Mr. Big in Japan

My husband is the worst lyric-rememberer ever.  For being one of the most musically inclined people I know, he has a surprisingly small karaoke repertoire and in the car he usually just hums the melody an octave or two higher than the singer is singing the song (I hear he shares this lovely habit with his father). 

However, just now he sang the entire song "To Be With You" by Mr. Big.  Remember that guilty pleasure?  From like 1990?  Whew, look at those haircuts.  The things you learn about someone spending every waking moment together....

Now if I could only get him to remember the lyrics to our wedding song, Crazy Love, by Van Morrison (for which "crazy" and "love" are about the only words required).

Mata ne,
Melissa

(Full Disclosure: I sang right along with him.)

empty orchestra

soooo OK.

We did karaoke today.  (kara = empty, oke = short for orchestra)

To those of you who have had some form of musical training or, I don't know, aren't totally tone deaf this might seem totally cool to you.  However.  I have had NO musical training and AM totally tone deaf.  Hence the problem with singing karaoke in front of someone who isn't my husband.

Fortunately, the people I was singing in front of were my husband's siblings, so they HAD to be nice.  Unfortunately, they know what they are doing while holding that microphone and can sing. Ok, everyone can sing. They can sing WELL.  

Best advice from my brother-in-law the consummate performer (see above):  Find one song and have that be my all-the-time karaoke song.

Quest: Find a perfect all-the-time karaoke song.

Amendment #1: Find a perfect all-the-time karaoke song that I don't sound like a dying cat while singing.

Suggestions??

Mata ne,
Melissa

Birthday Details

So when Jeff got home from his seminar he wasn't tired like I expected.  He was ready to get out there and show thirty what he was made of!

First we went out to eat at Malabar - an Indian curry place with amazing nan.  As you can see it was quite the spread!  That was for two people - and we finished (almost) all of it.  (For those who don't know, that is nan that Jeff is biting into.  We didn't expect it to be so huge so we ordered the small one to go with it.)


After dinner we walked around the Waseda area a bit.  We thought about going to a bar for a drink, but instead decided to try our vocal abilities at a karaoke place.  Karaoke is, as Jeff likes to tell me, a portmanteau - a combination of two words.  In this case, kara, which means empty, and oke, short for orchestra. It is nothing like karaoke in a bar that you might find in America.  The place where we went you sign in at the front desk and go to your own private booth/room.  You choose your songs from a little computer console and have at it.  We only stayed for half an hour, but you can choose to stay longer and even order drinks and food to your booth.  Maybe next time.

The best part was that I was able to go out and get Jeff a cake!!  I only had to say two words to the girl at the counter, and I even bought cute candles to go on top.  I don't know if Jeff was more surprised about the cake or the fact that I actually procured it on my own.  

In America it is still Jeff's birthday, but in Japan it's just Friday so we're going out to run errands.

Mata ne!
Melissa