Saturday, September 17, 2005
Returning to Form (albeit slowly)
Bouncing back is bouncing back, no? Maybe I didn't meet any young people tonight but I had a pretty good time none the less.
I've got eggs now, might as well boil them.
After contacting several people this evening who were up to nothing at all, I went for a walk to find my own fun (and dinner). I walked for at least twenty minutes, making a few odd turns along the way before I settled on some kind of Chinese restaurant. Well, it served Chinese-style food but it wasn't like any Chinese restaurant I had ever been to before. Imagine a Denny's with a Chinese menu and I think you can picture where I ate tonight. The food was pretty good though; I had some kind of gyoza/shumai combo with soup and rice and pickled something-or-other. My banter with the waitress was eased by her novice command of English; there's a good chance she's actually a KG student.
What have we here?
While walking home from the restaurant I was drawn into a small izakaya advertising "half price drinks" for this holiday weekend. How could I resist? I went inside and I must say I was surprised. Half-priced drinks yet there were only two customers inside! Of course, the place was so small they occupied about 25% of the establishment's total seats. I sat down and bumbled my way into ordering a beer. The barman did his best to chat me up and I did my best to answer although he spoke quite fast and casually so I didn't understand much. When in doubt, I just nodded and said nn which is a colloquial equivalent of "yes."
It just so happened that this place had was also a karaoke bar and they had the most advanced karaoke set-up I've ever seen, which was humorous when contrasted with the relatively miniscule size of the bar. You could fit, at most, twelve people in there if you shoved them all in but this machine was top of line: multiple monitors, touch-screen remote controls and a gigantic list of Japanese songs plus a sizeable list of English, Chinese, Korean and Filipino songs as well! Hyde, you would have flipped! The best (or perhaps strangest) part was after each song, your performance was given a score from zero to 100. I don't know how this score was determined but I thought it was hilarious. It cost 100 Yen to sing but these guys were so anxious to hear me belt one out they gave me saabisu, "service" (if Japanese people want to give a customer something for nothing, they will use this word).
How could I refuse? It would be rude to decline a free song! Naturally, I picked "New York, New York" and scored a 92, pretty good! I tend to waver from the progress meter so I assume that deducted from my score, although I suppose the machine might also have been evaluating my pitch or key. All three men applauded politely. After two more drinks, I decided I had to try singing a song in Japanese. The on-screen lyrics all included furigana so it was just a matter of picking a tune I knew and having a go at it. I considered trying a Gackt song but frankly, I don't have enough talent or reading ability to try any of his work. I opted for something light and not too fast-paced: the theme from Cutey Honey. The lyrics are on the "randy" side but I was the only one laughing. I kind of thought the sight of seeing a slightly-inebriated foreigner singing a Japanese song would strike them as amusing but I suppose they've seen my type before.
I fumbled a lot of the words because I couldn't quite read them fast enough but I totally nailed the chorus parts, especially "Honey Flash!!" My score was an 87 which surprised me. I sang an unfamiliar song in a strange language and managed just five points below an English song I know like the back of my hand? The next guy sang a song in Japanese and only scored in the 70s so maybe I am good at this after all. I called it a night after that and returned home.
So that's what I did today. Pretty nice turnaround from yesterday, right?
I've got eggs now, might as well boil them.
After contacting several people this evening who were up to nothing at all, I went for a walk to find my own fun (and dinner). I walked for at least twenty minutes, making a few odd turns along the way before I settled on some kind of Chinese restaurant. Well, it served Chinese-style food but it wasn't like any Chinese restaurant I had ever been to before. Imagine a Denny's with a Chinese menu and I think you can picture where I ate tonight. The food was pretty good though; I had some kind of gyoza/shumai combo with soup and rice and pickled something-or-other. My banter with the waitress was eased by her novice command of English; there's a good chance she's actually a KG student.
What have we here?
While walking home from the restaurant I was drawn into a small izakaya advertising "half price drinks" for this holiday weekend. How could I resist? I went inside and I must say I was surprised. Half-priced drinks yet there were only two customers inside! Of course, the place was so small they occupied about 25% of the establishment's total seats. I sat down and bumbled my way into ordering a beer. The barman did his best to chat me up and I did my best to answer although he spoke quite fast and casually so I didn't understand much. When in doubt, I just nodded and said nn which is a colloquial equivalent of "yes."
It just so happened that this place had was also a karaoke bar and they had the most advanced karaoke set-up I've ever seen, which was humorous when contrasted with the relatively miniscule size of the bar. You could fit, at most, twelve people in there if you shoved them all in but this machine was top of line: multiple monitors, touch-screen remote controls and a gigantic list of Japanese songs plus a sizeable list of English, Chinese, Korean and Filipino songs as well! Hyde, you would have flipped! The best (or perhaps strangest) part was after each song, your performance was given a score from zero to 100. I don't know how this score was determined but I thought it was hilarious. It cost 100 Yen to sing but these guys were so anxious to hear me belt one out they gave me saabisu, "service" (if Japanese people want to give a customer something for nothing, they will use this word).
How could I refuse? It would be rude to decline a free song! Naturally, I picked "New York, New York" and scored a 92, pretty good! I tend to waver from the progress meter so I assume that deducted from my score, although I suppose the machine might also have been evaluating my pitch or key. All three men applauded politely. After two more drinks, I decided I had to try singing a song in Japanese. The on-screen lyrics all included furigana so it was just a matter of picking a tune I knew and having a go at it. I considered trying a Gackt song but frankly, I don't have enough talent or reading ability to try any of his work. I opted for something light and not too fast-paced: the theme from Cutey Honey. The lyrics are on the "randy" side but I was the only one laughing. I kind of thought the sight of seeing a slightly-inebriated foreigner singing a Japanese song would strike them as amusing but I suppose they've seen my type before.
I fumbled a lot of the words because I couldn't quite read them fast enough but I totally nailed the chorus parts, especially "Honey Flash!!" My score was an 87 which surprised me. I sang an unfamiliar song in a strange language and managed just five points below an English song I know like the back of my hand? The next guy sang a song in Japanese and only scored in the 70s so maybe I am good at this after all. I called it a night after that and returned home.
So that's what I did today. Pretty nice turnaround from yesterday, right?
Feedback:
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For some reason, I couldn't click on this post before, but I'm able to open it now. All I have to say is YAY for KARAOKE!
:)
:)
It was my fault, I made a mistake using this new code that only posts the start of each entry on the main page, allowing for faster loading. I discovered my mistake last night, corrected it, and now the whole thing looks normal again.
But yeah, seriously, you should have seen this set up. I don't know if that's the norm for Japan or not but I can't wait to find out!
コメントがあります？ Type something, please. It's less work for me.But yeah, seriously, you should have seen this set up. I don't know if that's the norm for Japan or not but I can't wait to find out!
When leaving comments, please don't remain Anonymous. Click on "Other" and pick a name!
Be sociable! No sign-up is required!
unpaid advertising...I'm no sell out!
