Of Movie Theaters

So, before we get to the main event of this post, I decided to give you a little news real quick. Actually, I don't have news of China this time. Although there's still tension between Japan and China, there's nothing really new there, so we'll leave that for now. Instead, I'm sure by now that you all have probably heard of the recent attack by North Korea against Korea. When I say Korea by the way, please keep in mind that I mean what is termed South Korea by other nations. So, North Korea seems to have fired about a hundred rounds at Korea, apparently over some border dispute or other such nonsense. No worries though. Right now, the US is sending over troops to do some drills to try to discourage North Korea from doing anything else. According to people here, this isn't that unusual. North Korea tends to attack Korea from time to time, but it's normally solved pretty quickly. Personally, I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that North Korea is changing leadership (and therefore that was mean that this would be validating the new leader's power), or if this is some sort of resource battle or what. We'll see what happens. As long as North Korea is on its own, things should be resolved pretty quickly, since North Korea doesn't really have the money to sustain a long war or anything. If North Korea gets aid though, I'd be more worried. That's just the update for the day. If anything else comes of it, I'll definitely post about it.

Now, onto our main and more light-hearted event - Japanese movie theaters. Kind of a strange post, I admit, but definitely worth it. So here's the thing. You go into the movie theater and you decide to run into the restroom real quick. It's full of those delightful Toto toilets. And since the weather's getting cold, all those seat heaters are on, so now cold seats in that restroom now! Fantastic! You finish your business, head on to your way to go grab yourself a little Yogi-snack. (P.S. You may not believe it, but I wrote that sentence speaking like Yogi Bear to myself. Read it again. In the Yogi voice. It will make you laugh. Sorry, back to the point).

You move on your way to grab some food. They have the normal movie theater food: hot dogs, nachos, that sort of thing. They also have some delicious churros. I know they're delicious because my friend let me try hers, and hers was amazing. After all of this, you go into the movie theater. This is where the real fun begins. They show the previews as normal, and then you know those little "Don't do this in the movie theater" advertisements that they show to make sure that everyone is respectful? Yeah, those are a lot more fun here. "Please make sure your phone is on silent." Ok, no problems there. "Please do not talk in the theater." Yup, no problems there either. "Please do not kick the seat in front of you?" Ok, that's a nice addition. And then, "Please do not film and distribute the movie." Wait...what? I mean, I know people do that, but it's the first time I've seen it. Interesting.

Well, the movie begins. It's Harry Potter: Deathly Hallows: Part I by the way. Tickets here are exceptionally expensive. Around 1500 yen ($15 US) a ticket. On ladies' night, Wednesday night, it's cheaper for women, but it's still expensive for men. Sorry, guys. You don't get a special movie night. Here's the interesting thing about the movie. We went to an English showing with Japanese subtitles. There were Japanese showings too, but since we went to one of the first ones, it was only in English. But when Harry starts speaking the snake language, I think it's called Parseltongue, am I right? Anyway, when he starts speaking that, you have to read those subtitles. Because there are no English subtitles. So you gotta' read the Japanese ones. Do you know how weird that is? To be listening, and not understanding. And then you have to read your foreign language to understand the "foreign" language? Bizarre.

So the movie finally ends. Good movie by the way. I recommend it. The movie finally ends and the credits begin. Well, we had heard rumors that here in Japan the Japanese tend to wait until the end of the credits to leave, but you hear a lot of rumors about Japan that aren't true. So, the movie ends, and we look around, and no ones moving. Not a single person. The credits go on for five minutes; one person leaves. My friend next to me is dying. She really wants to get out of the theater, but no ones moving. Another five minutes. Two more people leave. This goes on for 15 minutes. And during that time, maybe 10 people in the entire 200 person theater or so left. So if you hear that rumor, I'm telling you its true. Until those lights come on, don't even try to leave the theater. Sit quietly and enjoy the credits. It's kind of nice though in a way. You sit there and think about it and you come to appreciate the movie a little bit more. But if you're an impatient person, I don't recommend going to the movies.

Take care all! And I'll write again.

Michelle