Japanese Movie Theater

We went to see a movie at the Toho Cinemas at Vina Walk shopping center in Ebina, Japan. Guess what? Japanese movie theaters are a lot like American ones! Of course there were some key differences. The first thing that we said, "hmmm" to was picking our seats. We purchased our tickets, then the attendent showed us a map of the theater and asked us where we would like to sit. We picked the ones right in the middle! We purchased our tickets hours before the show we were watching, then had some dinner and shopping before the show.

Then, you notice the movie shop in the middle of the lobby area. They have some really cool posters, and lots of movie paraphanalia. They also have a little cafe inside the movie theater that offers salads and sandwiches and ice cream. When we arrived at the snack counter, we saw that they had similar offerings of the states, plus a little more. You could get $5 individual sized Godiva ice cream, really nice hot dogs, caramel popcorn, and many other items. We settled for Coke and "salt" popcorn.

The theater itself was very nicely done and very clean. Reminded me of the Mall of Georgia theater seats. It was extremely large. The next thing I noticed was that the screen was the new IMAX touted screen. The one that is larger than a regular movie screen but only a 1/4 the size of a real IMAX screen. We actually got to see a preview of the Transformers movie and we all decided that we must come back to this theater to see it. Transformers has been filmed in IMAX film this time.

It took us a few minutes to get used to the Japanese subtitles, but it didn't diminish the movie watching experience for us. The Japanese are a quiet lot, so I didn't hear anything above a few whispers from the audience. I'm sure Transformers will have larger reactions and some delayed laughing with the subtitles. We can't wait!!