When You Hear Hoofbeats, Just Go Ahead and Think Horses, Not Zebras

Turning... Away from the light
Becoming... Adult
Turning... Into my soul...

Byron messaged me over Gtalk at work yesterday afternoon, saying one of the guys he met last weekend had invited him out that night. Apparently he had met a group of Japanese guys and girls at the Hub (Brit Pub) last week playing pool and had given them his email. After asking what we were gonna do, Byron replies with “He mentioned something about karaoke”.

Byron wasn’t sure whether the Japanese guy was bringing friends or not, and kinda wanted me to come along; I figured it would make a good blog story at the very least. Byron could also not remember which member of the group this guy was, so we really didn’t know what to expect.

So we met the guy outside the Hub. He’s my age, 21, rather thin, wearing tight low rider designer jeans and a fancy shirt, gold watch, earring and ring. Byron introduces me and we head off to the nearest karaoke place.

The karaoke place made me sad. It’s very new and fancy, probably a dozen floors high, each with little rooms that you karaoke in. Our room had a booth which seats 4 or a squishy 6, a tv and sound system, a phone for ordering food or drinks, and most importantly, a tambourine. What made me sad was I’m pretty sure this was the karaoke joint was the one that replaced Maruzen, one of the best bookstores in Kyoto. There’s enough karaoke places, don’t get rid of the best foreign book collection in the city!

We rented a room – sorry, I just figured out that every time my co-worker puts someone on hold his phone plays “My Grandfather’s Clock” – and Byron’s friend orders us all a gin and tonic.

“It is a curious fact, and one to which no one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85% of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonnyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or gin and tonic, or any one of a thousand or more variations on the same phonetic theme. The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian "chinanto/mnigs" which is ordinary water server at slightly above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan "tzjin-anthony-ks" which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that the names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds.”

So the singing begins. The Japanese guy opens up with a song by the KinKi Kids (KinKi is another term for Kansai I believe, and Kansai is the region of Japan that I live in). He’s not too bad of a singer either. Byron then opened up with Sweet Home Alabama. I opened up with telling Byron I won’t sing till he does Eminem.

In the end I was a major part of the singing of 5 songs. Oh, they had weird music choices… multiple songs for The Music and Bloc Party, and no songs for way bigger artists. Maybe they have good taste and really like the Brit rock ^^. Anyway, the songs I sang:
Eminem – Lose Yourself
Beatles – Hey Jude
U2 – One
Bloc Party. – Banquet
And finally, Byron’s friend puts on the Aladdin song “A Whole New World” and gives me the second microphone, so I do a duet with him, taking the part of Jasmine ><. Least I was a good sport about it.

The only other english song he sang was Enrique Iglesias – “Escape”, one of the few songs that I really can’t stand. I was forced to listen to it hundreds of times within a span of 2 weeks and quickly became sick of it.　Luckily my weeks of intense accordion music strenghtened my ability to withstand song torture.

After karaoke we went to the Hub for drinks. They have good fish and chips, I could eat (and have eaten) multiple plates in a row. Oh, side note, I’ve gained another 3 pounds this month, meaning I’ve gained 7 pounds in the 3 months I’ve been here. That’s a big deal for a lil guy like me.

We talk for a bit about various things (does any CJP person know how you’d say various colors in Japanese? Is it iroiroiro?) such as Canada and Japan, school, work, and music. Along with asking if we have girlfriends (and him saying that he doesn’t), he asks an odd question about… er… “relative proportions” between white guys and Japanese guys. Using colorful language too. Dunno if this is normal for Japan or not, Az’s (English teacher in Japan) junior high school students were overly curious too. It could just be Japanese culture, I’m sure many of you have seen pictures of the crazy Japanese youth with their weird cool clothes and hair.

We say farewell at the train station and go home, with another interesting adventure for the record books.