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Conveyor Sushi + The Japanese Movie Experience

At ¥2700 a night, the Hotel New Koyo is definitely not the cheapest bed in Tokyo, but for the private room and friendly expert advice offered by the staff it is worth it.  I decided to stay another night, and set off to Asakusa.  I had a few hours to kill before meeting Mihye for lunch, so I spent the morning taking photos and wandering the temple area.   

Past the Kaminarimon Gate lies the souvenir-merchant lined Nakamise-Dori where you will find vacationers buying hokey merchandise.  Further ahead stands the massive Honzomon Gate.  Through it is the courtyard of Senso-Ji where even more tourists gather, ogling the ornate Oriental decor and snapping photo after photo.  It was starting to feel a cliché walking around here with my camera, but it was my choice to venture into this major tourist destination in the first place.

I decided to separate myself from the package tourist crowd that infested the temple grounds and walked through a playground to the nearby Asahi (2nd largest brewery in Japan) building complex.  I planned to take some artistic architectural shots and hoped to find free beer samples.  No luck with the actual alcohol, but did take a few great shots and got to admire the fact that the headquarters building resembles a large pint of beer

 

 

Before long it was time to meet Mihye.  We walked to a nearby restaurant that she knew.   I’m happy to say that after six weeks of being in Japan I can finally say I’ve had my first Japanese sushi experience!  It was a Kaitten-Zushi, the type of place where food rotates around the counter on a conveyor belt.

 

 

It was perfectly delicious and surprisingly filling.  Not much different in flavor and style than sushi in America, but there were a couple oddities on the “menu”.  The most pleasant surprise was the frozen sweet scrambled egg cubes…. Oishii Yo!!  I’ve heard that it should cost around ¥10,000 for a great sushi meal, but was extremely satisfied with an experience that only cost a tenth of that.

Afterwards we took a short walk through the park along side the Sumidagawa River and bought one of the most unexpectedly delicious flavors of ice cream: sweet potato.  Both that and green-tea ice cream are phenomenal!  I highly recommend you try both if you have the opportunity.

Later we took the rail to Ikebukuro and decided to see Pirates of the Caribbean III, which was being relentlessly advertised here.   We got tickets for the eight o’clock show which would be English with Japanese subtitles.  Mihye’s native language is Korean, but she speaks great English and is currently living in Tokyo to study Japanese; so we figured there would be no problem with a language barrier.

Before coming to Japan I was warned that the admission to a movie would cost around $20, but was pleasantly surprised to find that it only cost ¥1200 (a little less than $10 with the current exchange rate)!  Apparently the concept of matinee works in reverse here; people pay more to see the movie during the day.  The first interesting difference was that all of the tickets are for assigned seats.  There is no rush to get in the theater early to secure a good seat.  Rather, everyone shows up on time right before the previews roll.  We walked to our seats past the table selling all sorts of Pirates brand merchandise and settled in for the three-hour epic.

About twenty minutes in, I began to notice how difficult it was for me to understand the accents and pirate slang used by the actors.  I nervously glanced over at Mihye and she explained that she couldn’t understand the English and the subtitles were moving too fast.  I asked if she wanted to leave, but she said Johnny Depp was enough to keep her interested…. LOL!  Girls!

A few hours later, the credits finally rolled and to my surprise the entire audience remained still in their seats.  I highly doubt any of them could understand, let alone care about what was on screen.  Yet nobody moved.  It’s as if they were terrified to disturb their neighbor who may possibly be enjoying the credits.  This was a strange concept for Mihye and me both, so we left the theater laughing about all of the unique cultural expectations the Japanese have to deal with. 

 

 

 



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One response to “Conveyor Sushi + The Japanese Movie Experience”

  1. george says:

    i would totally eat that!

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