Sleeping Jellyfish

So of course I would leave my camera in my room when we went out on Saturday for our friend Katrina’s birthday. I remember walking to the bus when it pulled up and thinking, “crap, I think I left my camera in my room”, but there were plenty of other people with point-and-shoots so I will just steal some of their pictures in an attempt to capture the evening.

I think the place that we went was maybe a bit atypical of many of the other Karaoke places in Japan. From talking to other people, it seems like the Karaoke clubs are a bar and/or restaurant with rooms that you can rent by the hour to sing to your hearts content, with the Karaoke being the focus of the establishment. The place we ended up was in what I think was the Red Light district of Akita, where there seemed to be 3 types of shops: Ramen/Udon/Soba Noodle Shops, “Hostess” Bars, and regular bars. Now when you take a group of over 20 gaijin and try to fit them all into a tiny Japanese bar it doesn’t really work out all the time, so we walked around for quite a while until we found an empty place that we could all have a few drinks at. Luckily, it also had a Karaoke room. The Japanese system for many drinking establishments is that you pay a flat rate for as much as you care to drink for a few hours, and at this particular place it was 3,000￥ or about 30$US. Many of us didn’t want to pay that much and because A) we had already been drinking on the train and on the way to Karaoke and B) we just wanted to sing and have a few drinks, so we were able to compromise and settle on a pay-per-drink system like whats normal elsewhere.

Here we are just having gotten off the train at Akita Station. You can see the determination in our faces. We intend to sing our lungs out to the best that Akita’s Karaoke scene has to offer. Actually it looks more like someone just told a good joke. Anyways, we were all really excited to celebrate Katrina’s birthday with a more recent Japanese tradition, Karaoke.

I think this is a pretty good portrayal of how the evening went. In this picture we are a motley crew of American, South Korean, Czech, Norwegian, and Mongolian. Canadians, an Australian, and a Russian girl are around somewhere. We had a few Japanese friends with us, a God-send when our Japanese skills deteriorated over the course of the night. Great friends, good drinks, and as many top 40 hits as you can sing. We tried a few Japanese songs as well but they weren’t as accessible to everyone as the American pop hits that everyone knows.

If you notice the time, it is just past 6am. One thing about Japan is that you can not depend on anything to be open 24hrs. Except 711. Most ATMs close about 6pm, the last train home is about midnight, so it is important to plan things out as much as possible. Now in our case, we planned on staying till the morning train, and many people who go into the cities from outside do, because of the “last train” factor. Many Karaoke bars (and bars in general) are cheaper past midnight, so we did not leave AIU until about 10:30 in the evening. The place we went stayed open until about 4am and then we were let loose on the streets until the morning train.

And that was our first Karaoke excursion. Well, the first for most of us, some of the people had gone before, but obviously its fun enough to warrant a second round. As for my second sampling, I will remember to bring my own camera, and hopefully nab a few more good photos.

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