18 September 2011: Material girl

I did it. I went to a karaoke bar. My total inability to sing has led to many mimed happy birthday songs and, being the kind person I am, I stayed away from karaoke to save others around me from the horror of my voice...until Sunday night.

And it all started so well. On Sunday morning, we got ready to go to Linden Hall primary school for their open day. Granted, to spend a Sunday at school doesn’t sound great, but Linden Hall kids are sweet, the school is nice, plus we were promised o-bento for lunch. Unfortunately, there was no bus to pick us up from Cambridge House, so we had to make our way to the train station. By the time we had walked from the train station in Futsukaichi to Linden Hall, in smart clothes and with a felt 101% humidity, we didn’t look so great anymore. Lunch lacked the desired o-bento, and instead we were served some sort of sloppy, gooey soup, topped with a white creamy substance and a lightly poached and mostly raw egg on the side. We were told to drop the egg into the soup, which, stupidly, I did, even though I hate runny eggs almost as much as a jar full of buttons. Or coriander on my curry.

We had expected to just stand around for an hour, show our gaijin faces and smile at parents, then hop on the next train to have at least three cold showers before the end of the day. Instead, we had to follow around a group of kids from Linden Hall and some prospective pupils on a sort of treasure hunt. Part of the treasure hunt led to the “forest”, the adventure playground that belongs to the school. For some incredibly stupid reason I didn’t douse myself in anti mosquito spray (which, by the way, is aptly called mushi mushi bye bye spray; mushy means insect; German readers might find it entertaining on another level). As soon as I entered the playground, my legs started itching. At the end of the day, I counted more than 25 mosquito bites. I have since given up wearing anything that shows my legs and am now wearing jeans every day.

When our job at Linden Hall was done, we went home to get changed (it was digger dress time!), and then met the teachers of the Linden Hall senior school at Bali Bali, a really mad and wonderful restaurant in Futsukaichi. The all-you-can-drink dinner was paid for by the school, and so we decided to practice our vocabularies––“Ume-shu hitotsu kudasai!” (one glass of plum wine please), which, as it came closer to the closing time, became a “Ume-shu yott-su kudasai” (four glasses please). Thankfully, we hadn’t learned how to count further than four.

After God know how many ume-shu, singing a couple of songs suddenly seemed like a brilliant idea, even to me. And that’s how we ended up at a fairly run-down looking karaoke bar somewhere in Futsukaichi, where we paid for a dingy room and had to order our drinks by phone. All in all, a suitable place to lose my karaoke virginity, singing (screaming) “Material girl” with (at) Sara. Many songs followed, many photos were taken, until my camera died at around 2 am. I think it was for the best. Here is some wonderful evidence to prove that it really did happen: