Tokyo Cinema

Apart from the annoying git who sat next to me in the cinema, last Friday went according to keikaku. We was to finish up work early, drop off at the Wieden and Kennedy offices, go to Roppongi Hills to have some din dins and finish up with some Angels and Demons.

In the car arriving at Roppongi. A van in the front plastered with marketing blurb playing loud music. Seems to be a lot of that going on and wonder why it isn't illegal to play horrendously loud music in the streets.

Zooming towards the WK offices.

Office entrance at WK.

They got these really nice pics of all the staff on the walls - this is only half of the photos though. Everybody looks nekkid.

Meeting up with the lovely Yukari-san who you may recognize from the Nikon CM shoot. Brought some of the Nendoroid Puchi's from the to-give-to-clients cabinet.

The outside of the gorgeous WK offices. Was originally a restaurant with apartments upstairs.

Back in the car and heading off to Roppongi Hills which you can just about make out in the top left hand corner of the photo.

Angels and Demons in sight - is excited!

Car is parked and off to find some food. Roppongi Hills is a "city within a city" where you will find a load of brand names and snazzy food places.

Somehow, this Nikon D5000 appeared in my lap somewhere along the way. Have no idea how it happened but am not complaining. Slowly getting used to the settings and am waiting for a new set of lenses to also suddenly appear ^^;

This is what I had for dindins - Kaisen nabe.

And this is what wifey had for dindins - some very hot n spicy stuff that had chewy bits in it ^^;

Snazzy places will usually accept payment by card no matter the time of day. Many not so snazzy places wont accept card payments at lunch because they have to pay a processing fee.
This is one of the reasons why Japan is still such a cash oriented society. Getting around on just a card in Japan is going to be tough.

I remember my days of living in Seattle - could buy or pay for literally everything with a card including trolleys at the airport and parking.

While other electronic payment methods like mobile phones are getting popular, establishments need to pay to have equipment installed on the premises to interface with mobile phones and what have you and some places cant justify the cost of doing that.

Can you get around on just a card alone in your kingdom?

The Hills. See the view from the top in the Tokyo City View photo article. Most definitely worth a visit.

The Hills also have an art gallery too.

Heading up the stairs towards Toho Cinemas which first started off being Virgin Cinemas.

Order your tickets online at the Toho site and pick up on the evening.

When I first came to Japan, they didn't have any online booking and one had to wait outside the cinema and rush in for a good seat. Remember waiting about 3 hours to watch one of the Harry Potter movies.

A Friday night at the Cinemas in Tokyo is dead quiet and gets busy on Saturday and Sundays. One would think that Fridays would be a busy night but its not the case over here. Not sure why.

When ordering online, you are given a four digit code. Punch in the code at this terminal and then your phone number for verification - tickets pop out after.
If you parked your car at the Hills, get your tickets stamped so that you get a discount on the parking.

Picking up some caramel popcorn before heading in.

Hardly anybody about.

The Toho cinemas at Roppongi have quite a few screens.
We watch most of our films in the comfort of our lounge on DVD but do go to the cinema for films that we think should be enjoyed on the big screen. Are you a cinema buff or DVD buff?

Other up n coming films. Want to see Star Trek! How was it?

Water disposal time. Love all these messages - the dropping baby, leaving baby behind and the staring at baby.

Our screen for today.

Most of the audience seemed to be foreigners - maybe they all read the book?

I always have a fate of attracting the huge-guy-in-front, the kicking-chair-girl and the noisy-crisp-bag-girl whenever in a cinema. Today fate was no different and I had the pleasure of sitting next to some git who kept playing with his necklace making a jingling noise.

I asked him to stop playing with his necklace and he looked at me in disbelief - probably surprised that somebody actually asked him to keep quiet. His lady friend turned to us and asked us what was the problem. I took his necklace by the hand and started to jingle it about making the same noise. His lady friend told him "stop playing with your necklace!"

What do you do when you encounter inconsiderable gits in the cinema audience? Have you had any encounters?

A few hours later back outside. So what did you think of Angels and Demons?
I liked it but if I was to compare it to the DaVinci Code then I think I prefer the previous film but that could be because I read the book first - didn't read Angels and Demons.

The Japanese TV commercials for Angels and Demons were complete spoilers! I knew who the bad guy was even before watching the film.

On the way back to the car taking a few snaps along the way.

If you want to do a photo walk then Roppongi Hills at night has a load for you to snap.

Paying for tickets. Now, you maybe wondering why my waifu is paying for everything. We share everything - the bank account, toothbrush and while she does wear my t-shirts, I don't wear her underwear - well only when shes not looking.

I learned that many couples over here have separate bank accounts even though they are married and wonder what your views are on this. My personal views are that if a couple can trust each other to vow a life of commitment then why cant they share the same bank account?

Having said that, the culture over here is where the lady of the house manages all the money and allocates pocket money to the husband.
A survey at Biz Makoto shows that the average pocket money allocated to a salary man in their twenties gets an average of 56,100 yen per month. Salary men in their thirties gets 45,500 yen.

As for my "pocket money" - I don't have any allocated sum and just use whats needed. We are fortunate to be running a business where most of the stuff that I want just arrives at the office or falls from the sky - meaning that I dont spend much ^^;;;

The car park at Roppongi hills is organized with mechanical lifts and conveyor belts. After paying the parking fee, you wait at one of the "Stages" where the car will appear on tracks.

Here is a diagram of how the cars move up and down - completely organized by machines. We just arrive and get out the car. A sliding door closes behind us and our car whizzes off to the side into the bowels of Roppongi Hills...