Hey Ya Hey Ya

Yet another first in my life. First karaoke.

I've always been a bit of a stick-in-the-mud and especially so when it comes to singing. So perhaps if I had known what the future was going to bring then I might have tried to avoid it. A couple of the staff (ie Japanese) at our branch were leaving because they were being transferred to another branch so some of the staff and some of the teachers went out for a bit of a drink after work last week. I didn't really have much to do so I said I'd go for a quick drink. The thing is though that when you go to a function like that there really is no such thing as a quick drink. If you go then you're there for the long haul.

Eventually about 10 of us showed up. Most came straight from work but a couple of teachers were on their day off and showed up already fairly inebriated. Drinks were ordered for everyone and most people got some kind of food and shared it around. In Japan, once you've started drinking it's very hard to stop. The reason for this is that you aren't supposed to refill your own glass-it's polite for someone else to do so for you. So as soon as you have finally managed to down your last glass, someone is there with a gigantic wine-sized bottle of beer to fill it up again. It's also easy to get alcohol. Usually you have your own little room and a phone that you use to order food and alcohol. So you just pick it up, talk to the staff and right away someone is at your door with more beer.

Once everyone had eaten and consumed copious amounts of alcohol, someone grabbed the remote, turned on the TV and started off the karaoke. I was actually surprised to find that karaoke really is fun! Even I, after I had drunk enough, managed to belt out the lyrics to Hey Ya and Wonderwall. Anyways I had fun and I may even go again someday.