カラオケ - Karaoke in Korean Town

I've been doing karaoke for about a year and a half now - since the fall of '06. The places that I go to all have the same system, with the same built-in videos and songs, and the books with the song titles. There are three different locations that I've been too, though. They're all Korean-owned and run and in Korean areas of the city. Two of them are both on the same street, in the area pretty much known as Korean Town, while the other one (which I've been going to for longer) is in another Korean area that takes significantly longer for me to get to. Recently I've been going to one of the ones in Korean Town, where my friends took me during my birthday party. You pay (five people or fewer for an hour is $20) for a room with your friends, and there are a bunch of rooms, just like your typical noraebang or KTV or whatever you want to call it in Asian countries. Depending on what place you to go and whether you're a frequent customer or not, though, they'll often give you extra time for free. A little bit of extra time happens regularly, but at the place that's farther away, my friends and I tend to get a lot of extra. It's awesome. XD Especially considering that another hour is supposed to equal another $20 (and tends to, at the place I've been going to recently). More than five people also makes it cost more, but there are more people to split the cost between that way, anyway.

These karaoke places have songs in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, English, Spanish, Tagalog, and Russian. I could even be forgetting a language, but I think that's it. They keep the system very up to date with lots of recent songs, too. The main customers at these places are Korean kids, but my friends and I usually go to sing Japanese songs, and the selection in that language is pretty awesome and up to date, too. There's a lot of Hello! Project, which has kept me happy for as long as I've been doing karaoke, and there's plenty of other (better *not much of an H!P fan right now*) music as well. They even have "Love like candy floss" by SweetS, which is pretty impressive! Recently I've been getting into Hey! Say! JUMP, and naturally, their stuff is there, as well. I get to go downtown and sing my heart out to the Japanese music most people in Toronto wouldn't know, right here in Toronto. It's pretty damn awesome.

I still remember the first time I went to karaoke. I sang Momusu's "Do It! Now" and ZONE's "Akashi", and my good friend Mitty (who lives in Japan again, now T_T) sang Momusu's "I WISH", which was totally adorable. Other friends came, too, and some Jrock was sung. Dir en grey's "The Final" is pretty much our karaoke anthem, which we ALWAYS sing, though hide's "Lemoned I screamed" is another karaoke essential, partially because of our friends' reactions to lyrics like "And you know it had something spiney head/And I was gonna touch it, then I got a pain". XD Both were sung when I went this past Sunday evening with three of my friends. We sang some English stuff too, though. Two of my friends sang that "Beautiful Girls" song that I don't like because of the "you'll have me suicidal" lines. -_-' But also, HSJ's "Ultra Music Power" was sung, and apparently I pwn GAM's "Melodies" now, so it was awesome. I also sang Abe Natsumi's "Too Far Away ~Onna no Kokoro~", Utada's "Sakura drops", Momusu's "Onna ni sachi are", and possibly something else I just can't remember right now. I love karaoke. It makes me really happy. Singing is one of my favourite things to do, so karaoke is a great way to spend an afternoon or evening with some friends while out on the town. XD I love it. =D