August 5, 2007
Japan Experience Days 7 & 8 (Aug 4 & 5) Weekend Fun!
Tokyo Tower, from their online promo website.
This is just a short notice about what our Japan Experience students are up to with their home stay families this weekend. It's Sunday mid-day now, so at the time of writing this post, I know of the following activities everyone is up to.
Marvin got to enjoy swimming pool madness on Friday night, while on Saturday the Fukuda family planned to take him to Tokyo Tower to see the night lights of the city.
I just spoke to Mrs. Hanai, the home stay mom for Jessica, Angeline and Justine, and she told me yesterday her son Hidenori took them on a tour of their neighbourhood, then they went to karaoke!
Karaoke in Japan means going to an office building with several floors, each floor having many small rooms designed like little studios. with couches, a large TV monitor, high-tech karaoke machine, large singer's microphones, sometimes tamborines and a large low table. These are called 'karaoke boxes'. On the first floor is the front desk where a group of friends sign in, because you rent a karaoke box to sit with friends, sing your favorite songs, plus order food and drinks from the company's kitchen. Absolutely great fun, for sure friend-bonding plus a good stress releasing activity.
From the large chain karaoke company Big Echo, here is a picture from one of their online promotional campaigns.
High school students can normally rent karaoke boxes very cheaply since they normally go before office workers.
Today Mrs. Hanai said the 3 girls are off to explore other parts of Harajuku with a friend's daughter who knows the best spots to go to.
It's a very warm and sunny 35 degrees in Tokyo today, so a good day to either be inside air-conditioned stores or outside at pool or beach for sure! After many weeks of clouds, sunshine is most welcome.
Richard