Rental Pt 1

Tsutaya is the Japanese equivalent of Blockbuster. Only successful.

There's always a queue, the rentals are about half of the price compared to back home, and the shops stretch on for miles. Each is like an archive you'd find in the BBC. It's so hard to locate films, or tv programmes, that you can search on a computer and print off a map showing where to find them.


However, there are two main problems with the place. Firstly, it's very business oriented and there seems to be little interest from the staff about the movies you rent, which was always a highlight in England when the staff gave their advice or opinions. Secondly, as the country is not so Hollywood oriented, they seem to get ripped off with the amount of cheap copies. For every mainstream authentic movie, there are about five or six cheap imitations placed on the shelves around it. It makes me feel sorry for the unsuspecting customers who choose these.

Still, at the prices they come at, the variety on offer (any TV drama new or old is available), and the care of the DVD's (all polished before handed to you), it's a good alternative to their lack of movie theatres around.