2015-09-26, Karaoke, Finally!

As anyone who knows me well knows, I don't sing in public for very good reason.  I love to sing (when I'm alone) but I can't carry a tune - it's genetic.  Still, karaoke is such a Japanese staple - everyone does it - and it's one of the few Japanese things I haven't tried yet.  Since I am trying to 'challenge myself' (as Peter's old nursery school teacher would have said) each year by doing something I'm afraid of - usually it has to do with height or speed (jumping off a rock into a river, going on a roller coaster, etc, crossing suspension bridges, etc.), in this case embarrassed to do I decided it was time.  At my friend Cindy's suggestion, we decided to give it a go last night after I got her assurance that 'what happens at karaoke stays at karaoke'.

The private karaoke rooms.

Food offerings.

Cindy

Just kidding, wasn't really singing.

I have to say it was fun.  You can pay by the hour or get an unlimited pass.  At this particular place they also had pool/billiards and darts and a drink bar (soft drinks, hot and cold coffees and teas and some soft serve ice cream) that was included.  I think all the places have food and liquor that can be ordered and groups of students and businessmen often make a night of it.

The main problem for me was that most of the songs didn't have the melody playing but chords or background music.  I think I can get by, almost decently, if I'm following a melody - someone else singing or the actual notes of the song - but I can't do anything on my own.  But it was fun and I don't think I did too much damage to Cindy's ears.  Will I do it again?  That's undecided, but I am able to check one more thing off my life's 'to do' list.

Next I'd like to try that contraption you stand on in a lake and somehow the water lifts you up into the air like you have rockets in your shoes....

By the way, we had to decorate (if you can call it that) our classrooms for Halloween.  Here's mine - I tried to choose the least scary decorations.  The other rooms have a lot more black, eyeballs, graveyards, etc.  I think there will be a lot of very scared little children, I really don't understand why we have to 'torture' them.  In past years they had to cover the windows as well, and evidently they used even more black.  I guess I got off lightly.