More 'Japanews': Karaoke & Sumo Edition

This past week has been rather eventful, involving a couple of 'firsts' - my first Japanese Karaoke experience, and my first Sumo wrestling tournament. Karaoke has definitely been on my list of 'Things to do in Japan' so I was happy to have ended up there last Saturday. The initial plan was to join a friend in meeting two Japanese boys for a few drinks (one of them being her student, and the other his friend). I was feeling a bit tired, but couldn't resist the opportunity to meet some new Japanese boys. Around midnight we head out to a cheap little place in our neighborhood (all drinks & food are just $2.00). They didn't speak much English, but thankfully Sarah is fairly fluent in Japanese. So we had a few drinks, with some edamame and chicken - courtesy of our new Japanese friends. Though I wasn't planning on staying out too late, when the idea of Karaoke came up, I was really excited. Before I knew it, we were on our way.

We walked about five minutes to the Karaoke place just down the street. The boys went to the front desk and paid for our room. Then we took the elevator to find our room on the 3rd floor. The rooms are equipped with a TV (of course), two microphones, electronic menus (to select songs - just about any song you could think of!), and two tambourines. The boys started the night off with some upbeat J-Pop hits - I loved it! They certainly don't hold back either. One of them had mentioned that Karaoke was an extremely popular activity when he was in high school, and that he used to go to Karaoke all the time; this became evident when he started to sing. J-Pop (aka Japanese pop music) is very upbeat and catchy! I particularly enjoy the random English phrases thrown in to most songs. I attempted to sing along to some of my favourite tunes ranging from classics by artists such as Elton John, Destiny's Child, and S Club 7 to the latest hits of Lady Gaga. I must say, I was extremely impressed with the selection.

By 4am I was exhausted, and nearly falling asleep - until one of the boys invited me to do a duet with him to none other than Simple Plan's 'Perfect' (an awful Western, pop-rock song). Feeling somewhat honoured I gracefully accepted. This became the highlight of my night. His singing was so adorable, I had to try hard not to giggle into the mic. Singing is not my forte, so I must admit, I am pretty shy when it comes to singing Karaoke. However, drinks certainly help, since I am all to concious of my terrible voice - but when a Japanese native, asked me to join him in singing, I was able to let loose. (This is a big deal since I believe the majority of Japanese tend to be painfully shy when it comes to speaking English - let alone singing in English!). By 4:45am I was done! I could barely keep my eyes open, so we head out and I made it to bed by 5am. The next day was rough since I had to teach an English lesson on four hours of sleep! It wasn't easy, but luckily I had the rest of the day to recuperate from an entertaining all-nighter of Karaoke. As they say, 'go big, or go home', right?

Speaking of 'BIG'... On Wednesday I went to my very first Sumo wrestling tournament which was held in Tokyo. Sophie, Steph and I got up at the crack of dawn (around 6:45am) to make sure we would get our hands on some tickets before they sold out. It was also required that those looking to purchase unreserved seats (the cheap seats) pick them up before 8:30am. It was a good thing all of the excitement was enough to keep me awake!
The tournament went on all day, with the amateur Sumo matches starting at 8:30am. The opening ceremony was at 2pm, and since we would only be permitted to exit and re-enter once, the girls and I decided to kill some time by walking around, enjoying the lovely weather. We cruised around Akiba (Akihabara) - the electronics district of Tokyo. This area is always amusing, with the big bright signs, fascinating little shops and maid cafes all over the place. Sophie had been on a mission to find a parfait for breakfast, so the three of us set out on this mission. After walking around aimlessly (for at least 20 minutes) hoping to find an ice cream shop, we had no luck - and out of desperation - decided to ask someone. Luckily we were steered in the right direction. We ended up in a little restaurant with cheap food, and more importantly, parfaits on the menu. I had a chocolate brownie, vanilla ice cream parfait, topped with whip cream, garnished with orange slices, sitting on top of some coffee flavoured jello cubes. YUM. Sophie and I agreed that the parfait could do without the coffee flavoured jello cubes, but overall, that parfait hit the spot. While enjoying our tasty desserts the girls and I discussed our plan for the rest of the day. We decided it was the perfect day for a picnic.

We made our way to a convenient store, which (conveniently) sells a wide array of alcoholic beverages, including beer and various mixed cocktails - Fancy that! (This has been one luxury that I will definitely be missing from Canada). We picked up a few drinks (vodka lemonade), our lunch (Mmmm...egg sandwich), and some munchies (prawn crisps of course) and...some dried tako (octopus), a new and exotic snack I thought I'd try out. ('When in Tokyo'... ) All set for our picnic we head over to a gorgeous park that we found, which was only a short walk from the Sumo stadium. On the way, we stopped a couple of Sumos for a picture with them (just when I thought my day couldn't possibly get any better...!!) Then we sat and ate by the surrounding gardens and pond (with Koi, ducks, and turtles!). It's so cool how there are such beautiful and serene gardens/parks planted randomly around a concrete paved metropolis. When it was coming up to 2pm we decided to head over to the stadium in order to pick out some good seats.

After taking our seat on the second floor balcony, we couldn't help but notice all of the other empty seats down below. We quickly came to the concensus that we should sneak down and grab some first class seats (priced at $100 +), to enjoy the close up view, until getting asked to move. This is an example of one instance where being a foreigner comes in handy; as foreigners we get to play dumb, and act innocent to get away with things like this. So there we were, in prime seats (approximately five rows from the wrestling ring), getting some great pictures, and truly appreciating the sport of Sumo. It was after about two hours, that we were finally caught and asked to move. At which point we excused ourselves, and moved back just a few rows, where we stayed on the first floor to watch the rest of the tournament. By 5:30pm, we had seen enough, and thought it would be wise to depart before the rush. Sophie and I reminisced about our awesome day as we walked to the station, and after 6hrs of walking around and 4hrs of watching Sumo, we both fell asleep on the train ride home. It was a long day, but I would venture to say it was one of the best experiences I've had in Japan thus far! I've certainly developed an appreciation for Sumo, and was thrilled to have partaken in this important part of Japanese culture. Tournaments like this only take place a certain time of year, and for a limited time; I feel quite lucky to have received (and taken) such an opportunity!
On that note, If you ever get the chance, I would thoroughly recommend checking out a Sumo competition!

This weekend should be an exciting one; tomorrow night I will be partying at one of Tokyo's biggest and best clubs: Ageha. I hear it's pretty amazing. Then I'm planning to be a tourist on Sunday and visit some key historical monuments in Kamakura.

Lotta love straight from Tokyo. xo