"Sometimes, it's the boring stuff I remember the most." Russell (the boy from Pixar's UP). Movies in Japan are very expensive. At the Movix theater at Saitama Shintoshin tickets are roughly $18.00 per ticket. So really I can not afford to waist my time with a bad movie. Yesterday my wife and I went to see the movie "UP". Even though it was released in early summer in America, in Japan it opened this weekend. I quite enjoyed this movie, though I must say, the kid, Russell takes some hard core abuse in this movie. I was kind of surprised to find myself crying a couple of times in the film. First when Ellie dies, and then later when Carl reads the last section of his wife's diary, to see even though her dream did not come true, she was happy anyway, was really emotional for me. This is the second film I have seen in Japan. The other was "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". After the movie SB and I were going to the store when we saw that there was free coffee at McDonalds, so we made a quick detour for that, and chicken nuggets with fries.  The coffee is ok, its not as bitter as Starbucks, and that's a good thing. Later there was a year end matsuri (festival) a few stations down at Tsukinomiya Jinja. This is near Urawa Eki. It is a very popular event, and there were many people there.   There was more food than I have ever seen before in my life! This is Okonomi Yaki. SB and I had Tako Yaki (octopus balls).   There were many stalls selling all types of things, except for the one thing that I really wanted...something to drink. Later for desert I had a Coko Banana Crepe. It was as good as it looks!!!   | 
