Those TV shows like America's Got Talent and American Idol keep deprecating a mediocre contestant as only good enough for karaoke.  If you want to watch an embarrassingly bad singer, attend any karaoke session.  As terrible as you might be, there almost surely will be someone worse.  But that's okay, for in most cases, these are the ones who get the most applause. What is karaoke? First of all, it is not something like  Sing Along with Mitch  ( Miller ) and his band from 1961-66.  Sure, the lyrics played across the bottom of the TV screen, but there is no personal pressure, for everyone in the room is singing. Most authorities cite Kobe, Japan musician Daisuke Inoue, in 1971, for inventing the karaoke machine.  Thus, the Japanese name, Kara ( meaning empty ) oke ( for okesutora, the phonetic Japanese word for orchestra ).  Japan enhanced the experience by creating karaoke booths, smaller boxes or rooms, where you could sing with your friends or fa...

We did nothing today but rest, for the weather was threatening.  It's Tuesday in Japan, so this will become a nostalgic day to   look back to what we did the last time we were in Sendai , when we also cruised on the Diamond Princess: On 23November 2019, Sendai was just nearing it's Fall color peak.  The map that year showed. Unfortunately, today is November 13, so we missed by one week.  So how have the subsequent years changed the peak? Thus, because of global warming, Sendai's peak is predicted for November 30.  So we arrived more than two weeks too early. Today is November 13, and the peak for Sapporo is November 13, where we will stop over for two days beginning tomorrow.  Thus, while we have been too early for the colors so far in Japan, tomorrow should be terrific.  Except for one problem.  Hokkaido has been snowing the past couple of days, which will continue tomorrow. Returning to my posting of four years ago, I said: Recall that...