{"id":1931,"date":"2012-05-06T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/?p=1931"},"modified":"2012-05-02T23:56:49","modified_gmt":"2012-05-02T14:56:49","slug":"karaoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/2012\/05\/karaoke\/","title":{"rendered":"Karaoke!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The lights are dim. Drinks litter the table. People are laughing and talking somewhere in the dark. Suddenly, the TV screen changes and music swells \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the opening of \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Heart Will Go On.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Someone hands me a microphone.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ganbatte!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d excited voices shout, chuckling, waiting.<\/p>\n

Ugh.<\/p>\n

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all been there. Karaoke is an integral part of Japanese life, whether at a staff party or with friends, whether you love it or loathe it.<\/p>\n

The exact date of the start of the karaoke trend is uncertain, but it is known worldwide to have begun in Japan — in a little town called Kobe, in fact. Go Hyogo! But what has made it as popular as it is today?<\/p>\n

I know that back home, karaoke is generally not the most comfortable experience \u00e2\u20ac\u201c usually there is a stage on which you can get up and sing in front of a large room full of strangers, or worse, sit and listen to strangers get up and sing on stage. For the outgoing, this can be a good time. For those less outgoing, it can be torturous.<\/p>\n

\"\"Here in Japan it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different. You can go to an exclusively karaoke dedicated venue that has \u00e2\u20ac\u0153karaoke boxes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Only you and your party are subject to each other\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skills (or lack of them) in small, intimate, soundproofed rooms made just for singing. I believe this serves the Japanese character quite well \u00e2\u20ac\u201c privacy and a minimum of embarrassment.<\/p>\n

But why has this trend caught on, and in fact become almost an integral part of Japanese culture? It is my opinion, and that of others, that karaoke is a release from the everyday restraint and reserve that must be displayed in the workplace here. What better way to do it than head to a karaoke box, belt out some tunes, and drink? What happens in the karaoke box stays in the karaoke box.<\/p>\n

Also, I think that karaoke can sometimes be used as an opportunity to make a small change to one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social status. Imagine what a help it would be for the new guy at work to get a reputation for having a voice like an angel. Or for the usually stuffy woman at the office to show off her bad self with a racy song. Or for the foreigner to prove that she is fun and approachable by being game for whatever stupid song that gets thrown at her.<\/p>\n

\"\"So for those who enjoy karaoke (I happen to be one of them) go belt it out! Try to get the high score! Try to lose the most calories during your next song! (Those machines sure are weird sometimes\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.) And for those of you who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really like being forced to sing when you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re shy or tone deaf or just plain hate karaoke, try to be objective about it. Why not get in there for one song and let \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem have it? I hear \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Louie Louie\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really have any discernable lyrics \u00e2\u20ac\u201c do your best drunken impression of the Kingsmen and let the karaoke culture have you for a moment.<\/p>\n

And as for Celine Dion, I got up, and I sang it. I killed it. Because in the karaoke box, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how I roll.<\/p>\n

What do you think about karaoke?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The lights are dim. Drinks litter the table. People are laughing and talking somewhere in the dark. Suddenly, the TV screen changes and music swells \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the opening of \u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My Heart Will Go On.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Someone hands me a microphone. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ganbatte!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d excited voices shout, chuckling, waiting. Ugh. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve all been there. Karaoke is an integral…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":1934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[100,266],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Karaoke-sign.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}