Karaoke-Box in Roppongi

In my point of view Karaoke is such an important part of Japanese Popculture as Manga and Anime. Because the ambitious salary men of the island are working 24/7 they surely try to enjoy their free time at the max. Invented in the 70’s the idea of making yourself a clown by singing your favourite songs in front of a large crowd. In Japan it is quite common to book entire karaoke boxes for some hours. Fixed by this idea we made this entertainment our program for new years eve. First we looked around Shinjuku, but nope. We found our spot in Roppongi, which is the new nightlife quarter of Tokyo. There are entire Karaoke-Buildings, that have boxes on several floors, which are decorated in movie- and music-themes. The rent of the box is paid per the amount of people singing. So this is reasonable, but cheap it isn’t. You also have to buy drinks, maybe you right away take the flatrate. In the box we needed 10 minutes to figure out the system to choose songs and we were anxious to get the action on like in “lost in translation”. Finally we figured out that there is a display which takes the orders and sends them to the prompter via Bluetooth. There is also a telephone-book-size instruction from which you can also choose songs.

In my point of view Karaoke is such an important part of Japanese Pop culture as Manga and Anime. Because the ambitious salary men of the island are working 24/7 they surely try to enjoy their free time at the max. Invented in the 70’s the idea of making yourself a clown by singing your favorite songs in front of a large crowd.

In Japan it is quite common to book entire karaoke boxes for some hours. Fixed by this idea we made this entertainment our program for new years eve. First we looked around Shinjuku, but nope. We found our spot in Roppongi, which is the new nightlife quarter of Tokyo. There are entire Karaoke-Buildings, that have boxes on several floors, which are decorated in movie- and music-themes.

The rent of the box is paid per the amount of people singing. So this is reasonable, but cheap it isn’t. You also have to buy drinks, maybe you right away take the flat rate. In the box we needed 10 minutes to figure out the system to choose songs and we were anxious to get the action on like in “lost in translation”. Finally we figured out that there is a display which takes the orders and sends them to the prompter via Bluetooth. There is also a telephone-book-size instruction from which you can also choose songs.

Now some recommendations:

- Never choose Rap-Songs, unless you are a brother.

- Make up a list of songs you want to sing and a order to choose songs, otherwise you will fight and waste time.

- Never choose the flat rate, because why should you drink when you can sing?

By now you can make your home a Karaoke Box with a play station. But of course it is not the real deal. This is like surfing in a bathtub. Tokyo is the best place for finding a Karaoke-Box you should head to Shibuya or Roppongi to find a bar or a Karaoke-Box. You can detect them by looking above your head and when you see a giant Karaoke-Sign you are more than right.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roppongi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaoke

written by wil6ka on 2008-08-12 #places #tokyo #culture #nightlife #urban #fun #karaoke #location