OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

Sunday, June 26, 2005

KARAOKE

I used to hate karaoke so much when I was in my early twenties. At that time it was available only at drinking places and mostly used by office workers after five. You had to clap to the beat when your boss kept singing his favorite songs quite off key, and when it was your turn, you had to sing in front of your colleagues and bosses whether you liked it or not. (I found another site that gives a very good explanation of karaoke, but I cannot fully agree with the second paragraph of THE BACKGROUND OF KARAOKE’S POPULARITY. At least, I 'm definitely an exception.)

I experienced it about twice, and that was more than enough for me. The second time was really terrible… I was with an old college professor and some of his students. The professor loved the special kind of karaoke entries… the ones that came with very erotic video scenes on the screen which had absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics. It was disgusting. (I wonder if they still have that kind of “erotic versions” these days. At least I haven’t seen anything like that recently. ) Since then, I tried so hard to avoid being in such a situation as much as possible, though politely .

Then there came the era of “karaoke box” which allows you to be in a small private compartment only with the people you like and really enjoy singing. But I was still too disgusted with the previous karaoke experiences, so I didn’t feel like going to such new karaoke places, either. And more than anything, I'm not a good singer, anyway.

It was only recently that I started going to Karaoke and actually enjoying singing. Now they have nice, cozy rooms and nice drinks/foods that you can order from the private room you’re in, and so many English songs, too. I couldn’t resist the temptation to sing English pop songs that I loved when I was in high school and university. Also many of such songs always remind me of the parties I had in the U.S. with people from so many different countries. So I finally gave in.

So, if you’d come to Kochi and saw a middle-aged Japanese woman in a karaoke room, with bunch of non-Japanese karaoke lovers, dancing on the sofa in bare feet singing Love Shack, that’d probably be me ;)
(Actually that's exactly what I did last night.)

posted by obachan, 6/26/2005 06:20:00 PM

2 Comments:

Obachan;
I can totally understand your reluctance to sing karaoke!!!! I could never sing in front of friends and co-workers!! ...let alone erotic karaoke!!! ha ha. I suppose singing with a group wouldn't be so bad...... hmmmmmmm.... I'm sort of an introvert at heart...and painfully shy....
Maybe someday I will be in Kochi watching you sing karaoke!!!!ha ha. 

Posted by carlyn
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 6/27/2005 9:08 AM  
Honestly, singing with a group is much better :) 

Posted by obachan
commented by Anonymous Anonymous, 6/29/2005 11:40 AM  

Add a comment