If, like me, you cannot sing, karaoke is a curse. One of the first things I learned to say in Japanese was, "If I sing, all your customers will leave."
This was my only defense when confronted by an insistent proprietor at a karaoke sunakku. The threat of having to listen to me sing wasn't enough. Only the threat of losing business worked. And so it was that I was able to avoid karaoke for my first 10 years in Japan. But when I heard about Smash Hits -- a karaoke bar offering a comprehensive list of songs in English -- I thought I'd check it out.
"I hate enka," says Saito-san, the master, talking about the Japanese blues songs warbled nightly by salarymen in karaoke bars throughout the country. "It sounds so sad and lonely."
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.