Karaoke

So one of the things that i HAVE to do before i die, is Japanese Karaoke. Now i have succeeded. A group of us went over the weekend, and it was AMAZING. American Karaoke is nothing compared to this, so anyone who has a chance to go to japan, or find a japanese style karaoke parlor somewhere else, i highly recommend it.

Japanese Karaoke is much nicer than the American "karaoke bar." the concept of getting drunk enough to get up and sing poorly in front of who knows how many strangers is completely blown out of the water. For 1100 yen (a little over $11) per person, we rented a private room at the parlor for 3 hours of singing, fun, and, at night, unlimited drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. Since we were such a big group we got a larger party room in the back and another smaller room.

we had both large paper catalogs and electronic catalogs to browse and choose from thousands of japanese, chinese, korean, and english language songs. We used the electronic catalogs to cue up songs for the group and passed around two wireless mics. there are also a number of back-up instruments like maracas and tambourines stored in the room.

sometimes people would cue songs they wanted to sing, but as the night went on, people started just cuing songs, and when they came up, others, or even the whole group would claim them. we sang english songs from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody to P.O.D. to Beyonce. the Japanese students and some more experienced Japanese speakers sang Japanese songs. we even sang happy birthday to one of our party members to a korean track. someone cued it up, but when it came, no one knew how to sing it, so one of us (Yobi, he's a riot) improvised. we also sang the japanese theme to the old school Dragon Ball, the Power Rangers theme, and ended the night with Cruel Angel's Thesis (from NGE/EVA). Amy and i did Poison's "Nothin' But A Good Time" together.

it's definitely something to be experienced.

In the picture files, i have pictures of the rooms, drink menus, electronic catalogs, singing, and probably more stuff. In the video files, i have several songs, including, but not limited to, A Whole New World (Aladdin, Japanese), Dragon Ball Theme, Power Rangers Theme, and "Korean" Happy Birthday (a real riot).

Karaoke Photos at megaupload; 63Mb .zip file
Karaoke Video at megaupload; 562Mb .zip file