Sunday, 29 April 2007

Karaoke

Everyone seems to be asking me why I like Japan and it's a very hard question to answer as, it honestly doesn't do that many things better than other countries around the world. Nature? Not that much and Australia has that beat. Food? Too expensive and the quality just way to different than what I'm used to. People? Very hard to get to really know them and racism and ignorance is a huge problem here. I hate to say it but up until now my answer had really been work or money related or that Japan just feels like home now. It's not that Japan is a terrible country but it's very difficult to find something that it specialises in...

...until last night when I realised what I would miss if I ever left Japan. Karaoke!

Weird huh? Who'd have thought that karaoke would be something that I would end up doing as part of a night out! Dinner, drinks and then karaoke for the next 8 hours until the first trains runs. I know this must sound strange for those who have never been to Japan but after three years of being here karaoke feels as natural as grabbing a beer down at the pub. It's something that I'm definitely going to miss when I go back to Australia for my sister's wedding in December.

I was talking to an Aussie friend the other day about what we used to do before we came here. We had to rely on conversation! It's so hard to imagine now.

Now, I'm not a good singer by any stretch of the imagination but it's just so much fun to do with a group of close friends, Hell sometimes even strangers.

I'm currently teaching myself two Japanese songs to sing at Karaoke. The first is a truly beautiful Okinawan themed song from the 90s called Shima Uta (Island Song). Here's one of many video clips I've found of it.