Entertainment

Cinemas

There are 5 cinemas in Nara, mostly showing American action films and Japanese comedies (not counting the Tamba Adult Cinema in Tenri). Tickets for first-run cinemas typically cost ¥1600-1700 if bought on the day of the show. However, many of these cinemas offer cheaper (e.g.. ¥1300) tickets if you buy in advance. Say “Mae-uri ken___(number) mai kudasai” (advance tickets, please). Also, you can often find discount tickets at tobacco shops.

YURAKU on Sanjo Dori, Nara City, has 6 screens, and the 3rd Tuesday every month is a mere 1000 per show (this includes double-features!). 0742-22-8100 for a recording with showtimes. CHIKA GEKIJO is under the Higashimuki arcade McDonald’s in Nara City. 0742-264855. CINEMA TAKADA 1-2 is in Takada. 0745-52-2769. TAKADA DAIGEKIJO. 0745-52-3035. HYAKUNIN GEKIJO. Kashihara(?).07442-5-5467

Video-CD Rental Shops

Rental shops in Japan often carry CDs as well as videos, and some of them will let you rent for up to a week for as little as ¥300! The arrangement of cartoons on the shelves with hard-core S&M is also intriguing. Bring your Alien Registration Card or passport when you apply to become a member.

Bowling your blues away

ASUKA BOWL: 0742-33-1515 (Hokkeji-cho, Nara City)

Seedy, ‘bad’ ambiance.

AYAMEIKE BOWLING CENTER: 0742-44-2351 (Ayameike-kita, Nara City). Automatic scoring. TODOROKI BOWL: 07435-7-6780 (Koriyama)

32 lanes on route 24, Kokudo Yokota; open noon-2 a.m. weekdays. In a complex with pachinko, bookshop, etc.

DAIWA BOWL: 07442-4-4127 (Toichi, Kashihara)

Walk from Ninokuchi; near Friendly, Mammoth Pachinko, Toys’R’Us

IVY BOWL SAKURAI: 07444-3-1980 (Sakurai, 5 min. from station in shopping arcade) TAKADA NEW BOWL: 0745-53-0113 (Takada) TROPICAL BOWLING: 0745-7-0585 (Kanmaki, next to Daiei) TIGER BOWL: 07443-2-6771 (Tawaramoto) BOWL FUJI TAWARAMOTO CENTER: 07443-2-8281 (Chishiro)

Walk from Kintetsu Kasanui Station; also has batting range, karaoke, and game center.

YOSHINO LUCKY BOWL: 07475-2-2525 (Oyodo-cho)

Pachinko, Video Games, Karaoke, and Other Traditional Pastimes

Pachinko: the ancient Japanese Way of the Balls, the omnipresent upright pinball game played in dens full of smoke, light, noise, and seedy characters. Found in nearly every town (except for Ikaruga, where it was banned by considerate lawmakers!). Worth playing once.

Video games are formally practiced in halls called ge-mu senta-(“game center” in katakana). Even rural areas seem to have at least one forlorn Street Fighter machine outside the local grain-and-feed. For variety, why not pay lots of yen for a stuffed animal with UFO Catcher?

Karaoke (literally, “empty orchestra”) can be great fun or greater pain. Very few local places have many foreign songs besides “Yesterday” and “My Way”. Some major studios are catching on, however. Big Echo (in Nara, Ikoma, etc.), Blue Angel (Nara, in alley opposite Vivre), and Voice Karaoke Party (in Shin-Omiya, north of the Nara Royal Hotel) offer quality English tunes.

Fleamarkets (AKA “free-markets”)

All kinds of exotic stuff, at bargain prices. Kimono, prints, decorations, and stuff from all over Asia, even plants and flowers. A really fun place to go! No, literally you can bargain. Check Lonely Planet, Kansai Time Out, and the English papers for occasional listings of times and places (check out the Shopping sectionas well). For starters, on the 25th of each month there is a market called Tenjin-san. It’s at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto. Come early and be prepared to bargain. The 21st is Toji market day in Kyoto (near Kintetsu Toji).

Tickets for upcoming Events and Performances

Professional performances are listed in Kansai Time Out and the Japanese publications Pia and Kansai Walker. A good source for information on Nara events are the Tourist Information Centers and the Japanese-language publication My Nara (get a friend to translate for you).

Tickets for concert, etc., can be bought from Ticket Pia (located in Vivre, Nara Sogo, Kintetsu Nara, Paradis Gakuenmae, Takada Saty, Takada Oaktown, Yagi Kintetsu, Sakurai Saty, E’s Style in Oji, and Nishi-Yamato in Kawai).

Advance-sale movie tickets can be bought at the cinema or from local convenience stores.

For events sponsored by a community center or organization, contact the community center or organization for information.

Tickets for sports events

Kansai offers a wide range of spectator sports, from baseball to sumo wrestling. Again, check KTO or Pia for up- to-date info. Home teams include Osaka Gamba (soccer), Kintetsu Buffaloes (baseball), and the Hanshin Tigers (also baseball – have some of the rowdiest and energetic fans in the world).

Sumo wrestling comes to Kansai at least once a year for the Osaka Grand Basho (tournament). It’s in March and is one of the 6 main sumo tournaments of the year. To get tickets, one must either (1) know someone important or (2) queue up on the day (lines start to form around 5 a.m.) at the tournament site. Tickets can also be purchased in advance through local sponsors. Kashihara, in Nara Prefecture is occasionally a sight of one of the local tournaments. Although lacking in some of the intensity of the six main two-week tournaments, it’s sometimes easier to get tickets to these small one-day tournaments. One goes about getting in the same way as with the Osaka basho.

For a close encounter of the odd kind, check out the bike racing in Saidaiji!!