Assigned Seating? My first experience with Japanese movie theaters.
In a world still quite alien to me, where the language is 80% a mystery and even ordering fast food can be a challenge. In this mystical land of the Rising Sun — I, a simple little Caribbean Islander, decided to venture into the world of Japanese movie theaters.
Warner MYCAL Cinemas at AEON Mall in Kusatsu, Shiga-prefecture, Japan.
The first challenge was obvious: Buying tickets. It took many attempts and an equal amount of self-delivered prep talks until finally, in a sudden advent of courage, I decided to walk up to the counter. Fortunately, there were very few people, as it was Monday afternoon.
I had already decided the movie — Space Brothers (宇宙兄弟). I had been talking about it for weeks with my students. “Uchuu Kyoudai hitotsu kudasai,” I said in a tone too confident for a mediocre Japanese speaker. It worked, though. The guy instantly began tapping away at his touch screen with a mild smile.
I was starting to feel proud of myself when my biggest fear came to be. The clerk… asked me a question! I had absolutely no idea what he had just said — whatsoever. To makes matters worse, he turned the touch screen until it faced me. Confusion levels were at a new high.
Ahhh the magic words of “hitotsu kudasai.”
Glad to hear about your experience of going to the movies! About the seating chart, it happens in Sweden. Those times I went with Julyssa to the movies – Transformers and then La Vie en Rose. She took care of those details… until I realized that I didn’t speak French and that the subtitles on La Vie en Rose were going to be in Swedish. LOL I cried too, don’t worry. LOL
I heard seating charts are custom in Asia… well, at least in China. Maybe it’s the amount of people that are there… makes things simple. xD
I don’t usually eat anything at the movies — YES, I’m one of those movie people — but when I did (in Canada), my friends and I sneaked bottles of soda. LOL
Down here… I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear. My friend and I had gotten KFC but were already late to the movies so we stormed into our show with our KFC bags LOL and we were so hungry that we did eat some. LOL But that was a LONG time ago, I don’t think people would get away with that anymore.
DUDE. Fried chicken! HAHAHA.
I think I would like the Cine Bar a lot more if it had better food. HAHA. Ooh, I think I might have a post for the Food Blogathon xD
Now I’ll know what to expect if I ever go back to Japan! There are some Daiso shops here in the States…so many things to choose from…