Yesterday Once More - 80's JPop Revival

"Karaoke-ing" is one of the favourite "sports" in Singapore. I believe that it should be classified as a "sport" because for some people, it is just plain endurance (especially if the session stretches beyond 3 hours), while for others, like how most sportsmen feel, it is pure enjoyment, and of course, we must understand the techniques to preserve the voice for best vocal performances throughout, which is what qualifies this definition.

On Good Friday, before I had to attend one of my good friend's wedding, I met up with Tien, Eugin, and a new friend (also a major Akina fan), Danny, for lunch at a swanky Japanese restaurant before we proceeded for 4 hours of JPop Musica Fiesta. In Japan, Akina Fans would hold mass Karaoke sessions, which would be attended by close to 300 Akina fans, who would crowd around to sing on Akina songs. This was our mission, but to spice things up, we decided to include plenty of other influential Jpop oldies but goodies from the 80s as well. We sang plenty of hits from the Kohaku performances of the mid 80s, and in the process of singing, we would try to imitate the dance steps of the singers. Now, not all singers are as capable as Akina when it comes to coordination of complicated dance steps with difficult songs (which we realized when we tried to emulate Akina during some of her performances), so it was a walk down memory lane, where we (as in Danny and I) would point out all the crazy things they used to do, and we would dance like mad, often inducing side splitting laughter from all of us.

It was easily one of the most enjoyable Karaoke sessions because Danny was such a good sport, and with our good memory from repeated viewings, we kept digging those long forgotten oldies like Kyoko Koizumi's "Nantetate Idol", Yu Hayami's "Passion", Chiemi Hori's "Tokyo Sugar Town", Naoko Kawai's "Kuchibiru no Privacy", Sachiko Kobayashi's "Moshikashite", and many other hits from Seiko Matsuda, Hidemi Ishikawa, Hiromi Iwasaki, and Momoe Yamaguchi etc. It was totemo natsukashii (extremely nostalgic) and so funny, and definitely not everyone's cup of tea. It paved the way for a "extreme pleasure, no holds barred" 4 hour performance from all of us.

It felt like deja vu meeting Danny, because he reminds me of my friendship with Zing, the top makeup artiste in Hong Kong (who is Faye Wong's prescribed makeup artist), and his zeal for life and his imitations, which are all terribly uncanny. Danny is gay and is full of fun and quips and he definitely brought out the "devil" in me, which I hope I will be able to bring back to Sydney for our next Karaoke session. Hopefully, I will inspire my more docile and reserved Japanese friends to enjoy the true art of Karaoke. Ganbare!