I traveled to Osaka's street fashion district, Namba, which is similar to Tokyo's more famous Harajuku. After being there for a few hours, my friend and I decided to find something for lunch, and because we didn't want to spend a lot of time or money on food, we went to a convenience store (conbini here in Japan), specifically, Family Mart. As I was sitting there, eating (which, this particular Family Mart had a small seating place to eat), I realized that the closest thing I could match a conbini to would be gas stations. And not just any, those that serve food, like Kwik Trip. Every conbini has food, and they also usually have a microwave to heat up the food (it's how I ate warm speghetti for lunch and not just cold, sad noodles with cold sauce on top). They also have fruits and vegetables. So like if Kwik Trip decided to get healthy. Most also have cigarettes and alcohol. We also tend to go get some dollar ice cream on hot days (which is most of them). 100 yen conbini's are wonderful, and there's a lot of them.
Also recently, I went and say two movies: Koe no Kotachi (Shape of Voice) and Kimi no Na Wa (Your name). Koe no Kotachi was overall very easy to understand, and Kimi no Na Wa wasn't to difficult either. But, Kimi no Na Wa was amazing. There's a reason why it stands with Ghibli films. It will be interesting to see how Funimation deals with localizing some parts of that movie, in particular, the use of "I" pronouns. As a crash course, there are multiple ways of saying "I". Super formal: watakushi. Used in business settings, such as when someone is trying to apply for a job. Casual politeness: watashi. This is generally used by girls in casual settings, and both genders when addressing strangers, teachers, and maybe even bosses. Casual: boku. Used only by men. Used among friends, maybe to strangers younger than the person using boku. Casual: atashi. Used only by girls. Same as boku. Super casual: ore. Used only by men. Only used among close friends. There's a moment when one of the main characters (as the two main characters, one boy and one girl, frequently switch bodies), specifially the girl as the boy, uses "watashi" among his friends, and they go through the list (except atashi) until they reach ore. All are ways to say "I", but English lacks that formal difference. Actually, English lacks an easy way to convey the formal differences between different Japanese grammar structures. So in general that is a challenge when translating and localizing something from Japanese.
But back to the movie theater itself. Like in America they give you overpriced food, but, they also give you a handy little tray, with the cupholder part of it designed to specifically fit into the armrest cupholder. That way you don't have to try and balance everything in your arms, so convenient. Then at the end of the movie you hand it to the people going in to clean the theater. Also, you don't leave during the credits. If you want to be polite, and this is a country where politeness is extremely important, you watch the credits. The first time, in Koe no Kotachi, some of us thought there was something after the credits. But nope. They rolled to the end, and the lights came up in the theater so we could see on our way out. Also, I don't have to worry as much about people showing up, sitting down in front of me and blocking the screen from me. The seats are steeply placed, so that everyone has a chance to see. And why wouldn't they? I'm average height here now, I've passed many men and woman that are shorter than me.
じゃあ、またね