Movie Theater

On 26th June, hubby and I went to see a movie at a theater in Akita city. As unbelievable as it may sound, it was the first time that I went to see a movie in a theater in Japan. Somehow in the past 13 years, I never really gave it a thought or felt the need to go to a movie theater. During the initial period of my stay in Japan, I was very busy with research work and hardly got time or mood for any activities other than the research work. Slowly I got used to the Japanese pace of work and started watching English, Hindi, and Japanese movies once in a while on holidays. However, I always watched the movies on videocassette recorder (in late 1990s) and DVDs in the comfort of my home. About two months ago, a friend of mine from India and I were talking over phone, and reminisced about the Bollywood movies we saw together during our college and university days at theaters in India in late 1980s and early 1990s. Back in those days, the theaters in India used to be very dirty and unclean (no idea of the present conditions) but still we loved watching newly released Bollywood movies with friends at theaters. So my friend asked me about the cleanliness of movie theaters in Japan, and I had no answer as I had absolutely no idea about the movie theaters in Japan. I asked my hubby about the movie theaters here, and he also did not have a clear answer as he too had not been to a theater for almost 18 years. All of a sudden I felt like watching a movie in a theater and so hubby and I went to a movie theater named Lumiere Akita.

Lumiere Akita is a multiplex cinema complex located in a high-rise building named Alve attached to JR Akita railway station. After about two minutes of walking from the railway station, we reached the entrance of the movie theater complex. We saw a ticket counter at the entrance of the theater complex, and bought tickets for the six o’clock show of the movie ‘Sex and the City 2’. The tickets cost 1700 Yen per person. Since it was the first time for me to watch a movie at a theater in Japan, I have saved the ticket stub. Adjacent to the ticket counter was another counter that sold various kinds of snack foods like popcorn and hot dog as well as drinks. There was also a huge lobby where people were waiting to enter the theater halls and also enjoying snacks.

Entrance of the movie theater complex

I am standing in front of the ticket counter (right). Food and drink counter is seen on the left side.

Ticket stub for the six o’clock show of the movie ‘Sex and the City 2’

It was only 5 pm when we purchased the tickets and still an hour remained before the start time of the movie. So hubby and I went to a game center located in the same building, and spend about 40 minutes playing UFO catcher.

Hubby playing at the game center

Hubby happy after winning a packet of snacks at the game center

At about 5.45 pm, we returned back to the lobby of the cinema complex and bought some drinks from the food and drink counter. Then we showed our tickets to a staff at the cinema gate and entered the cinema hall.

I am standing at the lobby of the cinema complex. Cinema gate to enter the hall can be seen in the background. Many posters of several movies can also be seen.

Lobby, cinema gate, and corridor (behind cinema gate) of the theater complex

We were in the corridor of the movie theater where many posters and advertisements of several Japanese and English movies were put up. There are five theater halls at this cinema complex with a seating capacity of 127 people, except for theater hall number 1 that has a seating capacity of 210 people. The movie we saw was screened in theater hall number 3. Inside the theater hall was pretty large and had really well organized high quality comfortable seats. The theater hall was ultra clean. I was impressed by the screen size and the classic and excellent quality of the sound system. We enjoyed watching the movie very much.

Hubby standing in the corridor next to a poster of the movie ‘Sex and the City 2’ and another movie

I am standing in the corridor next to a poster of the movie ‘Sex and the City 2’

We had a fantastic experience of watching the movie ‘Sex and the City 2’ at Lumiere Akita cinema complex. Since then we have seen two more movies at this theater complex.