Have anyone else been approached by Japanese aunties to join their cult?

So we had a day trip to yuigahama beach + enoshima mid September. We stopped at Fujisawa in our way back to get dinner. After eating, on our way to Fujisawa station, just at the stairs we were approached by three Japanese women (45-60 yrs maybe). They approached my friend first who knew very little Japanese. So I stepped in to talk with them, see what they wanted.

They asked us where we are from, what we do in japan, if we live in fujisawa, what we did today etc etc. I replied politely with my somewhat decent Japanese skills, all the while wondering why they approached us as it is extremely unlikely for Japanese people to approach foreigners out of nowhere especially when they don’t know any English.

Then they showed us a picture of mount Fuji and asked if we ever went there. We have visited two times already so we said that. Then they asked if we visited a specific temple there (it was a long name I didn’t quite catch it) and I said we didn’t. Said we visited chureito pagoda and went around the lakes. Then they asked if we were interested in visiting the temple. Things escalated from here quickly. I realized they were followers for some sort of Buddhist cult (they showed us pictures and stuff) so I wanted to cut the convo short but also didn’t want to seem rude.

The next day was a holiday so they asked if we were free and my friend who didn’t really understand what was going on said no we didn’t have work (i was translating for the whole group). I panicked and lied nooo we have work so we can’t go. Then I said that we gotta catch the train to Tokyo so we better hurry and herded everyone inside the station.

Such a strange encounter. My husband said that he knew something was fishy the moment they approached us bc no Japanese ever does that. Anyway I am just glad to get a little bit of practice speaking Japanese outta the whole things and all my friends were impressed (they knew I know Japanese but never actually had heard me speak), so I am not too freaked out by the encounter as i probably should have been. And at least it’s a funny story I can tell people.