Movie Time!

Today marks my first experience with Japanese movie theaters. I went to Toho Cinemas this afternoon to see the new Studio Ghibli film, Karigurashi no Arrietti (The Borrower Arrietty). I sent out a wave of text messages to see if anyone else was interested in going, but had forgotten that Sunday afternoons are ultimate frisbee practice time. So I set off on my own.

I was a little uncertain about going alone because I wasn't sure I remembered the way to the mall. Fortunately, it turned out that I did. It took about 25 minutes to get there from my apartment. Since I didn't know how to get the movie times, my plan was to show up and see when things were playing. I found that they had a showing of Arrietty about an hour after I got there, so I bought a ticket and waited. Buying the ticket was kind of an interesting experience. I knew how to say, "One for Arrietty", but I was rather confused when the employee pulled out what looked like a seating chart. It turns out that movie theaters in Japan have assigned seating. The employee spoke enough English to explain things to me, and I picked a seat. My ticket cost 1,800 yen, which is about $18. Perhaps I will go on a Wednesday the next time I want to see a movie, as Wednesday is Ladies Day and the ticket prices are lower.

While I waited, I noticed something interesting going on. There would be an announcement, and then a bunch of people would line up to give the attendant their tickets and go into the screening rooms. I couldn't really understand the announcements, though, so I waited until about 20 minutes before the movie was to start and got in line with the next batch of people. When I got to the attendant, she explained that it would be another 10 minutes for my movie. Well, I didn't catch everything she said, but that seemed to be the main idea. So I waited a bit longer. I listened to the next announcement and was able to understand "Ultra Man", which was the title of another movie. I kept waiting. About 10 minutes before movie time, they made an announcement with the word "Arrietty" in it, so I got in line again. This time they let me through.

This theater had stadium seating like at Edwards, and the size of the room seemed fairly standard. They played random commercials before the previews; I think one of them was for electricity, actually. Finally the movie started. I really enjoy Studio Ghibli films. Their movies include My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle. This one was more or less based on the book "The Borrowers". I haven't read it in a long time, but I think the plot was considerably different between the book and the movie. In any case, the animation and music were beautiful, as usual. I could only catch a few lines of dialogue here and there, but I think I understood most of the plot, since it wasn't especially complicated. I really enjoyed the movie, though the ending was somewhat bittersweet. I'd like to watch it again sometime in English or with English subtitles.

One thing that surprised me was how quiet it was in the theater. There were a lot of kids in the audience, but I didn't hear much talking. Which is not to say that Japanese children are better-behaved than American children; they throw some intense temper tantrums in public places. Somehow, though, they stayed quiet during the film.

After the movie ended, I wandered around the mall a bit before heading home. It had gotten darker than I expected. I don't really like biking in the dark because the light on my bike isn't working. However, the ride home went smoothly, since there was less pedestrian and bike traffic than earlier in the day. Going to the movies was a really satisfying experience. I always get a good feeling when I manage to do something on my own; getting from one place to another, paying a bill, trying out an unfamiliar interaction. I'm guessing that there will be some really frustrating failures as well, but for now I'm enjoying all the little things that have gone right.