Harry Potter

I went to the movies today. It was my first movie in Japan. Now people who know me, know that I do not go to the movies all that often; and when I do it is usually to accompany students on a field trip. So it was today. The English Club at school decided that today was the day to go and see the new Harry Potter movie as a club function. We met at the movie theatre at nine o'clock in the morning.

Now I don't intend on telling you all about a movie that you may have already seen. Suffice it to say I thought the movie was great. Best movie that I have been to in over a year. Enough said about the movie. My purpose here is to relate and tell you about my movie going experience. I will hold that all of my readers have been to the movies. That you have had an experience seeing a film in the theatre. This way I will be able to relate the differences in seeing a movie here in Japan. The first major difference is in the price. Now one big reason that I do not like going to the theatre in America is that I am not fond of paying the eight dollarsish per person that the movie costs. Well here in Japan movies cost one thousand eight hundred yen. According to my conversions that works out to being about $15.50 a ticket. Now I don't know why, but I got in cheaper and it only cost me 1200 yen, or $10.50 to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Still this price weighs in as more expensive than a matinee back home. The second big difference that I noticed was that there were assigned seats in the theatre. My ticket was for the seat G10. So that is where I sat, row G, seat 10. I was lucky, my seat was in the middle of the theatre. My favorite location. It was unfortunate that I could not teach the students about sitting in the front row, and how much fun that can be. My favorite difference was in the snack choices. Oh yes there was the usual popcorn and pop options, the sizes were however smaller than the American counterparts, and there was candy and nachos, soda and tea, it was not so shocking to see the options laid before us for mid-movie snacking. However had it not been for the fact that I was with school and the fact that it was but 9:30 in the morning I could have enjoyed a nice tasty can of beer with my popcorn. Yes the movie theatre here serves beer to enjoy while watching your movie. In fact there was a beer and popcorn combo. I was a bit surprised to see that one could purchase beer at the movie theatre. Now I am thinking of a way to bring it to America. The last difference that I noticed is a small one. I found it interesting how many people stayed in the theatre all the way to the end of the credits. I believe that only two people left the theatre before the credits stopped rolling. In fact, the house lights did not even come up, not even a little bit as is customary back home, until all the credits had finished rolling.

I most thoroughly enjoyed my movie going experience. I don't know if I will go to another while we are here in Japan, but that will be okay. Really going to a movie, is going to a movie. The differences are minute and barely noticeable. The overall experience is what really counts.