I’ve always enjoyed singing, at least for as long as I can remember. A rather unexpected side effect of moving to Japan is that I feel like I sing less often. I think it’s about time I remedy that, and turn going to karaoke into a weekly habit. 

For me, singing usually takes place in the car, in the shower, or sometimes around the house, like when I get ready to go out. Here in Japan, I don’t drive as often or as far as I did back home, so I just don’t have as many opportunities to sing along to my playlists. I spend a lot more time on the train, and I certainly won’t be singing there. 

While I could still sing in the shower, I’ve sort of shied away from singing at my apartment. One day, I had a weekday off, probably for a holiday, and was playing some music and singing in my room. Not too long after, I heard someone shout “shut up!”, likely my upstairs neighbor. I think that they work night shifts, and are usually sleeping during the day. 

When I lived with my parents, our house was free standing, and I never really had to worry about if the neighbours could hear me. If my parents were gone I could sing at the top of my lungs as much as I wanted, and I often did. It’s a good way to get some feelings out, both good and bad. Having a little belt session often felt like blowing off steam. 

Cut to last Monday, when I was having a bit of a frustrating day. I went to my local conveyor belt sushi place after work, but the meal did little to improve my mood, through no fault of the sushi. As I was driving home, I passed by a karaoke place, and on a whim, I turned into the parking lot and headed inside. 

I’ve been to this karaoke place before, though only once or twice. I enjoyed myself, but never really thought about making it a habit. Back home, when I went to karaoke it was always with my friends. We would go to a dingy bar in Vancouver, and people would come up one by one onto a small stage and sing to the entire bar. 

Karaoke in Japan is pretty different from singing in a dingy bar. You have a tiny room to yourself, and basically sing as many songs as you can or want to within the allotted time. If you’re going by yourself, then you’re essentially singing nonstop for an hour, assuming you don’t spend too long trying to pick the next song. 

I think it’s been more of a mental hurdle than anything. I just always think of karaoke as a group activity, so going by myself still feels odd. I went to karaoke with my family when they visited during Golden Week, and once with a foreigners in Japan meet up group. Both times felt more natural to me, even if the group meet up was all strangers, I felt like I understood the group dynamic more. 

Doing karaoke solo is probably the most attention I’ve really given singing in a long time. I usually sing while doing something else, it’s often more subconscious than anything. I do it while I drive to keep myself engaged, or while I shower just for fun, but it’s secondary to whatever I’m doing. 

Having an hour dedicated just often brings me back to my choir days. I feel myself sit up straighter, I try to engage my diaphragm, I think more about the shape of my mouth as I sing, sometimes I even repeat bits of a previous song I felt like I didn’t nail. 

One of my favorite features about the karaoke machines here is the scoring system. As someone who appreciates the gamification of almost everything, and a big fan of the ps2 game singstar, this feels like the ideal framework for getting both feedback about my singing, and pushing me to improve. 

It also helps you reckon with your singing a little more honestly. The way we hear ourselves isn’t the same as we tend to actually sound, and while I might think I’ve nailed a song, my score at the end can be a swift reminder that I’ve got some work to do. 

One of my least favorite things about the karaoke machines here is the limited selection of English songs. It makes sense that it doesn’t have as big of a catalog as Japanese songs, but every once in a while it feels like there are some pretty glaring absences. Chappel Roan, despite blowing up this year, and Good Luck, Babe! Being number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, there isn’t a single song by her available. 

Since my Instagram feed has been taken over by Wicked content, I wanted to sing a few of the songs from the musical. While popular is available to sing, defying gravity is missing. There is however, the Glee version of defying gravity available for some reason. 

Another great feature is the option to sing Japanese songs with romanized lyrics. This option keeps the Japanese kanji and hiragana or katakana, but puts the english equivalent above. In karaoke, kanji always has the hiragana above it in small characters, and I can read hiragana well enough, but when trying to sing, especially if the song is quick, it makes it more difficult. 

All this is to say, I’m able to try and learn songs in Japanese at karaoke in a way that’s approachable for my current level of Japanese! So far, I can only sing one song in Japanese, and I know it well enough that I don’t need the romaji, so I know once I learn more songs I can stop using the romaji as a crutch. 

While the limited song selection is a bit annoying, the score system, the approachability of learning Japanese songs, and the joy that comes with singing adds up to something I really think I should do more often. Going on the weekday also (I think) has a cheaper price. Last time I paid only around 5 CAD for an hour of singing and a drink, which was a great deal. 

I had to rethink my expectations around karaoke, and try to really engage with the version of it here in Japan rather than the style I’m used to. I love to sing, and just maybe, karaoke here in Japan will give me a way to remember just how much I love it.