Entertainment

The Japanese entertainment industry is one of the world's largest and most innovative, and despite the culture and language barrier, various forms of Japanese entertainment have become internationally popular.

Karaoke

Karaoke has its origin in Japan but is now popular around the world, especially in Asia.

Karaoke bars and shops are spread all over the country. Modern karaoke shops consist of several private rooms (karaoke boxes) that are each equipped with a karaoke player, screens, and microphones. One can also order drinks and food in most karaoke boxes. Such rooms are available in various sizes: from rooms for only two persons up to large party rooms. With a remote control one enters a title, and within a few seconds the video clip of an instrumental version of the selected song with written lyrics appear on the screen. In modern karaoke shops, the huge collections of songs are stored digitally, but in older stores, somebody has to jump around and change tapes and discs.

Nowadays private home karaoke players are also popular. Furthermore, several karaoke players and sound files are available on the internet and can be downloaded onto your own computer.

Movies

I ony ever went one movie thater in Japan and it was a fair drive from where I lived. Movies are quite pricy. I think it was almost 2000 yen ($20) for a ticket and then the snacks. Most movies I went to had assigned seating listed on the ticket. Some weren't. The theater I went to in Isesaki had a Ladies' night on Wednesdays when it was half price for women. I went to that with my friend fairly often.

Amusement Parks

Amusement parks are very popular and numerous in Japan. The most popular one is Tokyo Disney Resort which is located only about 15 minutes by train from Tokyo station. Tokyo Disney Resort is especially popular among young women and couples. Besides Tokyo Disney Resort, there are countless other amusement parks of all kinds.

The only one I ever went to was Tokyo Disney Sea, which was a great deal of fun. Fun rides and good food and a day spent with good friends.

Pachinko

Pachinko is a mixture between slot machine and pinball. The player is quite passive while playing pachinko. He or she is only controlling the speed with which many small steel balls are thrown into the pachinko machine.

Most of the balls just fall down the machine and disappear, but a few find their way into special holes. This activates a kind of slot machine. As in the slot machine, you win if the same three pictures appear. This occurs quite rarely in pachinko, but if it happens, you win countless new balls. When just playing for 500 or 1000 Yen, you may likely just lose all your balls within a few minutes.

Pachinko machines can be found in pachinko parlors which are spread over the whole country. Many parlors also offer a corner with slot machines. One can recognize parlors easily because they are bright and colorful. Inside a parlor it is loud and smoky. Women and men are playing pachinko and it is said that there are even a few pachinko professionals.

If you win balls, you can exchange them into goods that are available in the parlor's gift shop. But you can also bypass the law that prohibits gambling in Japan by exchanging the balls first into some special goods and then exchange them for cash at a small window just outside the parlor.

Having never played, I fail to see the appeal. Trivia: The city of Kiryuu in the Gunma prefecture is well known for manufacturing Pachinko machines.

Onsen (Hot Springs)

Natural hot springs (onsen) are numerous and highly popular across Japan. Every region of the country has its share of hot springs and resort towns, which come with them. There are many types of hot springs, distinguished by the minerals dissolved in the water. Different minerals provide different health benefits, and all hot springs are supposed to have a relaxing effect on your body and mind. Hot spring baths come in many varieties, indoors and outdoors, gender separated and mixed, developed and undeveloped. Many hot spring baths belong to a ryokan, while others are public bath houses. An overnight stay at a hot spring ryokan is a highly recommended experience to any visitor of Japan.

My village of Kurohone had an onsen in the local train station. I never went, but I heard it was quite nice as well as pretty famous in that area. I did have the chance to go to a couple different onsen during my stay in Japan. My first one was indoors. there were a wide variety of bathing pools. Chinese Medicine, electric curent ones (with three levels of curent going through it), Beauty bath, scne tof the week (blueberry in this case), and others. My second was in a hotel. It was really nice. My third one was in a ryokan. The ryokan wasn't busy at the time, so when I went to use the onsen, I had it all to myself. It was a huge rectangular thing. I was never more relaxed in my life. I've also only been to gender segregated ones.

How to take a bath:
1) Take off all your clothes in the changing room and place them into a basket together with your bath towel. Coin lockers for valuables are often available.
2) Japanese hot springs are enjoyed naked. Swimming suits are not allowed in most places. However, it is the custom to bring a small towel into the bathing area, with which you can enhance your privacy while outside of the water. Once you enter the bath, keep the towel out of the water.
3) Before entering the bath, rinse your body with water from either a tap or the bath using a washbowl provided in the bathing area. Just rinsing your body is usually sufficient unless you are excessively dirty, in which case you want to use soap.
4) Enter the bath and soak for a while. Note that the bath water can be very hot (typical temperatures are 40 to 44 degrees). If it feels too hot, try to enter very slowly and move as little as possible.
5) After soaking for a while, get out of the bath and wash your body with soap at a water tap, while sitting on a stool. Soap and shampoo are provided in some baths. Like in private Japanese bathrooms, make sure that no soap gets into the bath water. Tidy up your space after you finished cleaning your body.
6) Re-enter the bath and soak some more.
7) After you finished soaking, do not rinse your body with tap water, for the minerals to have full effect on your body.

Types of hot springs

There are many types of hot springs to enjoy. The conventional hot spring is a hot water bath. Depending on the spring, different minerals are dissolved in the water, giving it different health benefits, colors and smells. Many hot springs contain sulfur and have an according odor.

Hot spring water baths come indoors, outdoors and in many different sizes. Outdoor baths are called rotemburo. While some baths are wooden or stone tubs, others are built to resemble or are actually natural hot spring pools. Some outdoor baths are spectacularly situated in the mountains, valleys or along rivers, lake or sea shores.

Besides conventional hot water tubs, a popular feature of larger baths are so called waterfalls, which comfortably massage your shoulders if you sit below them. Other bath types include sand baths, where bathers are buried in naturally heated sand, mud baths and steam rooms.

Ashiyu are shallow hot spring pools for bathing just your feet. They are found in the streets of many hot spring resorts and can be used free of charge.

Increasing in number are modern hot spring complexes, which offer a range of baths, massage services, saunas and sometimes conventional swimming pools, water slides, etc. In Tokyo, where there is a shortage of natural hot spring water on the surface, some new hot spring complexes are retrieving their water from a depth of more than a kilometer below sea surface.

Onsen Ryokan

The ultimate hot spring experience is spending a night at an onsen ryokan, a Japanese style inn with hot spring baths. This is not only one of the most popular holiday activities among the Japanese, but is also highly recommended to any foreign visitor of Japan.

Onsen ryokan are found in various sizes in hot spring resorts across Japan. A typical onsen ryokan visit starts with a bath before dinner. The beautifully arranged Japanese style dinner, featuring local specialties, is either served in your tatami room or in a dining hall. Many guests like to take another bath before sleeping and before breakfast in the next morning.

You do not need to stay overnight at a ryokan in order to enjoy its baths. Many ryokan open their baths to the general public, typically during daytime only and against an admission fee of a few hundred yen. Besides ryokan, most hot spring resorts also have some public bath houses with hot spring water.

Nudity Issues

Hot springs in Japan are enjoyed naked, even though there are a few exceptions. While a majority of baths are gender separated, some are mixed. Mixed baths are usually found in more remote areas. Furthermore, some establishments have both, gender separated and mixed sections, for example, in the case that there is just one spectacular outdoor bath, which the owner wants to make accessible to both genders. For obvious reasons, many Japanese women, especially younger ones, avoid mixed hot springs, and it is not unusual that mixed pools are almost exclusively used by men.

If you do not feel comfortable naked in front of other people, you should inquire about "kashikiri" (private) baths, which are available at some ryokan. Private baths are sometimes also known as "kazokuburo", lit. family baths.

Department stores

There are several department store chains in Japan. The largest shopping zones in Tokyo are Shinjuku, Ginza, and Shibuya where several department stores can be found there side by side. Many floors of most department store feature women clothes. On basement floors one can usually find a food department while one or more floors in the top of the building are restaurant floors featuring various restaurant types: Japanese, Chinese, Western, etc. The service in a Japanese department store is excellent. Personnel stands ready everywhere in order to greet the customers. Many elevators are operated by elevator ladies who announce the floors and open and close doors. The goods are presented very beautifully, and much care is given to the nice wrapping of purchased merchandises.

Every department store chain closes its stores on one day during the week. On weekends and most national holidays, all the department stores are usually open since Saturdays, Sundays and holidays are the most popular shopping days.

Some of the largest department store chains are:

* Mitsukoshi
* Takashimaya
* Seibu
* Daimaru, Matsuzakaya, Tobu, Odakyu, Tokyu

I've seen most of those chains though I can't really recall any detials. There are also a large number of Western chain stores in Japan. Notably, KFC, McDonalds, The Gap, The Body Shop, Subway, and HMV among others.