Not so According to Plan

So, woke up this morning when I got a series of IM's and I had forgotten to turn the volume down before I went to bed. So I was drowsy and slow moving for a good while after that. Decided after a bit of that to call off my Yufuin trip for today, on account that the two remaining people that were willing to go decided they didn't want to anymore.

And hell, I wanted to see Star Trek anyways!

So on with that!

Went through the trouble of looking up a theater, finding a map, writing down the showtimes, everything. Was gonna make it out to the 6:40 showing, and I left at about 3:30 so I should have had plenty of time. The theater was right near the station after all, so I could go there whenever the need suited me!

Because I had so much time beforehand, I decided that I should eat for the first time today and stopped in at a McDonald's. After wasting enough time there I decided to head to the theater and at least grab the movie tickets. The website said it was on the 3rd floor of the Tokiwa building near the McDonald's, so I figured I'd head there.

I feel the need to point out here that Tokiwa are about as popular as Starbucks. There are two on every block. And they are department store/mall outlet type buildings, so that is a weird thing to have so many of. Anyways, I went to the right one as I recalled from the map, went to the third floor and... promptly began wandering confused through a bunch of bridal shops. A confused foreigner isn't too out of place in Japan, so nobody seemed to mind aside from myself, but I hurried out of there and went back to the station to talk to the Information lady and cry until I got my way.

And of course the information booth was closed for some reason. Aren't those things supposed to be open as late as the trains?

Anyways, thank God my phone has that GPS thing. so I searched for 映画館 and it brought up all the theaters in the area. Oh hey, there were THREE. I found Cineflex which was the one I was trying to get to, and headed back there. Turns out it was a building a block over and across the street from the Tokiwa I went to. Ah... okay, these things happen. Google Maps isn't the most reliable thing in the world.

So I headed over there. And looked at the "Now playing" posters in the display. And... all Japanese movies. All drama movies. And a Yakuza film. What? Where's Star Trek? Or at least an American movie. Checked my notepad against the theater info again and... turns out I was at Cineflex 5. I wanted 11. Well... crap. I had no idea how to get there, so I wandered around trying to hit the other 2 theaters. One more Japanese only drama theater, and another one playing some American movies but nothing I wanted to see (although Terminator 4 is headed there, yay). Time to hit the cell phone again (hurray phoneternet!)

There are two intermediate stops on the way to Oita Station. 東別府(East Beppu) and 西大分(West Oita). I've always been under the assumption that these are primarily for people that live in or near the edge of town, and that they are relatively void of any value outside of that.

I turns out that Cineflex 11 is about a 10 minute walk to the 3rd floor of the Tokiwa near the West Oita stop. Which made it about an hour bus ride from where I was at the time, or a half an hour wait for a train, a 5 minute train ride, and then a 10 minute walk to the theater. Either way, it was over the time that the movie began, and chances are it'd take me even longer to find the place. So I decided to just make the best out of being in Oita and began to wander around.

Found a bunch of bookstores (none had what I'm looking for) and various other stores in the shopping strips, but nothing worth looking at really. And I still can't find cheap/not ugly shoes in my size. So that's unfortunate. I hung out at the pirate ship for a bit, wandered through some of the public gardens, ate at a Yoshinoya, watched some anime that was set up in some store's lounge, and then headed back to Beppu and campus.

Oh, and I bought a mug.

Also worth noting, is that two Japanese girls asked me for help on the train, which I had just asked three attendants for help on to make sure that I was doing it right. So it's good to know that not only foreigners don't get these horrible setups. I think I now have at least a vague understanding of how the local train system is scheduled, but eventually somebody is going to need to explain to me why I leave from a different track every time.

Church is tomorrow. Should be... interesting. Apparently the Sunday mass is in English, so I suppose I'll have to confess. I'll be sure to commit the sin of gluttony by talking JM into going to Ku-ta Ramen and engorging ourselves afterward.

You know, just to be on the safe side.