Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008: Karaoke!

We slept in late and eventually got around to biking to the cell phone store (Softbank). I didn't have one yet and apparently it's quite a process! Brandon thought it was going to be impossible since we weren't able to take a Japanese speaker with us. Our solution was to bring Brandon's contract and the paperwork and I would need...we just presented that and pointed a lot! The whole process took a few hours, including those times we went across the street to the 100 yen store to shop, but I ended up walking out with a shiny blue new phone! We were very proud of ourselves (and once again, Brandon thought we wouldn't be able to do it...and it looks like I was right!).

Afterward, we met Ira, Caitlin, and Darryl for dinner. Ira ordered for all of us (which is typical since we don't know what we're doing) and we were brought several different dishes to share (very typical in Japanese dining). It was pretty decent overall, however, I didn't try the raw fish dish or some fried dish I didn't recognize. Brandon and I have come to the conclusion that we like having our very own dishes to eat without worrying about sharing. Actually, we constantly miss our American favorites like Cattle Call BBQ, Rosas, and Texas Roadhouse.


After dinner, we stopped at a "kombini" (convenience store) to get drinks and snacks for our night out at a karaoke place! Before walking in, a teenager hanging out in the parking lot with friends flagged me down because she wanted to have her picture taken with me. I think that was my first real dose of culture shock...it's crazy that some stranger would want a picture with me.



We got to the karaoke place and one of the guys reserved us a room. Pretty much, you come with a group of friends and rent out a private room with a karaoke machine and TV. It's pretty fun (even though I really, really don't like singing in front of people) and they had a great variety of American music...Shania Twain, the Beach Boys, ACDC, Otis Redding, etc... We brought our own food and drinks because it was cheaper. Ira, Darryl, Caitlyn, Brandon and I seemed to enjoy it for the 2 hours we reserved it for.
~Sarah






























Karaoke Fun! The top picture shows Caitlyn, Darryl, Ira & Brandon. Then, I jump in for the next picture. In the 3rd picture, Darryl's probably belting out 'Boys 2 Men' in this picture and then we sang Shania Twain's 'Any Man of Mine'...haha, actually, it was ALL Brandon!