01.15.2011 Kaori's friends and Karaoke night in Osaka

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Instead of doing something in the day, this was a night of food and singing. Kaori was having a friend’s night out and she wanted to see if I would come with for the fun, of course there was one answer “YES”. We were all meeting at a hub station in Osaka with about ten other people. I met everyone one at a time seeing as people arrived one after another. We had a small group of people outside in the cold and Kaori told me we were going to go to the food place and eat, so away we went! I didn’t, and still don’t, understand everything that people say but I am learning one day at a time and picking up on a few things here and there. None of Kaori’s friends spoke English but it was ok I was out for having fun and meeting people.

Our group of 5 walked to a restaurant called Torikizoku, it sold all drinks and food for ¥280 no more, no less. It was a casual and cheap eatery but never the less it was fun to see another restaurant and try new foods. Eventually several more people came to the restaurant and one of Kaori’s best friends showed up to have some fun. Her name was Sato and she brought her boyfriend as well for the ride. People started really cracking open and talking about activates they have done, new things they want to do and places they have been. Surprisingly Kaori and I were the only students in the group while everyone else worked, I asked Kaori about it and she replied “there is no such thing as student loans, so you have to rely either on your parents or yourself to get through college”. People want to go to school but its just hard to do so unless you really buckle down at high school. I was enjoying the conversations and the questions about me from Kaori’s friends. Some of them asked where lived so I told them I am from Minnesota, close to Minnetonka. Right away people knew Minnetonka because of the boots and shoes all the girls wear. The group was getting hungry so we ordered about 12 different dished for everyone and this is family style food so everyone shares and has one thing from another person. The food was terrific; there were so many choices I couldn’t make up my mind so People just ordered a bunch of items on the menu. I don’t remember all the food, but some highlights were a glazed chicken stick, a marinated beef stick, and strawberry with ice cream in it. Some of the girls were showing their licenses so I went ahead and showed mine, they were all amazed at the detail and the “holograph” on the front for counter fraudulence. We all cracked jokes and everyone was telling me about some of the local customs and funny sayings. I am from Minnesota (shout out!) and no matter where I seem to travel or who I meet people seem to catch on my accent. I am not sure what accent I have but people ask me to repeat words a few times to learn English pronunciation. Sato took a liking to it and repeated some of my English words. People like to hear Leonardo DiCaprio for some reason so I get a few laughs from people. We finished the finger food and my delicious mixed juice drink; to my surprise two and a half hours flew by and of course it was getting late, people needed to work the next day. Some of Kaori’s friends needed to part ways to go home, the other six of us went ahead and made our way to Karaoke!

I was extremely excited because this would be the first time I have ever had the chance to sing at a Karaoke place in Japan. With that in mind I soon felt the nervousness about the actual singing part. It was only a short walk to the location called Jankara Karaoke. It seems to be a popular place for people to go seeing as there were already so many people there. We got free drinks at the Karaoke place because of a special coupon that one of the girls had. I was the only one who ordered a hot drink since it was cold outside and I wanted to have something warm, big mistake. The group hustled to the elevator and made our way to the seventh floor. The hallways are very narrow and you can hear everyone in their rooms singing, some good other just terrible. The room however was nice a cozy and since we had six people we all fit in perfectly. I noticed that as soon as you start singing in your room you can drown out the other noises from those around you. Kaori walked me through the karaoke guide to show me the songs to choose from. The girls were really excited to sing so I went ahead and sat back to watch the first couple of rounds. The first song was from a very popular band called AKB48 and the song name was “I want you, I need you, I love you”. I heard this before but what really blew my mind was the music video, if you can call it that was very reveling. I didn’t know what to think of it at first but as the song played I remembered hearing it and joined in to sing with the group! Everyone was laughing because I didn’t really have a clue that the lyrics were except for the English parts I sang. A few songs later the girls got into the singing star mode and it was my turn for the stage. I picked a classic that I know Japanese people would like; Michael Jacksons “Beat it”. The song turned out great and the girls didn’t mind my brutally off pitch singing voice. Kaori wanted me to sing the Mylie Cyrus song “Party in the USA” because I was from the USA. I didn’t have much of a choice since she controlled the song board and of course she wanted to sing as well, so the duet when on! I was laughing the whole way through and remembering the times this song came up when hanging out with our Mankato group. It was an amazing time with a group of amazing people. Kaori also sang some old school songs from her youth and the others were happy to go back and remember the good times. About two hours later we received a call that our time was up, so we finished strong and picked a jumble of songs to pass the time. The night was great and I couldn’t have wanted to go any other way! As a summarizer, While walking home some random guy said “English is cool” to me and asked “are you cool?” Kaori said don’t pay attention to those people at this hour at night, they wanted more that a chat I figured. I was very happy and pleased to meet all of Kaori’s friends and hopefully get together again soon.

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