Karaoke and other random Japanese things

So on Friday, the marine lab had a party at a super nice hotel. Kyoto University paid for a new ship to be constructed for use here at the marine lab and so there was a party to celebrate the new ship (which is now ready for use, I guess). Some bigwigs from the university came down (including the top guy and the second in command) and as I said, it was at a really nice hotel. There weren't as many people there as I would have expected, but it was nice with a ton of mostly great food. I found one other Japanese thing which induces a gag reflex in me (natto or fermented soybeans being the other) but I don't know what that thing is (hopefully I'll remember what it looks like enough to avoid it in the future because I really could not swallow it down). But other than that one thing, everything else was very good (I am not going to ask what was on top of the udon and I am totally doing a mind block on it because I have an idea of what it is but I don't want to confirm it - it tasted alright and that is all I need to know for now).

The funny thing is that several of the members of this lab LOVE onsens. This hotel, like several nice hotels in the area, has it's own onsen (or hot spring fed baths). So somehow, we got to use the onsen for free even if we were only there for a limited time party. This would not happen in the US, but happens here apparently. Anyway, the onsen was really nice, but I'm not going to talk about it here because I think that the topic deserves it's own post.

After the onsen, Kubota sensei was hot to do Karaoke. It didn't seem like a bad idea so I said yes. Later I realized that it would just be four of us going (2 professors and one of the aquarium techs plus me) and that I was the only young one and the only female. Not that it was a problem, just that it wasn't as fun as I hoped. Basically my host researcher and the aquarium tech took it very seriously and started singing these overdramatic melancholy songs in some sort of competition between the two. They made me sing several rounds until I absolutely refused to take the microphone.

But what I really want to mention are the Karaoke videos. Oh my God! Each of these songs, including the English ones, had a video that went with it and they were ALL horrible. They had to have been filmed in the early to mid 90s considering the clothing (acid washed jeans at one point, I swear) and hair. Most of the video consisted of a man and/or woman standing by himself/herself and staring meaningfully out in the distance. If a woman, a single tear would often fall down her cheek. There were shots of the sea, or of fields. Once there was even a shot of fish being caught in a net. What that was supposed to represent, I don't know, but it felt like everything was supposed to be deeply symbolic. It was all so melodramatic and maudlin. I don't know how anyone could take it. I tried to sing upbeat songs to compensate, but even the videos for those were crazy. I think I'm actually offended by the video for "I will survive". I didn't notice it at first because I was following the words (I haven't heard the song in a while). But towards the end, there was this woman looking progressively more upset. She is playing around with this gun, and near the very end she starts pointing it at her head, looking all upset. That is absolutely the WRONG image for that song. She is supposed to be strong and unapologetic, not thinking about suicide. I think I'm actually mad about the misrepresentation of that song.

I seriously thought about singing "It's raining men" because I love that song (the lyrics are so ridiculous, I can't imagine that they weren't meant to be silly) and to see what the video for that would be, but I decided against it. Maybe next time.

Finally, I want to comment on the clothing and footwear choices of young Japanese women. See the picture here. What this woman is wearing is fairly common (I won't say typical, but common) for young women. Now I am not a girly-girl. I don't wear dresses or frilly or pink things very often. I prefer more comfortable things. However, I recognize that other people prefer to dress up. That's fine. However, I would like to point out two facts.

1. It was insanely hot on the day this picture was taken. Why is she wearing black, constricting, thigh-high socks? Aren't they hot??
2. This picture was taken at "table rock land" or Senjojiki (see second picture). Are you seriously telling me that she got up this morning and thought "I'm going to be climbing over rock formations today. I think high heels and a short skirt are exactly the thing to wear."??


And she wasn't the only one! Several women were wearing things like this while they tried to climb up down and over big rocks. I swear these women will wear heels, thigh high socks and short skirts ANYWHERE. I feel an odd amount of respect for that before I remember how absolutely crazy it is. Particularly when it results in them needing their boyfriends to help them everywhere because surprise! high heels are really not the best for climbing over rocks that have many holes in them and are generally uneven. I think I feel about footwear the same way I feel about luggage - you chose to bring all those suitcases, you better be able to handle them yourself (and with footwear - you chose to wear high heels here, you better be able to walk by yourself every where you want to go). Otherwise, WEAR DIFFERENT SHOES! This culture is entirely to quick to promote the needy girl/princess stereotype and it seriously annoys me - but that is another rant for another day.

Okay. Need to stop here or I'll go on forever. Jya ne!