Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Karaoke

Around the first of August we went to do Karaoke as a last minute decision at "Billy the Kid", seriously, that's what the place is called. Karaoke is different in Japan in that you DON'T sing in front of a whole lot of drunkened strangers as you do in the US. Instead you sing in front of your drunken friends. I like the whole concept a lot better. It means you get to sing more songs, and not hear people you don't know sing. Above you see Markian choosing his song from the English songs in the back. There was a decent amount, but of course the Japanese selection was way, way better!
Here are our friend who got us into the place. It's a little difficult not knowing much Japanese. You have to have a membership for these kind of places. We purchased a nomi hodai deal (all you can drink) and you ordered by calling the bar on this phone. Markian called and tried to order in Japanese. The lady came in and brought up this tambourine you see above. We laughed really hard about it and asked how and why he ordered us a tambourine. However, the lady brought our drinks a few minutes later so I guess she understood.
These pictures testify to how I can't frame a shot after a couple drinks. haha
Good times!

Markian rocking out to some Iggy Pop or Rush, I can't remember which.
Our private Karaoke room.


So we're going back for my birthday this weekend! I'm really excited! I've memorized some Japanese songs. Hopefully the have the ones I memorized there!

Oh and there is a little more to this story, but I wasn't taking pictures at that point. We ran into an owner of one of the more popular gaijin bars here on the street at 3 AM on a Sunday night while we were desperately searching for french fries. This dude was so cool and he took us to a 24 hour chinese restaurant and ordered for me! I don't eat beef or pork, which makes it difficult when you can't read the menu and most Japanese food has pork in it. He ordered me some fried chicken with dipping salt and it was awesome and so tasty, and yet cheap! He stayed around and ate with us, til we wandered home around 4 AM but no before getting stopped in the Peace Park by NHK who tried to interview our friend about world Peace in Japanese! Apparently in the end he didn't end up on tv, but who knows. It was an awesome outing. I'm hoping Saturday proves as interesting.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see that Mark got a hair cut..I was going to comment that it was getting long...lol..love mom g...

Oh and Happy Birthday Courtney..

Courtney said...

I cut it! I didn't want to because I've never cut hair before, but he didn't have anyone to take him and play translator like my friend did. A decent haircut is about $30 and up. It turned out well though, so I was happy.

Bobby said...

oh man, you let her cut your hair?! the ninth seal has been crossed. what a great post about the karaoke. i just got back from a huge video game expo in seattle (pics on my blog coming soon) and they had this game set up on a stage called 'rock band.' it's like guitar hero, only with a bass, drummer, guitar and vocalist. i got to be the vocalist. it was cool to rock out to a bunch of geeks. more on that later. good times on the karaoke, good to see markian keeping the tradition alive! man, do i miss those saturday nights at OnTap. 9 gin and tonics, and you're ready to go! send me a fucking email sometime!

Courtney said...

Yeah, he's due for another haircut already! That rock band game you were talking about. They sorta have it here. It's guitar hero, drum game, and piano game all linked up together. I don't think I've seen a karaoke one hooked up to it though.
Sure, sounds like fun though. We did Karaoke for my birthday this weekend. I have a funny video of Markian, but he'd probably die if I posted it! Speaking of that I'm having difficulty posting videos on here or youtube. I don't know what the deal is. It just says, "failed" with no reason.