Today I spent the day with a couple of new friends from church. We went to a multiplex theater at a large shopping mall complex on the southeast edge of Utsunomiya. Because we were going to see "Pirates of the Caribbean" which is still drawing pretty large crowds, we bought tickets a few hours before the show. Here it is apparently very common to be able to buy tickets for specific seats in the theater, just as you would for a concert in the US--surprising to me. (Maybe some movie theaters in the US do that, but none I've ever been to.)
After that we went to lunch and had okonomiyaki, which is often referred to as Japanese pizza, although I would call it a savory pancake. It usually has meat and/or seafood mixed into the batter, and is then topped with mayo and a special kind of sauce. Delicious!
At the theater, because I'm a popcorn-aholic (I made a new word like the ones we were talking about, Shouji!) I had to have some for the movie. Popcorn and soda are common snacks at the theater, as in the States, but here in addition to butter/salt and caramel flavors, you can also get curry, Japanese BBQ and beef consommé! I was in the mood for just "regular" popcorn; maybe I'll try something different next time. After getting our snacks, we found the right row and took our seats.
The movie was good, but is MUCH less kid-friendly than the first two; LOTS of violence and I can't really recommend it for young children. If you haven't seen it yet and plan to, don't leave during the credits because there's a "surprise" final scene after the credits end.
Okay, one last piece of my May Tokyo trip: two more links to videos on YouTube. They are both short clips of riding on the shinkansen (bullet train). One is travelling through the suburbs near Oyama, I believe, and the other is travelling a little further south between Oyama and Tokyo. You can see rice fields and country houses whizzing by-hopefully, even though the videos aren't the greatest quality, you can get a feel for how fast the shinkansen goes-it's very amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Y82e_7jfM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VzgxMMx-0Y
