. 750. I was in the Kroger parking lot at the end of the previous encounter. I went back in to do my shopping, and checked out at the U-scan, where the customer scans his purchases at a self-serve checkout. These checkouts have touch-screens, and offer verbal instructions. I generally select the Spanish language, because the female voice used in the English instructions just gets on my nerves after a while. There is one human cashier who supervises 6 U-scan lanes. I was the only customer in the U-scans when I finished up, and the U-scan supervising cashier said something to me, and we started a conversation about the Spanish U-scan, and other languages that the U-scans might use in the future.

I segued the conversation into telling him about my contact with the lady from Africa a few minutes earlier. He had seen her too, so I told him where she was from, and that I gave her a copy of my church's Sunday school manual in her native language. He thought that was cool. He said he was studying Japanese, and wanted to get a Japanese Bible. So I offered him a Japanese Book of Mormon. I thought I had one in my car. He readily and enthusiastically agreed, so I told him I'd go get it.

When I got to my car, I looked and couldn't find it. I gave one out in September, and forgot to replace it in my car. So I went back inside, told him it wasn't in my car after all, and that I'd go home and get it. There would be enough time before he got off work.

I went back home, put away the groceries, and got two Japanese copies, one to give him, and one to re-stock my car inventory. I drove back, handed him the Japanese, and he said something like "awesome!" He accepted the English too. I wrote down the website, www.ibsdirect.com for the International Bible Society, where he could get a Japanese Bible. He said he and a friend were studying informally, and going to take a Japanese class at a local university. I told him there was a Japan society in town, and that he could look it up on the web, as I didn't know the URL off the top of my head.