Kancho to the heart pt. 2

I have suffered my greatest personal disappointment thus far in Japan.

As you may be aware, karaoke is one of the factors that holds Japanese society, like a layer of duct tape on a high-powered engine valve (or something, I don`t know cars). Since JETs are masters of cultural adaptation, we tend to do our duty and adapt to the culture of karaoke with great enthusiasm. It was in this spirit that I went with friends to karaoke in Asahikawa this weekend. Far from a normal outing, however, this trip was special; I had recently been practicing a new song, with which I planned to blow everyone out of the water and most likely launch an multinational music career.

The song was Come Sail Away by the incomparable Styx. If you don`t know the song, look it up on Youtube and you`ll probably recognize it. It has all the elements I like in a karaoke song; namely, it`s extremely theatrical and dramatic, and the bulk of the vocals are well beyond my actual range. Needless to say, I was quite excited to have a chance to bust out my new song.

We got to the karaoke box, began queuing up songs, and I looked up my song and... nothing. They had Styx, but not Come Sail Away, so what`s the point? I was ruined. In despair I ended up doing Wolfmother - Woman, which turned out to be one of those songs I like in real life but which has two lines and a two-minute guitar solo. Not the best choice for karaoke.

Despite this terrible setback, I still managed to have a good long weekend (monday was Respect for the Aged day, a national holiday) full of shopping and food. I tried soup curry for the first time, which is sort of a Japanese vision of what Indian curry might look like. I also bought a vuvuzela, cementing my place in the world as a hipster three months past current.

This week is a short week, with Monday being a holiday and Thursday being another. On Friday, I`ll be playing ping-pong at one of my schools, something I`ve developed quite a taste for against all odds. Updates to follow.