~~Karaoke~~うたいましょう

Karaoke room (Picture taken with my camera by a worker at karaoke)

Drinking at Karaoke 

               Many foreigners travel to Tokyo and one of the nightlife activities they want to experience is karaoke. The question one may ask is what exactly happens at karaoke. Well it can depend on the group that you are with but what usually happens is when walking into the karaoke “bar” you approach the counter and sign up for at least one hour of karaoke then choose whether you would like nomihoudai which means all you can drink with alcohol or without. The cashier hands you a little clipboard with the time you are allowed to stay at the karaoke bar. After that, take an elevator (because stairs are the absolute last resort in Japanese society) to the floor your room is on. The rooms are usually cramped but if you have a larger group, they will assign you an appropriate sized room. From then you can begin your karaoke experience of nonstop singalong with delicious appetizers and drink bar. During the afternoon is cheaper about 500-800 yen an hour, possibly less, while in the evening, after five or six p.m. the prices rise to about 600-1000 yen per hour. All night karaoke is also a very enjoyable experience where after 11 p.m, a group can get nomihoudai and karaoke till five in the morning for at least 3000 yen. That is most certainly a bargain.

                Karaoke is useful in a city where there isn’t a lot of private space to let loose or to enjoy music. It is a fun nighttime experience that teenagers who are not yet of drinking age. But it also is important and not considered especially embarrassing to sing in front of friends. In America, many people are shy to perform in front of others while in Japan it is a favorite activity to go with friends and sing a few favorites for everyone to hear. Japanese workers and students are some of the hardest working in the world so it is simply a way to destress and feel free to go a little crazy for some catchy music. 

Highschool and Student Clubs in Japan

Breakfast in a Japanese household. My host mother made this for me

Two highschoolers in their school uniform  

Bento lunch box eaten inside the classroom

          A highschooler’s life in Japan is one of the most daunting in the world. Not only high school but also middle school when students compete to get into the best high schools which will hopefully make them more attractive to the most prestigious Japanese universities. When a student enters high school they are not only expected to do well in school, but there is also pressure to be active members in bukatsu or kurabu which are extracurricular clubs or activities (Kittaka). At a school I visited in Nichinan, Japan one of the school's main source of pride was the achievements of the student clubs. For example, the ping pong club was the best in Kyuushu, and their baseball team recruited students from all over Japan to live and train at the highschool. Nichinan Gakuen had a huge club empire. There were a wide range of clubs to choose from such as student council, anime club, art club, music club. These clubs include sports which usually hold the reputation for being the most rigorous and time consuming. At Nichinan Gakuen and some other highschools in Japan, it is somewhat frowned upon to not be apart of a club and this can be referred to as kitaku-bu also known as the “going home club” (Kittaka). In high school not only do these clubs develop strong time management skills but it also forms a core for the student’s social life. Since students take classes with the same people throughout the school year, they are able to meet other students from different classes and further their social skills. However, unlike in my experience with American education, usually a student at Nichinan Gakuen only has the ability to attend one club which limits the chance for self-exploration of interests. Since it is frowned upon to quit a club, sometimes students stick with the clubs that they are not passionate about. In addition, from talking to friends who have attended Japanese high schools apparently some clubs have negative stigmas such as the Tennis club which is known for being a place where girls can talk or flirt with boys.

                These girls in my photo are friends of mine that I made at Nichinan Gakuen. The girl on the left is a part of the music club while the girl on the right is in the English club. They are in the same class which is why they became friends. Their school day ends at 4 .m. and they continue to stay at school until around 7 p.m. when their club activities end.

This is a representation of the highschool life at Nichinan Gakuen in Nichinan, Kyuushu, Japan. Is this Japan?

Kittaka, Louise George. "All-consuming School Clubs Worry Foreign Parents." JapanTimes [Tokyo] 22 June 2014: n. pag. Print.

～Shamisen～

A short demonstration of a Shamisen player's ability

I had the pleasure of being able to attend a shamisen concert at my language school in Iidabashi, Tokyo in November 2015. Previously I wasn’t aware of what the Shamisen was, what it sounded like, or any of its history but the concert educated me on several aspects of the traditional Japanese shamisen and its importance in Japan.

This is what I learned from the concert:

                -The Japanese shamisen is a three stringed instrument with a long neck and squat round body. There are no frets on the shamisen meaning that the player has to memorize the positions for each note with precision.

                -The sound of the shamisen is very “tight” due to the high tension of the strings.

                -The belly of the shamisen is made of cat skin.

                -To play the shamisen, one holds the instrument similar to that of a guitar. Place the body of the instrument on one’s right knee then hold the neck of the instrument with the left hand. In the right hand a batsi is held. This is used to pluck the strings up and down.

                -The shamisen is used in Japanese traditional music and is very melodious. Traditional Japanese music also employs the use of no chords. Shamisen can accompany a singer or it can make its own melody.

After further investigation, this is other information that I was able to discover.

                -Since the 17^th century it has been an important aspect of Japanese music, used in theater or music performances (Shamisen).

                -In the Kansai area, the shamisen is referred to as the samisen (Shamisen).

                -The strings are made of waxed silk (Kennedy).

              Clearly, I learned plenty from the concert itself. But what was I able to gauge from the concert other than general facts. I found that the majority of the concert-goers were not Japanese but were foreigners which leads me to question whether the Japanese shamisen is still being appreciated by the general Japanese population. Another aspect of the concert that I noticed was that several of the pieces the shamisen player performed were covers of western influenced songs or of contemporary music. He performed a cover of Family Mart’s theme song and also a rendition of the Mario Brother’s franchise theme song. This is representative to me of Tokyo’s ability to blend the old and the new as well as the strong influence from the West. From the buildings to the musical compositions using traditional aspects as well as the new I felt that even though the shamisen is a traditional instrument, those who play it in these newer generations will be able to balance the new with the old.

"Shamisen." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 28 Jun. 2016.<http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.libproxy.temple.edu/subscriber/article/grove/music/25576>.

Kennedy, Michael, and Joyce Bourne Kennedy. "shamisen." The Oxford Dictionary of Music. Ed. Rutherford-Johnson, Tim. : Oxford University Press, 2012. Oxford Reference. 2013. Date Accessed 28 Jun. 2016 &lt;http://www.oxfordreference.com.libproxy.temple.edu/view/10.1093/acref/9780199578108.001.0001/acref-9780199578108-e-10333&gt;.