Our typical (but actually not-so typical) karaoke gimik

Hey you! This is my lips-pouted-finger-pointed look (which looks stupid, heehee), and I posted this cause I want you to look at this entry. Here, I'll be talking about something fun:

KARAOKE GIMIKS.

OL gimiks are always epic (for all of you first-time readers of my blog posts, OL is office lady, a term used in Japan for the working female. Its masculine counterpart is salary man. Now you know.) regardless if it's food tripping, mall hopping, bookstore raiding or movie watching. For our first OL gimik this year, we decided to sate our craving for karaoke. We've been wanting to do this since December, but Wako had different hours during the holidays, so we weren't able to go. Finally, we were able to go out last Saturday - with great timing too, cause they had this Valentine's promo going on. We paid nearly half of their usual rate (not bad, diba?).

As the title says, our karaoke gimiks aren't typical. Kung kami-kaming magbabarkada na ISJ (at former ISJ na katulad ko) ang magka-karaoke, hindi uubra ang Red Box sa amin. We'd rather watch a movie or use the money to eat in some restaurant we haven't tried. We will be happy with Music 21, but happier with Wako - which was where we went. Except for maybe Bohemian Rhapsody (hahaha!) almost all of our song choices are Japanese. At Red Box they'll only have the popular old school Utada songs (and probably Voltes V No Uta), and we don't want that. We want a wide and deep selection of J-pop, J-rock and anime opening and ending theme songs. Music 21 and (most especially) Wako have these - and more (don't get me started with their K-pop selection, although Wako mostly has early 2000s K-pop, they've got a broader selection than M21).

First big difference with our karaoke gimik is obvious enough - our song selections are Japanese. Wako is obviously a Japanese karaoke place (being in Arnaiz Ave, which has a bajillion Japanese restaurants, clubs and then some), so when you choose a song, the lyrics will appear in Japanese. When you sing an English song here, the English lyrics will appear, but there will be katakana above the English words.

I only finished three units of Japanese during my time in DLSU, so my knowledge of Nihongo isn't as good. But I know my katakana and hiragana, which really helps when I forget some of the lyrics. =D (But based from last Saturday's gimik I know I'm getting rusty...tagal ng recognition ko. I guess I'll have to read more manga ulit.)

Second major difference with our "typical" karaoke gimik is how we find the songs. In Wako, they have three or four song books - a list by artist, by song (both in Japanese), a separate book for the anime, K-pop and English selections, and a smaller book for...I don't know what it is, they're not really new acquisitions, but they're separate for some reason. When we look for artists or songs, we throw the "ABCDEFG..." out the window and think in terms of gojuon, which is "AIUEO" and "KSTNHMYRW".  It's kind of tough adjusting to this, especially if it's not something you do on a regular basis. So whenever I find a song I want to sing, I'll feel really happy when I'm able to do it on my own.

Our karaoke gimiks are crazy. If you saw the videos I uploaded, it could get worse than that =D. But probably the best thing about our karaoke gimiks is that we could sing our hearts out to the songs we really want to sing without being ridiculed for it (you know, the typical "ano ba yan, naiintindihan mo ba ang kinakanta mo?" or "bakit hindi Ingles ang kantahin mo?"). Before those kind of comments really hurt me, cause people thought I was weird and I didn't quite fit in with "regular" girls who played with Barbies and Polly Pockets. Now, when people wonder aloud why I do these things (in a negative way), I don't really pay attention anymore. Fact is, I'm happy with what I'm doing, I'm not hurting anyone, and this kind of singing earned me some moolah when I needed to buy Kangta's second album (at once again, maraming salamat NKK. Kahit basag na yung CD ko na yun dahil nasobrahan sa kakapakinig, I'm forever grateful XD).

If this post didn't bring any newfound appreciation for J-pop/J-rock/Japanese karaoke or whatnot, I hope you were entertained at the very least. XD