A short note on paying for things in Japan – when you are handing the money to the person behind the counter, hold the bill with both hands, one hand holding onto the edge of each corner.  In this way, you are showing respect.  Using one hand is slightly disrespectful.  This applies to school too.  When you are handing a paper in, you hold the paper in the same way and face it towards the recipient (teacher) not towards yourself. If you do not use two hands, it is not likely that anyone will say anything to you, but it is a bad reflection on yourself. 

On another note: We were able to go out and try Karaoke tonight.  I would suggest that anyone going to Japan go to a Karaoke place at least once.  Each person had to pay 2000 yen (a little over 20 dollars) for 2 hours, but everyone agreed it was well worth it!  Each party gets their own private room lined with cushioned seats and tables.  There is a mini stage in the front of the room lined with lights and in the center is a big flat screen tv that plays the video for each song.  You will have a great time.  You can order an alcoholic drink while you are there, but they are expensive (drinking age is 20) – and, at least where we were, a free soft drink was included in our 2000 yen payment.  There is no need to publicly request a song.  There are small computer type devices in the room, which can be passed around.  It is on these machines that you type in the song you would like to sing and it lines that song up after the last selection that was made by another person in your party.  It’s a great time and no one cares if you are good or not! 

Here are some karaoke pictures for you: the top and middle left as well as the top and middle right pictures are all of our private karaoke room.  On the very right hand side of the middle right picture is a boy holding the machine that allows you to pick the song you would like to sing – it is a little hard to see, but he is holding a pen-like object in his hand which was used to operate the machine   On the last row, left hand side is a picture of the outside of the karaoke building we went to (in the red letters it says ka-ra-o-ke, with a cut off ‘ke’ at the edge of the picture, in katakana).

Location: Tokyo, Japan