Karaoke Souls

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  Nikko, Kanto, Japan
Wednesday, October 15, 2008

We began last night with a return trip to the Jazz bar Vagabond in Shinjuku, only this time we dragged Sasha along as well.  It wasn't a full band this time - just a guy playing piano.  In particular he seemed to be playing various versions of The Entertainer on loop.  Still, it was good background music as we worked our way through the cocktail menu.  A slightly girly Chi-Chi here, a suspectly named Salty Dog there and a few we did actually know what they contained - we were pretty sure what was in the Vodka & Tonic.  As Sasha left to get some sleep - he actually works here as opposed to us interlopers - we decided the best course of action was to bundle into the nearest Big Echo Karaoke!

Big Echo is a huge Japanese chain of karaoke boxes where you get your own room, waiter service and, in a stroke of unbridled genius, tambourines.  The beauty of Big Echo is the vast selection of English language music available.  Needless to say the hits flowed - Let's Get It On, Living On A Prayer, Enter Sandman, erm All That She Wants - as the unsuspecting public walked past the, thankfully, sound proof room.  If I do say so myself, we were on fire, with a particularly barnstorming rendition of the legend Rick Astley's 'classic' Never Gonna Give You Up bringing down the house before the last train called to us.  The only downside was the slightly suspect choice of background images for each song, Pearl Jam's Jeremy coming attached with a jaunty stroll down a river for a young and in love Japanese couple and, more worryingly, a bikini clad young lady frollicking in the sea to The Jackson 5's ABC.  Strange.

Still despite our hangovers we managed to make another fairly early (double-decker) train this morning to head to Nikko, north of Tokyo.  Nikko is another cultural heritage sight with more temples and shrines but it is a lot busier than Kyoto.  Even early on a weekday morning there were a fair few tourist, both Japanese and foreign.  The shrines themselves were more impressive than the Kyoto ones as they were bigger and more decorated but I think they had less charm and character.  There were some exellent parts though, including far and away the best garden we've seen, a hall where they bang sticks together and there is one spot in the room where the acoustics are vastly superior (I think you had to be there for that one), the original "hear no evil..." monkeys and a game of hoops, at which we displayed a distinct lack of skill..

Nikko itself was a great little town on the river and we stopped at a small restaurant on the way back that not only welcomed foreigners in particular but also had their walls covered in messages from passing travellers.  Naturally we contributed one of my, now patented, Gojira drawings - this time attacking the nearby cultural heritage Shin-kyo bridge.  We then left quickly before we could be kicked out for maybe being culturally insensitive.

Some of the eagle-eyed among you may have noted that I didn't have any film references today, but I did actually mention three Tom Cruise films by name.  And only one of them was intentional (not the one you think).

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Big Echo Fun	Going Off Piste	Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil	Hmmm?
Sasha And Kirill In Vagabond	That's Us, That Is	The Garden At Nikko	Throwing Hoops. Missing

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