Shannon Sensei: Oct 23, 2005

I set up Saturday for myself as a day of retreat. In other words, I had decided to spend the day in bed relaxing, catching up on my reading, and being disconnected from the internet . (It's been a bit of an obsession lately.) Also, I had been beginning to feel like I was pretty much alone in the whole hemisphere of a planet, and knew I needed a day to myself to be cuddled and curled up with lots of pillows and some chocolate and books.

After a day in bed reading, thinking, listening to soft music, and working some stuff out, (and a nap), I found myself feeling a bit better, and kind of lazy. I just barely heard a knock on my door and rushed to answer it. I almost missed the postman (because they are still making deliveries at 6pm on a Saturday here!) who was delivering two packages! I knew I was eventually expecting some brochures from Sarah Fox and the international programs office at Benedictine, but wasn't expecting so many. As I opened the first boks, I understood, laughed, got a little weepy (in the good way) and scolded them for being silly and sending a care package. Between the two boxes were (and here it goes, 12 Days of Christmas style) 10 packets of BC information, 3 1lb boxes of Cheez-its, 3 cheesy easy-to-make American meals, 2 hearfelt cards, 2 BC stickers, 2 cds, 1 BC t-shirt, 1 variety pack of Kellog's cereal, 1 Mallow-Magic flavored microwave popcorn, 1 bag of muffin mix, and 1 St. Benedict card. The packages were not only from Thy Yang and Sarah Fox, but included the well-wishes of my former employers/co-workers Andrea, Megan, and Steve, and other people thinking of me and praying for me at BC. I remembered that with them, and the rest of the people I miss back home, thinking about me. I could never really be alone.

I popped in the cd, expertly mixed by ASloan and MMmmmmCassidy opened a box of Cheez-its, and started singing along. Quickly I realized that going out tonight, maybe to karaoke, I was enjoying singing along so much, sounded great and maybe my neighbors would agree. I took the Cheez-its downstairs to share, only to find that there had been an e-mail waiting for me all day asking if I wanted to go to Karaoke at 7. It was 7 right then and I wanted to go! I ran back upstairs to change, and off we went.

Karaoke in Japan is different than in America. Rather than having to climb up on stage in front of a bunch of drunken idiots and belting your heart out, each group of friends gets their own little private room, free soda, meals delivered to your room and two microphones to sing and laugh into. We sang songs in English and Japanese (well I didn't sing in Japanese, but maybe I'll be able to eventually), including U2, Bad Company, the Friends theme, the Beatles (Twist and Shout, just like I do at home with Mom n Sam), and YMCA in English and then again in Japanese! Here are some pics from the night (Mostly from YMCA)

Marie singing YMCA