Saturday, March 04, 2006

Sing-Song

I had fun today, and I think the others did too. James, Drummond, and I went to a party to sing songs. We only started practing yesterday. Brendan was supposed to have come but stayed out the night before and became very ill. He sent a text to Drummond about 30-minutes before we were supposed to begin saying that he was not going to come! It took just over an hour to get there, and Ikehara-sensei picked us up from Chikuzen-Maebaru station at the other end. It is near Karatsu, which has a castle and is in a different prefecture.

The place was someone’s house, but was also a small restaurant. It was next to the sea, so we went for a wander before starting. We found a little stretch of sand, and practiced for 20 minutes. It felt like being in a music video, with a gorgeous sunset over the mountains! A Japanese woman was walking along the beach and she came over to listen. We told her we were playing in a little place, and so she went and asked if she could come and join the party! They said yes, and so we experienced the power of advertising first hand.

We played five songs to start with, with Drummond on guitar. We sang to a straight-faced audience:
  • Norwegian Wood, by The Beatles
  • Northern Sky, by Nick Drake (Drummond did it solo)
  • I’m With You, by Avril Lavigne
  • Torn, by Natalie Imbruglia
  • Time of Your Life, by Greenday
We then had a little break, in which we ate some food and drank some wine. There were oysters on offer, but I passed. We all had “clear soup,” which was chicken stock with some onions and carrots in it. There was also sushi rice – rice with a sticky vinegar – and also a really overdone egg with a chicken wing. The bits I chose to eat were quite nice and they filled a hole. The crowd warmed up for our second set, probably as they had been drinking. Some more people also turned up, including Hirata-sensei and her son.
  • Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen
  • Under the Sea, from the Little Mermaid
  • Runaway, by The Corrs
  • Frog Princess, by The Divine Comedy (I did it badly all by myself)
  • Songs of Love, by The Divine Comedy (I played the guitar again, the others sang)
  • Kiss From a Rose, by Seal
I think everyone enjoyed it, and we did Norwegian Wood again at the end. Ikehara-sensei gave us all lift back to the station, and the woman whose place it was gave us £25 each. Not bad, since it only cost at most £10 for transport. We sang, quietly, on the train.

We all went to Futsukaiichi to meet some of Drummond’s friends and we went to a bar called “Bali Bali.” It was quite a quaint and cosy little place, where they sometimes come and shake the cocktails at your table. We drank and ate a variety of food (from potato wedges with cheese on top, to bits of octopus). We chatted about nothing in particular and learnt a few Japanese words. When all the other customers had gone, we had the music turned off, and we sang once again. We were in the mood and it is not often that we do it. The others seemed shocked, and just kept saying “amazing” repeatedly. We had fun though.

They paid for most of the bill, insisting that we had eaten any food (we had) and that they were older than we were (some of them were the same age). In the end, we only paid £5 each, but I know I drank £5.50 worth of drink, not to mention the food I ate. We got a lift home in one of their tiny cars, all squashed in the back.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can see you have remembered all that my grandma taught me and i taught you...a second class ride is better than a first class walk (especailly when carrying luggage/guitars), never stand when you could sit, never sit when you could lie down and always eat what you are given 'cos you never know when you might eat again! even if it is squid!

05 March, 2006 10:56  

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