First night out

Surprisingly, I wasn’t feeling too tired after unpacking, so Harusa took me out to a birthday party with a lot of her friends. We had dinner at a restaurant, which was more like an all-you-can-eat selection of appetizers. We had pizza, sticky rice with meat, snow peas, and some puffed rice candy. I got to meet Harusa’s boyfriend, Yu, (pronounced “You”) whose name is kind of confusing in English conversation. Her friends were really nice and a lot of fun, and all of them spoke English well enough to talk with me.

After dinner, we went out to a karaoke bar. You may have heard me say that I will never do karaoke. I think four years of working at Caleco’s (a restaurant/bar in St. Louis) scarred me for life. Still, a karaoke bar in Japan is much different from ones in the U.S. In the States, the whole restaurant is at the mercy of the drunk(s) with the microphone. Here, you rent a room with all of your friends… which means you’re only the mercy of a few people that you already know. It’s also a lot less intimidating to sing in a small group. I started off pretty timid, but by the end of the night, I was belting out songs with the rest of them! The only catch is that English songs are limited to the American pop that has made it over to Tokyo. My best performances included “Barbie Girl” (sung as a duet with a guy who was actually named Ken), “Crazy” by Britney Spears, “All that Jazz” (from the movie Chicago – Harusa and I rocked this one!), and Hotel California (thankfully, a group effort). I’m surprised to write it, but I can’t wait to go back and do it again! Karaoke bars are really popular in Japan, so I’m sure I’ll have plenty more opportunities!

Here's a shot of Me and Yu, singing Wonderwall: