I hate hate hate blogger sometimes. I had just typed a long message and it all got erased. Here goes again:

I went to Karaoke with my family last night and was starting to bond with them a little bit. We sang lots of Beatles songs which was great, except that they all sound like professionals and anyone who has ever heard the pleasure of my singing knows that I can't carry a tune to save my life. But we had a good time and they tried not to grimace too much when I sang. I should explain Japanese style Karaoke: it's not in a bar like in America, but you get a private room with just your party so you can sing more songs and not embarrass yourself in front of lots of strangers. Much better idea. We ate dinner at the Karaoke place and my host mother ordered beers for us, which was nice.... if she had stopped there. After the beers they ordered SOJU!!!!!!!!! Christy understands the torture that I am speaking of. Soju is a very, very, very strong Korean alcohol that tastes like rubbing alcohol. I didn't want to be rude, so I said that I would drink some. But everytime I managed to gulp down a little they would refill my glass. Apparently the rule in Japan is that when you don't want anymore you leave your glass full. They should have mentioned that in the orientation, it would have been very helpful (I would say as helpful as take off your shoes when you go into a dressing room). Anyhow, I have no idea how much I drank but by the end of the evening my singing had greatly improved. I remember ending with all of us doing the twist around the room (my 60 year old host father, my 40 year old host mother, my host sister and myself) while my host brother sang Pretty Woman. It was quite a riot, but I didn't feel so great this morning. But Kate sent a message to my cell phone which made me feel loved! That was especially needed because this morning I felt like death with a handbag (a very cute new Japanese handbag, but I still felt like death. Even dressed fashionably death doesn't look so good). But kate loves me!