Karaoke

Living in the birth place of Karaoke, I thought that our recent adventure into a Karaoke bar was worth a mention. Mandy has her own little Karaoke machine, but as for real life singing in public this was my first time. It is my understanding that Misawa has several of these places.

We were invited to a going away party. I had never met the host, but it was a friend of Jeff's. The cost of the event was way outside what we normally pay for an evening out. Yet, we still went. Our dates are usually just the two of us so it was fun to go out with a bunch of adults.

So for the cost of a small car, a party of about 25 people got a private room, all you can eat Japanese food, and a book of songs thicker than the phone book. Oh and all you can drink beer, ouzo, and sake. For some reason Jeff and I didn't drink at all. Perhaps it was the 1/2 mile we had to walk through the snow to get there and knew we were going to have to walk back to the car. Perhaps it was the knowledge that we had kids at home to deal with. But, this I think was the first time I wasn't drinking at a drinking party. That certainly added an interesting element to the evening.

We were just about the first to arrive, Jeff is chronically punctual. There on the two long tables were piles and piles of raw meat. This was a yakiniku restaurant, where you cook it yourself. Those piles were not so appetizing to me. In fact the little grill in front of us didn't work very well and we had burnt raw meat. The other food was pretty good. Then the singing began. It was fun, once we got through YMCA everyone was singing. Well, everyone except the little group doing shots. We had several professional Karaoke singers. They stood up at the stage area and serenaded us. The rest of us poor saps passed the cordless mic around while staying seated at the table. Once everyone was drunk, it almost felt like a private date. When you can no longer converse with people it is as if they are not there. Jeff and I had a really nice time. We laughed so much. It is hilarious to see the difference between the songs I know the words to and the songs he knows.

I have never before done Karaoke in the US or Japan, I wonder if it is pretty much the same everywhere. All I know for sure is that Mandy keeps telling me I should be on American Idol. No, not because I am a good singer, but because she thinks that if Simon got a hold of me I might actually stop singing. You see my singing tortures Mandy, poor girl.