When the starter gets tired, it's time to go to the bullpen - Osamu's Place

Here in the U.S., it is baseball season playoffs time, and I thought I would use that theme to describe this post.  One night not too long ago in Kita-Shinagawa, I had the pleasure to go out in Japan with my old friend Tom and his beautiful wife Mimi.  We had a nice dinner, and then decided to have a short Karaoke practice session at my favorite spot Tampopo.  On this particular night the Master and Mama-san seemed a bit tired and closed early (probably right on schedule that particular night, but it seemed early to us!).  We did not feel we were "done" with our session, so we seeked out another place that might be open down the "Tokaido Road".

It was actually a bit late (just after 11:00 maybe), when we stumbled up some stairs, down a hall, to a closed door with the faint sound of music inside.  We opened the door, and voila!  Inside was a smallish karaoke shop that was oriented to western (American) music.  It was called "Osamu's Place" (I think.  I took a business card but at the moment cannot find it!).

This place has only a few tables, and there was another small group of people in there when we entered.  They left after a short time, and then another group came in and took their place.

In this fuzzy picture is the Master "Osamu" (I hope I am getting his name right!!!).  He was a very nice guy, and was happy we came in.  Well the second group that came in was a few guys along with a couple of ladies.  It was also a niji-kai for them.  After a number of songs, one of the guys gets up and sings "Desperado" by the Eagles (quite well I might add).  When I acknowledged his song by calling out the name and artist at the beginning, we started socializing a bit with this group.  I then sang "Take It Easy" by the Eagles on my next turn.  We had fun with this group, although they did not speak English (Tom and Mimi handled the translations).

The picture above is of Tom, himself a very accomplished karaoke singer.  I have found so many of my Japanese co-workers to be amazing singers.  This has really impressed me.  Pictured below is Mimi (sorry again for the blurry picture).  She is also a very good singer!!!

We ended up having a really good session with this group of people who came in.  The one guy (who sang the Eagles song) worked for Fujitsu in sales and he gave me his card.  I think we finished at around 1:00 a.m. or so.  You never really know what is going to happen when you venture out in Tokyo.  This was a perfect example of the beauty that can await.