The Night of the Gaijin

Friday

Up to this point, there has never been a night that I went out with a group of people that did not include a Japanese person. Tonight, all of that changed. It was me, Nabil, and Einar who went as a unisoned trio out to town. By Nabil's suggestion, we embarked on a course to Round One; his apparently favorite place in all of Japan.

As if compelled by divine will, Nabil instantly made his first stop the golf area as is customary of all of his visits to the entertainment center. Since the activity is not multiplayer friendly, we split our unison as I guided Einar to the arcade section of the facility. We began our adventure by playing a guitar-based game that was very similar to guitar hero, but much simpler. After wallowing through our three songs, we moved on to participate in a drum game that I had also seen in America. Next, we participated in a short DDR session. By the time, Nabil had rejoined us, but by the time our game was over, he had disappeared to play tennis against a machine. Einar and I played a few more games before Nabil joined us again and we all went to play table-tennis/ping-pong.

Our experience was hightened by setting up a game that could include all three of us - circle tennis. This game consisted of each person running around the table in a circle in attempt to hit the ball before it falls to the floor. After doing this for a good while, we decided to take turns having matches. Once we concluded our matches, we made our way to the outdoor sports area. We spent the rest of our time there before it was time to go. From there, we returned to Hirakata station to eat.

After dinner, we sat in the station wondering if our night out was over. It was about 10:00pm. There were two people who set up some instruments and started singing. Let's call it a jury-rigged rig. What these two people accomplished was giving Nabil the idea to have us continue our venture and go to karaoke.

We made our way to the karaoke studio that I went to with Saki and friends, hoping that it would still be open. We discovered that not only was it open, but it was also bustling. We became worried that we might not be able to get a room. Einar, being our senior expert of Japanese, went forth to attempt to set up our event. We opted for a two hour stay and were led to our room.

The actual singing experience was an unforgettable event that I will perhaps be scarred by for a long time to come. Picture a tone-deaf Arab and Arnold Schwarzenegger attempting to sing classic songs through the ages. It was actually quite amusing to watch while hoping that one does not develop a headache from listening to it. Early on, Nabil had expressed his expectation that I would have miraculous skill in singing. When I started my song, I was greeted by sounds of delight as I attempted to mimic the orginal singer of the songs.

After we sang a few numbers, we changed tracks and began attempting some Japanese songs. For the most part, we found it very difficult to keep up with the Japanese words as the songs progressed. I had picked a particularly difficult song to attempt since the words were very fast. After muttering through most of the words, we went back to singing English songs until our time expired. From there, we walked back home and brought our night to a close.