Jonas and Liz's Japanese Adventures: Let's Have Fun Together...aka Karaoke!

Say it with me...kah-rah-oh-kay. Not "carey okie" like we normally say it in the US. This is one of the many things I learned last Friday night while partying with a few Japanese friends (and a few cool Americans). I also learned that they are rather fond of Avril Lavigne....who knew?

We headed out at around 6pm; myself and about 15 other people from our Japanese Culture Class on base. Our plan was to head to Hachioji by train and I was pleasantly surprised to see that even for a Friday night the train wasn't all that packed. Our short train ride ended at a very busy station and we found ourselves dumped out in the shocking cold to yet another shocking sight of Hachioji at night (see below). It was kind of magical, if I may be so flowery....maybe it was the combo of all the lights and people and the cold weather blasting me in the face, but it was quite an awesome moment. Eh, you probably had to be there. Anyway, we walked a few short blocks to our restaurant/karaoke destination "Amataro." Since our Japanese guide friends are such great planners, our room was all ready for us and we had zero wait time. We got seated and all took a little time looking over the menu. Our patient friends spent quite a bit of time translating the menu for those of us who don't read Kanji. We all decided to order food to share as a group, as it was explained to us that the custom is to split the bill evenly with everyone. The food just kept coming...sashimi, fried chicken, french fries, small pizzas, and yakisoba! And we had about 5 rounds of drinks (I only had one plum sake, as I'm not a big drinker...but it was delish) before we started to browse the huge karaoke song books. They had like 5 gigantic song books to pick from...think like Kansas City phone directory size! It was awesome and I was happy to see that they had 2 books of English songs as well. Once everyone had a few rounds in them, the noise level in the room started to elevate and I think we just somehow felt it was time....time to bring on the drunken singing. Keep in mind when I say "5 rounds of drinks" that most of the sake and/or beer glasses were about the size of a kid's juice glass in the US...not really enough to even pre-game for most people back home. I took this to mean that it doesn't really take much to bring out the "karaoke" in most of the Japanese people...it is like, juuuuust barely under the surface. They're poised and ready with it, ready to say "oh gosh sorry, I drank too much and really got into my karaoke-ing" when in reality it was freakin water and they just wanted to sing. I find this an interesting contrast to our country because we are all loud and obnoxious most of the time, not needing alcohol as an excuse or even an explanation. Anyway, when the singing commenced, our group leader Kenny started us off with "some Anka" which I assumed meant Paul Anka but I'm not sure since it was all in Japanese and I honestly wouldn't know an Anka tune if it pulled my skirt down (why do people always say "if it hit me?" This bugs me, so I switched it up). It is apparently the most requested Japanese karaoke artist/group/song thing and it was very mellow but interesting. Then we went to some Madonna, followed by some Carpenters, then some Avril Lavigne, then some Billy Joel (I just had the most epic typo ever...Billy Jowel), then some more Avril, then Gaga, then I cannot even recall but I DO remember screaming Sweeeeet Caroline (dun dun dun) as the last song of the night. It was incredibly fun, great food, and lots of laughs for only 3000 Yen/person ($37)....pretty much can't beat that. I really missed J being there and we are going to have to have karaoke night part deux real soon because it was awesome. Plus, Hachioji looked fun and we need to go back just to explore!

So that was karaoke in a nutshell. Enjoy the pics below, meanwhile I'm gonna enjoy my new super fuzzy blanket from my secret sister (thanks, whoever you are!) while watching Seeking A Friend For the End of the World. And on the eve of Thanksgiving eve I must say that I am thankful for the opportunity to experience loud, slightly drunken Japanese people....live, in their own habitat. Oh, and I'm thankful to have people who read my blog. :) Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!! And much love, as always.