Singing for your supper...

It's been a back to basics weekend here in Japan- returning to the traditional and the familiar under the guise of appreciating what's past and what is to come. Or something. Basically I've been to karaoke A LOT recently. And it's a trend I shall do my best to continue.

We'll start by bypassing the first four days of last week as they were largely terminal (the boredom only broken by conversations with the school caretaker lady, the school nurse, and Nao chan) and we'll skip straight to Friday evening when it started. Nao-chan, two of her friends (Kanae-san and Yoshiko-san), Nickname pending and I headed to the kaiten sushi restaurant (revolving sushi) in Kuse- the slightly inferior one which we've been visiting since BIG sushi closed down. The only plus is that at least two of the staff are handsome. And after eating lots of things that not even the Japanese among us could identify, we headed back to the Riverside hotel, Ochiai, the first time I've been back since perhaps last August. And we were greeted with surprised looks by the staff. So it was 2 and a half hours of drinking, dancing and singing with Nickname Pending and I slaughtering Hirai Ken songs and then impressing everyone by singing songs in French (Champs Elysees for her, Joe Le Taxi pour moi).

Saturday was a more sober day, but sociable none the less as lots of ALTs met in the city to enjoy o-hanami. Hanami means "cherry blossom viewing" but could equally mean "getting trolleyed under a cherry blossom tree" as that's what seems to really be going on a lot of the time. But in true gaijin style we did everything we could to stand out without even trying. For a start we managed to sit under a tree with no cherry blossom on it that was in fact possibly not even a cherry blossom tree. Our picnic, a ramshackle mess of tasty snacks in no way resembled the neatly packed bento boxes of the Japanese hanami-ers with their sushi rolls and onigiri. And our picnic blanket was one of Amy and Herb's old army blankets rather than the traditional blue plastic sheeting from that 100 yen store that all the Japanese used. But it was still a treat, and we proved to be adequate fodder for the various interested passers by who either stared, laughed, pointed or took photos.

As usual the day was entirely centred around food and booze as we headed to an izakaya for tea and then trotted off to the Aussie bar for some beer before bedtime. Well, it's a damn site better than tears before bedtime I can tell you.

Sunday was a day of dawdling, as we woke up slowly and Herb made us all delicious pancakes for breakfast. Amy, Bob and I continued the slow start in town meeting Betsy in a coffee house before doing a spot of shopping and heading our seperate ways. I had to get back for what I thought was an enkai, so I left with just enough (as in the bare minimum) time to spare only to face hardcore traffic all the way back. This made me an hour late so I was rather worried, but it turned out that it didn't matter too much as we were just going to karaoke. So at 7pm on Sunday night I was collected from my house and driven to... Riverside hotel Ochiai! Fukushima sensei (a guy involved in the Saturday night teaching session I'd done a few weeks before) was karaoke-ing with his friends and had invited me along. And I'd never met any of them before, but we had a great time. And a long time. I had planned not to drink too much, but when you're in karaoke for FIVE HOURS there's only so much willpower to be had. We left at around 12:15, and fortunately for me I wasn't too smashed. School yesterday would have been murder. As it was it was verging on manslaughter before the weekend had started...

And for this week? As the pace of karaoke has picked up again to once a week I shall be doing my best to maintain it. Tomorrow night Nickname Pending and I are heaind back to Ochiai to practice Japanese songs and practice kanji reading (karaoke- fun! Educational!) and I may try and swing some more at the weekend... Who needs limits? I WANT IT ALL!