streets of shibuya

My turn to shine, I held the mic firmly in my hand and waited for my cue. The famous drum beat roared, and the lryics on the giant TV screen changed from yellow to white. "On a dark desert highway ..." I sang, brilliantly, to the delight of the crowd.

Fortunately, the crowd was only five friends or friends of friends, all cramed into a small karaoke box. It's not the kind of karaoke you might imagine taking place in crappy Corvallis bars. You aren't on stage in front of strangers. You're with friends. They sing, then you sing. You can suck, or you can amaze. In the end, you're out 20 bucks each and you wonder if it was worth it.

In terms of entertainment value, it beats singing in the shower. But at least in the shower there is technically no time limit and you come out smelling fresh. When you're kicked out of a karaoke box, you might smell like cig smoke, if your friends smoke. Or you might be faced with the shock of reality -- the real world hasn't changed. Even if you were singing better than The Eagles in there, out here, on the streets of Shibuya, you're just another forienger, among many, who has long since sobered up from the 5-7 p.m. happy hour at the pub.

But man, it is fun to belt out songs with your friends. It's fun to mess up, then recover. Fun to get the whole room going on a song they all know. I never thought I would be a fan of the art of karaoke, but this is Japan -- You can check out anytime you'd like, but you can never leave.

...

Some notes on Kobe ---

A fun city to visit. We saw their version of Chinatown, better than most I have seen in the states. A narrow walkway of shops and many food options. I stopped and bought at least three different snacks that filled up me for lunch. After that we walked to the water front, which was windy and not so exciting. For more of a thrill, we might have tried to go inside one of the tall buildings and get a view of the city.

Instead, time was an issue, so we started walking East, thinking we were somewhere close to a museum focused on the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake that leveled the city after just 10 seconds of violent shaking. We asked a lady if we were on the right track, she was surprised that we were walking all that way, but she confirmed that we were at least walking in the right direciton. Later, we asked a worker at a gas station, who also expressed surprise at our choice of transportation. Finally, a bus passenger told us we had better take a train. So we bit the bullet and walked to a station and rode one station further to walk five minutes to the museum, barely making the cutoff for the final admit of the day.

Inside, they start you with a video display of the quake, showing images of its fury from a variety of locations, adding to the mix piercing sounds or screams, crumbling buildings and sirens. Next, you watch some video of the aftermath, with narration by one of the survivors, who lost her sister to the quake. Translations are provided in multiple languages via tiny portable earphone devices.

Next, a huge room has loads of photos from the aftermath and the years of recovery. Some artifacts are also on display, as well as notes and other writings people left about the quake. There was plenty more, but we had to get moving to get back to Yuki's house so I could get moving to Tokyo via night bus.

...

Which brings us back to today. Last night was fun, but boy, nightlife can run up a bill. And being New Year's Eve, we're not about to stay in tonight. We might be going to the very same bar we went to last night.

It's already 4:30ish, so we are going to think about heading out soon (nightlife typically starts arond 6 p.m. in Japan, even thought tonight, the trains are running all night long). But first, I shall rest my eyes.