Don't nothing take your cares and stresses away like a good ol' bit of karaoke. A full on Karaoke experience of the Japanese kind (private booth, drinks and food) in the UK is expensive. But in Japan it's relatively cheap. Karaoke is a BIG business in Japan. And no matter where you are in Japan, you'll never be far from somewhere you can go and get your inner Idol on.You get small little independent karaoke places. But the ones we found looked outdated as f**k and were pretty grimey looking. Then you have big super shiny karaoke chains. Or chain should I say, as I only found one. The big glowing red and white signs of Big echo were everywhere and was the one my mates and I frequented.
The first time we went karaoke was on a spur of the moment with a couple of girls we'd met who was staying in the same weekly mansion building as us. They said they were going karaoke and invited us along, so a couple of us obliged and off we went. We Taxi'd it to Namba district, found the Karaoke place; and after the initial awkwardness of trying to get info out of the none English speaking staff such as how much it'd cost, how we go about ordering food and how many of us were in tow - we were escorted to our cosy karaoke booth and proceeded to get belt some classics.
I was stunned to find so many up to date songs in the book. Big echo keep their music current and the selection of songs will surprise you. I was in shock to find The Ting-Tings "That's not my name" and "Great DJ" in the book. As well as Justin Timberlake's "Summer love" and Rihanna's "Disturbia". As tempting as it was to just pick a song you liked, regardless of it's obscurity. We all went for classics.
Karaoke sessions were always fun and eventful. Something would always happen each time.
Karaoke session #1: November 6, 2008
- 4 guys and 2 girls
- We ran to Big echo in the rain
- One of the girls got tipsy
- J chuigs down 2 pints of beer (He can't remember why)
- The karaoke crew keeps getting calls that their time was up and the room had to be vacated
- Mr. Hero knocked a table and smashed a beer glass
Karaoke session #2: November 11, 2008
- 2 sexy ladies who work there get scoped out by 'Mr. Hero' and J
- J wants to wifey the one named Mai
- 'Mr. Hero' wants to wifey Tomoei, who gets nicknamed Pebbles of Flinstone fame because of her hair style.
- Mai shows the karaoke crew to their booth and gets on her knees
- Mai's English speaking manager steps in before Mai can get stuck in (clearly she did something she wasn't supposed to)
- 'Mr. I don't drink' serenades us with some Justin Timberlake.
Karaoke session #3: November 14, 2008
- Mai's working again, but not Tomoei. She remembers the karaoke crew and says something to them that nobody understands.
- 'Mr. I don't drink' serenades the crew with some 2Pac.
- 'The chugokujin' pushes a door which smacks a girl in her face and sends her flying into the wall: resulting in lots of bowing in apology.
- 'Swags' takes a picture of Mai walking away.
Karaoke rocks. Never a dull moment. If you're ever up for some karaoke in Japan, be sure to milk the Big echo in Namba. You get free self service ice cream and Coca Cola. Luxuries you do not get at any of the Big echo's in Tokyo. At least not the ones we went to. Another thing that had us wishing we were back in the good ol' home of Osaka.