I thought about using Japanese Karaoke as the title for my post. However, Japan is the birthplace of Karaoke and since it is the original it doesn’t need a modifier.

The word Karaoke means empty orchestra, and basically means that the participants are providing the voice to the orchestra.

Most of you probably know the basics of Karaoke. You follow the words on the screen and sing to the music.

In the picture above you can see that one of the songs that we sang was We are the World.

This song went well with our group which included people from at least seven different countries and three continents. We had a group of about 25-30 people in a room singing Karaoke.

In the picture above you can see the layout of the room. You could probably fit more than 50 people into the room. We had two micro-phones that we passed around, but almost everyone sang on most songs.

You may be able to tell that we were singing YMCA when the picture was taken. My Japanese colleagues had chosen the local version for the song and all the words were in Japanese. They sang the verses and we chimed in on YMCA with the words and actions. Does anybody know the words to the verses anyway? I think most people just know the YMCA part.

We had talked earlier in the day of having a Karaoke night as it was the last day of our congress. I was reluctant at first as I knew it would be a long night, but decided not to pass the opportunity to observe a part of Japanese culture that I had not seen before.

In the picture above you can see that Karaoke can be quite a performance.

As the night progressed out came the tambourines and maracas.

One of our Japanese colleagues treated us to some beautiful Japanese songs. She has a beautiful singing voice and we really enjoyed listening to her. I found out that regular Karaoke participants may have a juhachiban or song that they are very good at. This colleague has multiple songs that she knows well.

Here are some of my German colleagues singing together. They were having a great time singing one of the songs that they knew well.

I am not sure how long the Karaoke party lasted. I left after almost four hours as I need to get some sleep before meeting another colleague tomorrow. They may still be singing through the night.

My voice is shot and I hope that it recovers a bit before tomorrow.

Another experience to cross off of my bucket list.

Steven