Tomorrow night, I am off to a karaoke party. This being my first time actually participating and not just watching, I am already feeling some performance anxiety. It looked so easy in Lost In Translation. Maybe I should sing "Like a Virgin". In preparation for my singing debut, I decided to visit my favorite site Wikipedia which had some fun facts. The first karaoke machine was made in Japan in the 1970's and has been taking the world by storm since then via karaoke bars, internet, videogames, mobile phones and even automobiles. In 2003, Chinese auto maker Geely came out with a "karaokemobile" called Beautiful Leopard. And in London, they have a few "karaokecabs" rolling around the streets. I wonder what those sound like.

Japanese word Juhachiban refers to the one song that karaoke singers are particularly good at and which they use to show off their singing abilities. I guess it's time for me to find out which one that is. Maybe my favorite kind of song - one with no words.