Wet it Be!

Remember Shohei? He was the Japanese exchange student we hosted this past June. Before he left, we told him we were traveling to Tokyo in July and if it was possible, we wanted to meet the rest of his family. After he returned home, his mother Emi emailed me with a plan to to have dinner with us one evening while we were in Tokyo.

She was very helpful in determining someplace easy for us to meet. So on a Saturday night, we all headed to a Japanese bar for a wide selection of different Japanese food. Katsutoshi, or "Kat" for short is Shohei's father. Both Emi and Kat speak English pretty well...at least it's better than our Japanese. They kept the food and Saki coming and when we came to the end of the dinner, suggested we go to a karaoke bar.

Buck and I busted out laughing! Back in the 90's, karaoke was a big thing at the bars and both Buck & I have been terribly humiliated having to stand up and sing in front of a bunch of strangers. It's a memory we chose to forget. So, you'll understand why I said.... "Well....uh... well...um... sure...we'd LOVE to!" C'mon, we couldn't possibly turn them down.


In Japan, karaoke is huge. It's so huge that the karaoke parlor we went to was 10 stories high. On each floor were several rooms of various sizes where you could all sit around and drink, eat and sing.

There were two huge books of songs which you could pick from. They had to search for a special English version for us.

Shohei was up first. You can tell he does this a lot. I think he's going to be the next Japanese Idol. I do. He's really into it, holding the mic with both hands and belting out tunes. He actually sings pretty well. What a groover!

And then there's this dude. Buck does not sing. No he doesn't. Not at all. But, he totally got into Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive. "I'm a cowboy...on a stale horse I ride....

Kat soon got into the act....

And before you know it, they're singin' the Beatles tune Let it Be together...

"Wet it be, wet it be, wet it be, yeah... wet it be. Whisper words of wisdom, wet it be..."

Get another Saki for these two goofballs!

Pin It