Was this guy really a buddhist priest/monk?

I was walking(alone) in ueno on my way to a place for lunch when from out of nowhere a man dressed up in buddhist clothes comes up from behind and shoves a buddhist card advertising something and a wooden buddhist bracelet into my hands and then starts rambling on in grumbled english(i am not joking when I say I probably understood 2% of what he said) so I ask him what the heck is he doing in english(I do speak good japanese but I didnt think of speaking it to him at the time) and so he gets out a notebook and says "money' and inside the notebook is a message in english saying the message of the temple and what not. And then he flips the page and on that page there were names of other foreigners and the amount of money the gave, and so he then proceeds to give me a pen and wants me to give him money. I look at the other names and the amounts they gave and some foreigners gave amounts from 2,000 to 4,000 yen!! I said how much do you want for this bracelet, just so he would get out of my way and he says 2,000! I say no way I was about to give you 200 for this! So I put the bracelet on the notebook and give it back to him(much to his averseve moves trying to not take it back). So my question is, was this guy really a buddhist monk? You would think buddhists wouldnt do such a thing, or even Japnese people for that matter as not even the homeless people in ueno park beg. Or was this guy just some old scammer wanting to get some money from dumb foreigners who fall for the whole "exotic, poor buddhist monk" thing.

He's most likely to be a fake.
Real mendicant priests are just standing on a street with their begging bowl, chanting mantra and never sell things.

Real monks just stands with his bowl and recites a mantra. He bows when he is offered a donation but he never asks or beg for it. It's a part of his spiritual training.

Sounds like a fake to me. I agree, real monks wouldn't approach someone, they just stand there. When you put money in their bowl or whatever, they'll chant and then that's it.