It’s no mystery that karaoke is kind off a big deal in Asia, even though it’s usually associated with Japan (and Japanese business men singing their way through business dealings- or at least that’s the impression my business culture class would have us believe!) it’s taken hold in a majority of the continent. In our residence at City U there was a poster by the elevators with warnings us about what conduct was unacceptable: smoking, vandalism, loud music after 11…and karaoke in the halls. It really put a damper on my planned Hall 7 Karaoke Fun Fest, ah well, next time.
I didn’t partake in any karaoke-ing until quite late in the semester, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, especially because there were rumors that the selection of Western music was limited. The place we went had lots of private rooms, ours was for 10 people, with a screen, some microphones and video game consoles for the less singing inclined. You rent the room for 5 hours but most of us figured that we would be all sung out after just a few and leave early. WRONG. It turned out to be the best thing ever! They had every song imaginable, some with the actual music video and some with weird 80s videos of people cavorting on the beach. There were also many songs that were backed with videos ofToronto, for one song the entire thing was set to a video of a car driving down the DVP, why are Asian karaoke companies obsessed withToronto?? (This isn’t the first time I’ve seenTorontoin a karaoke video; please refer to my karaoke post onVietnam) We enjoyed it so much we went back for round 2 a few weeks later and again kept singing until the very last minute. I don’t think I’m quite finished with my karaoke obsession either, I’m planning on finding somewhere inTorontoto sing the day away…and perhaps the night.
