First Karaoke Experience...

My friend @9mmYoda asked me to share my first karaoke experience. It was a very interesting day as a whole!

When I was in 5th grade, Mazda executives and their families came from Hiroshima to the Detroit area to help organize a new Mazda factory. Naturally, a small Japanese goods market and restaurant soon opened, too! The restaurant, "Kyoto", held a Children's Day Festival each year, and my friend Sayaka was participating in a dance demonstration. She asked me and another friend if we would like to go. (Her mom, a kimono seamstress, was always willing to bring us with them. She's a very kind lady!) I didn't know what to expect...

When we got there, it was mostly Japanese people, a few Americans. Maybe 250-300 people? My friend explained the carp flags, the meaning of Children's day. I thought "They don't celebrate us over here like that!" LOL! All the girls for the dance were dressed in Yukata. I wished I had worn one, too (this is when I started liking Japanese traditional clothing!). Everyone looked so pretty! After the dance, some of the girls tried to teach us Americans how do do it, too. I am a bad dancer, but it was a lot of fun! Music, dancing, things like that have no language barrier!

Indoors, there was a luncheon. All I knew of Japanese food was raw fish. (I eat it now, but when I was a kid, NO WAY (LOL)!) I was a little worried, but she recommended a great vegetable dish. I wish I could remember the name of the dish I had, but it was like a salad with carrot, some sort of spicy dressing, cabbage and bean sprouts. Delicious!

THEN, after we ate, we went into a bar-like smaller part of the restaurant. As we walked in, I heard very loud, heavily-accented men's singing voices... There they were, in all their glory- 3 middle-aged salarymen holding beers and singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" as though they were appearing in "Wizard of Oz" themselves. The audience was enjoying the performance, too. I couldn't help but giggle a little. I noticed there was a TV in front of them, and a screen with words on it behind them. I realized they were singing off some sort of tape, and that they were not paid entertainment. When my friend explained what karaoke was, of course I asked "Oh, can we sing too?!?!", but unfortunately, it was nearly time to go home... As soon as I saw how much fun they all were having, I knew karaoke would be the social hobby for me! It would be another 6 years before I got to sing karaoke myself! (Most places, you have to be 21 because they serve alcohol...)

Sadly, Kyoto closed after the Mazda families went back to Japan. Most of them lived here between 3-5 years. The Japanese Market closed, too. At that time, it was the only way to get manga, and Japanese snacks like Pocky and Calbee Shrimp snacks. I miss them! I couldn't have known then how much positive impact their friendship made on my thoughts about the rest of the world, and the people I would meet in the future!