Slices of Home in Japan

J saw the golden M of the McDonald's and had a question that would leave no rest to his curiosity. That was, how exactly are McDonald's different in Japan than in Canada? Surprising coming from him, considering we rarely go to fast-food joints in Canada, but a worthy question nonetheless. This is how we found ourselves pushing the door of one of these temples of fast-food.

McDonald's, and this might sound surprising coming from me, are really useful to the traveler. Some travelers like it because it offers food that is relatively the same everywhere, if you don't take into account the few variants. This can be oddly comforting when everything around you is moving too fast or oddly.

For me, McDonald's holds an appeal mainly for its promise of wifi which, depending where you are, can border on a luxury.

Theaters were another slice of home. A comforting one at that: once the lights are off, the room turns quiet and the movie comes on, it's easy to forget the bustle of the streets. It is also the perfect place to kill away the downtime and let's say that when you stay a few days in one city, you are bound to have some downtime. J and I were no exceptions.

As such, we found ourselves wandering the street of Tokyo waiting for time to pass until an appointed hour. In our aimless drifting, we stumbled on a movie theater. We had a few options: watch a subtitled movie, a Japanese movie we had previously seen in its original English version or venture into a full Japanese production devoid of subtitles and other aids.

This is how we sat down to watch a movie depicting the complex exchanges between a Yakuza clan, a biker gang and a crooked cop in a turf war over a desolated post-apocalyptic world. Well, that was what we got from it, not actually understanding what was being said. When actually reading the summary afterward, we were surprised to find that it was rather the story of school dynamics as people fight to become the school's number one. You can read a good analysis of the genre here.

We tried the same experiment again, with a second movie centered on a heist. As the many groups tried to outsmart each others, it was slightly harder to keep up. Yet, being closer to a typical American plot, it wasn’t that difficult to connect the dots at the end. Some of the film elements did have us cringing and went into topics that were rather disturbing.

Our visit to the movies was followed by a stop at a Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee and a sweet treat. Made easier by the fact the theater and the shop were side by side.