I’d never seen a bus like it before. A retractable microphone hang from a track that ran the length of the ceiling. I didn’t notice it until the foreign student director pulled it to her mouth, saying, “Let’s sing songs.” I was on an excursion for foreign graduate students and their advisors at a Japanese university.

I’d been warned back in the states about the Japanese propensity for song. Japan is the birthplace of karaoke, singing to a voiceless soundtrack. You’ve got to sing no matter how bad you sound.

No matter how bad? I remember when my high school music teacher asked each of us to sing a few lines, so he could decide who should audition for chorus. I wasn’t a contender. Most of my crowd joined the chorus, which rehearsed during the first lunch period, leaving me friendless in the cafeteria.

Luckily, the year before I moved to Japan, I had a folk-singing friend… to be continued