Continuity mistake: Kamaji bangs the work surface, causing a chopstick to fall to the floor, but in a following shot both chopsticks are back in the bowl. (00:23:00)
Continuity mistake: After Chihiro pulls the rope to let the water pour onto the large stink spirit, she falls in the tub, and then it goes to a view of the water pouring on the spirit, however the rope isn't in the shot, yet should be visibly dangling down. (00:59:35)
Continuity mistake: To the right of Kamaji on the wooden decking, there are two folded purple sheets on top of each other, clearly visible in the overhead shot when he yells "You sootballs got a problem?! Now get back to work!" However, when Chihiro and Lin leave and Chihro thanks Kamaji, when he says "Good luck," you can see that it is now a purple sheet on top of a blue sheet. (00:27:20 - 00:29:10)
Continuity mistake: After pulling the rope to let the herbal water in, Chihro falls off of the side of the bathtub, onto the floor, and you can see two brooms leaned up against the side of the tub. Then, when No-face drops the herbal soak tokens, there is a wide shot of Chihro, and the brooms are gone. (00:54:55)
Continuity mistake: When Sen is trapped in the cushions with Yubaba's baby, the cushions around her change colours from wider shots to close ups. (01:17:35)
Continuity mistake: When Chihiro first speaks with Yubaba, Yubaba puts a bag of coins into a box, and closes the lid. She then lights a cigarette and starts smoking. Then in the wideshot, when she blows out smoke and starts cackling, the lid to the box she closed is now open. (00:35:00 - 00:35:40)
Continuity mistake: When Chihiro is preparing the bath for the intruder, the rope attached to the water pipe disappears when she sees the faceless ghost. (00:57:00)
Continuity mistake: When Chihiro talks to Kamaji about taking the train to see Zeniba, she says "Yep, I'll walk back along the tracks," and turns around, and the little mouse and bird are sitting on her left shoulder. It then cuts to a wideshot of Chihro walking over to Haku, but now the mouse and little bird have vanished from her shoulder. (01:27:15)
Continuity mistake: When Chihiro stands on the black slug that comes out of Haku, the black stain left on the floor is a distorted mess. However when the sootballs run over to the stain, it is now a perfectly formed footprint. (01:24:00 - 01:25:00)
Continuity mistake: When Chihiro is eating with Zeniba, her slice of cake is only visible in closeups. (01:49:40)
Chosen answer: This is probably because one track follows a near direct translation from Japanese, while the other subtitle track follows Japanese more loosely but is one that a westerner can relate to better. A normal western person who never had any experience with Japanese would be puzzled why there are sound effects in the text, that is because Japanese has a lot of specific sound effects for many thing, like the sound of someone walking and makes a quick stop, the sound of someone becoming shy etc. And as with Lin and Rin, these are pronounced the same way in Japan.