Japanese declined (lunch #1). Fri, May 16, 2008.

05/16/2008. 1022. I was out of town for a training seminar, and stopped for lunch at a national chain sandwich shop. I thought this may have been an inspired stop, but I wasn't sure. This chain's franchises are sometimes owned by immigrants, so I was hoping to find out that was the case here. I didn't take any material in with me, not knowing what foreign language I might encounter.

The people behind the counter were English-speaking non-immigrant folks, but there was a table of Asian men. I got my meal and sat across the aisle from them. After a while I concluded they were Japanese, and went out to my car to get my Asian book-bag that I normally take to Chinese restaurants. I keep most of the common Asian language (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Cambodian, Indonesian, and Spanish) copies of the Book of Mormon in that bag.

(In order to make it obvious that you're coming back to finish your meal, and so the staff doesn't clear your table, you need to leave something there, and as I wasn't wearing a coat or jacket, I took off my glasses and left them on the table, and that's a good sign to the staff that you're coming back. Otherwise, they'll clean off your table, figuring you left.)

I put my book bag on the unused seat at my table, and took out a Japanese and an English Book of Mormon. When the other table had a lull in their conversation I asked if they were from Japan. One said yes, so I held up the Japanese Book of Mormon and offered it to him. He politely but firmly declined, indicating he already knew what it was.