I finally went to a karaoke box for the first time in my life! Can you believe that I have been living in Japan for almost two years now, and I have never been to karaoke? To tell you the truth, I thought I would hate karaoke. I have some horrible memories of drunken office Christmas parties filled people that I hate screeching off tune into portable karaoke sets. Ugh. I have even worse memories of my manager forcing me to sing when I would have rather have stabbed him with a pencil or something. So you can see that I had some really strong feelings about karaoke! Anyway, I thought I better go to a karaoke box before I go back to Canada, because it is such a typically Japanese experience. I LOVED IT! It was soooooooooooooo cool! We got our own little room, and we could drink as many soft drinks as we wanted for free (well, for 190 yen per half hour). In one hour, I drank something like 6 pops! We also ordered lots of dishes that were only 280 yen each. It was great singing and snacking. The first song I sang was "On Top of the World" by the Carpenters. I also did songs by Simon and Garfunkle and the Beatles. What a great time. Now I want to go to Karaoke all the time . . . it's too bad I'm leaving soon. I wish I had discovered karaoke earlier!