The impracticality of Lost in Translation as travel prep

Having determined it was too early in 2026 for JetStar to have any current year releases available for viewing on my flight to Japan, I browsed all the offerings, and jumped at the opportunity to watch my #1 movie of 2003, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation.

It seemed like the perfect choice. I have always associated the idea of arriving in Japan with Bob Harris' blurry eyed arrival at the start of this movie. But there are four major differences between me and Bob Harris:

1) He was arriving in Tokyo, while my flight landed in Osaka;

2) He was flying from Los Angeles, resulting in massive jet lag that never abates during his entire trip, while my disembarkment from Sydney meant only an hour and hour time difference and no jet lag;

3) He's a movie star, and I'm only a movie critic;

4) He's not real, but presumably I am.

Watching the movie was supposed to be the fulfilment of a desire to watch Crazy Rich Asians on my trip to Singapore, an activity that was thwarted by geoblocking on my Australian streaming service Stan. I got a lot of my ideas of things I wanted to do in Singapore from this movie. And given that I, in fairly typical fashion, did no advanced prep for our Japan trip -- which will include Tokyo in its second half -- I figured watching Lost in Translation would remind me of some of the things I wanted to do while here, given that it was similarly foundational in my desire to visit Japan. 

But while Crazy Rich Asians really foregrounds its tourist attractions -- the Maxwell Food Centre hawkers' market and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in particular -- Lost in Translation isn't that sort of movie.

It's a vibe, not a travelogue. 

You can't really watch Lost in Translation and say "Oh, I really want to go to that one sushi restaurant Bob and Charlotte visited" or "Oh, I should really check out that 10th floor karaoke room" or even "That strip club seemed, um, interesting."

What Lost in Translation does for its viewers is it makes them want to have the sorts of experiences Bob and Charlotte had, not see the things they saw. And for most ordinary tourists not estranged from their partners or in some kind of mid- (or early-)life crises, that just ain't gonna happen. 

That said, visiting the "Lost in Translation Hotel" -- I'm not looking up the name right now,  because the point is it exists more for us as a concept than a real place -- is something we plan to do.

So don't be surprised if you ultimately get two Lost in Translation posts while I'm here.