Karaoke with 2nd graders

Last Saturday afternoon, Lucinda and I met school friends and their moms for two hours of karaoke. We went to a place in Roppongi, the famously sleazy nightspot where Americans get robbed after imbibing spiked drinks. But it's perfectly harmless in broad daylight.


I've never sung karaoke and had no idea what to expect; a stage with a microphone? Totally wrong. We took the elevator up to the 4th floor and found super-mod living rooms, each with shiny couches, cocktail tables and a flat-screen TV on the wall.



Ours had couch seating for 9 people and 2 shiny silver microphones. Btw, each mother-daughter pair paid a very cheap 1000 yen (about $11) because one mom joined the karaoke club.


You choose the songs out of this enormous phone book-sized listing, with songs in English, Japanese, Korean, Tagalog for Filipinos (click the pic for a close-up view)...


...and you punch the song ID numbers into this wireless device.


The television queues up the songs and shows the words over very cheesy B-roll video. Among our selections: "Summer Lovin'" from Grease, "Piano Man" by Billy Joel, a few songs from High School Musical, "Stop in the Name of Love," "Holiday" and "La Isla Bonita" by Madonna, and a bunch of others.

Lucinda loved it (she'd gone with a friend once before), and so did her friends. Here are a few pix...



...and one potentially headache-inducing video of the high-speed "It's a Small World."