Not the Usual Night Out
Last night I went to meet my Japanese tutor who asked if we could cancel the lesson and instead go meet her husband at his elementary school reunion for dinner. I was really hungry so this sounded like a great idea and soon we arrived at one of the fanciest Japanese style restaurants in town. We went into a private tatami room to find 5 other nice couples in their late 60s with the men sitting on one side of the table and the women on the other (conveniently on the side of the room with the door so that they could make frequent trips to get more beer for their husbands and replenish their own iced teas when they were empty). The food began to come out and didn’t stop for about two and a half-hours but I have a pretty strict don’t ask/don’t tell policy when it comes to restaurants like this so I couldn’t say what most of it was, just slimy and delicious! The men progressively got more rowdy throughout dinner and tried hard to keep me at their consumption levels but I have gotten pretty good at subtle declines.
What was next? Well kareoke of course! If you are going to have a proper night out here, you cannot possibly have dinner without singing! We went to a very small bar and sat around a big table where the microphones and song books were passed around the table with such great ease that you would think that this group was born belting enkas (miserably long and slow love ballads). Then, the dreaded but anticipated time…my turn. Keep in mind that this was a 65 plus crowd and so the selection process was very difficult and songs in English were already limited. I obviously couldn’t sing any from the UPS/E-9 song genre involving Salt-n-Peppa, Madonna, or Vanilla Ice and I just couldn’t muster up a Beatles tune (which makes up way too much of the English section) so I ended up with Jon Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer. Although I was politely applauded at every musical break, I know it was painful to hear, especially with the key changes, but luckily they had never heard it so hopefully it wasn’t too obvious. About an hour later I was pressured to do another, this time I went old school and did Kenny Loggins’ Footloose because that one has been cemented in my brain ever since Kate and I dressed up as chickens and sang and danced to it for the entire 8th grade. Afterwards, the main singer in the group with the beautiful high voice said, “ahhhh, Alexa-san, you love the beat.” That I do, that I do. It was an unexpected but great night out with a friendly and generous crew who insisted on covering all of my expenses.
Other happenings include: last weekend’s JET Welcome Party and some camping on a beautiful island over a three day weekend, the second segment of a three part Thai cooking class tomorrow (yes! I am learning how to cook things other than rice and noodles…I mean, I am learning to cook rice and noodles with some more flavors), an upcoming weekend packed with Sports Days at my two main junior highs, and then only a two day working week next week which gives me an excuse to see Southern Shikoku and camp for a few nights after a nine hour day of white-water rafting. You could say that Japan is treating me very well and I hope that you can say the same about your respective places. Take care!
What was next? Well kareoke of course! If you are going to have a proper night out here, you cannot possibly have dinner without singing! We went to a very small bar and sat around a big table where the microphones and song books were passed around the table with such great ease that you would think that this group was born belting enkas (miserably long and slow love ballads). Then, the dreaded but anticipated time…my turn. Keep in mind that this was a 65 plus crowd and so the selection process was very difficult and songs in English were already limited. I obviously couldn’t sing any from the UPS/E-9 song genre involving Salt-n-Peppa, Madonna, or Vanilla Ice and I just couldn’t muster up a Beatles tune (which makes up way too much of the English section) so I ended up with Jon Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer. Although I was politely applauded at every musical break, I know it was painful to hear, especially with the key changes, but luckily they had never heard it so hopefully it wasn’t too obvious. About an hour later I was pressured to do another, this time I went old school and did Kenny Loggins’ Footloose because that one has been cemented in my brain ever since Kate and I dressed up as chickens and sang and danced to it for the entire 8th grade. Afterwards, the main singer in the group with the beautiful high voice said, “ahhhh, Alexa-san, you love the beat.” That I do, that I do. It was an unexpected but great night out with a friendly and generous crew who insisted on covering all of my expenses.
Other happenings include: last weekend’s JET Welcome Party and some camping on a beautiful island over a three day weekend, the second segment of a three part Thai cooking class tomorrow (yes! I am learning how to cook things other than rice and noodles…I mean, I am learning to cook rice and noodles with some more flavors), an upcoming weekend packed with Sports Days at my two main junior highs, and then only a two day working week next week which gives me an excuse to see Southern Shikoku and camp for a few nights after a nine hour day of white-water rafting. You could say that Japan is treating me very well and I hope that you can say the same about your respective places. Take care!
posted by Alexa at 5:56 PM
2 Comments:
Man they love their karaoke. Multiple times when I was there we didnt realize that they charged you per song and before we knew it we had over a 100 dollar tab. I commend you for singing. Great job. That is a hard song for sure. OOOOOOOOOHHHHH living on a prayer (three octaves higher) OOOOOOOOOHHHHH living on a prayer!
LOL... that post was an instant classic. Take care Alexa.
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