Karaoke

I have a friend visiting and she said she wanted to go do karaoke when she found out how it was set up here in Japan, that is your party gets a room all to yourselves to choose and skip whichever songs you like and you only have to listen to your friends. Each room comes with two microphones so you can sing duets, and there are tambourines and maracas for your friends to play as you sing. It's a lot of fun. My friend and I arrived first, and, instead of waiting, we decided to start our singing session. The place we went had a large selection of songs in English, which was nice. I was surprised to see so much Patsy Cline, in fact, and as I was not sure which song I wanted to sing, I chose all of them, which was about six songs. Two of the friends who were joining us walked in when one of them came on. They sat and listened for a minute and then asked whose song I was singing. I replied Patsy Cline, to which they replied, "who?" Whoa.

Is it an age thing? They're only seven years younger than I am.

Is it a geographical thing? They're from up North, NYC and DC.

Is it a culture thing? The North vs. The South?

I mean there was a movie--a decent movie, made about Patsy Cline's life. Wasn't it required viewing where they went to school? It was for us. (Yes, I'm kidding.) I mean, surely Patsy Cline would be as popular today as Dolly Parton is had she lived.

My friend said it was probably a north vs. south thing, but I'm not sure I agree with that. Just last month I said something to another young JET here about The Smiths and she had never heard of them. Am I really that old? Perhaps they just weren't as popular as I thought they were. Nah! That couldn't be it. Right? Please, someone tell me I'm right and that these kids--excuse me, people, just somehow missed out on some really good music.

Welcome Party

My base school's welcome party last night. The invitation should have been my warning.

14:30-16:30 Yakiniku (BBQ) There are restaurants here where you pay one price and it's all you can eat all you can drink (yes, alcoholic beverages as well). the party was seated at a long row of picnic tables at the head of which was a barbecue pit, and next to that was a tub of raw meat. The obligatory cabbage salad was nearby. (Cabbage takes the place of lettuce here.) There was also miso soup, and, of course, rice.

All you can eat means just that. They keep bringing you raw meat until you say stop. The all you can drink is a self-serve bar--not bottles of alcohol, mind you, but a beer keg and a chu hai machine (think margarita machine, only it's filled with a different kind of fruity alcoholic drink). There's also a soda dispenser, tea, and water. Did I mention the great thing about yakiniku? (I mean besides the all you can drink aspect.) Women pay less than men--by three to five dollars depending on the restaurant. It's pretty cool. 

18:30-20:30 Bowling

Apparently bowling is bowling no matter where you  go. Well, except for the Hello Kitty lanes--ostensibly for little kids (but I really wanted to play on those lanes). 

(Here's where it got scary on the invitation.)

21:00-??? Karaoke (That's exactly what the invitation said.)

No, Karaoke is not the scary part. The scary part is that whoever made the invitation knew most of us would be plastered by then as they had put a little drunk smiley face in the bottom corner next to this third section. I didn't even know drunk smiley face clip art existed. It was true, though. Everyone was drunk. Start at 1 p.m. at an all you can drink, move on to a bowling alley with beer vending machines and from there move on to karaoke where all you have to do is pick up the phone to place your next drink order. Yeah, everyone was feeling pretty good as they passed out. (Karaoke rooms are pretty comfy.)