singing Bob Marley "One Love" to a room full of middle aged semi-professional enka singers in Shikoku
i have many beautiful memories with bob marley's voice as my soundtrack: - 12 years old, sitting by a fake fireplace while my bro plays nintendo - 20 years old, singing with a truck full of american and malagasy students through the arid south to Faux-Cap - 23 years old, singing with KY in a deserted parking lot in Cleveland, OH and now, this: one night in Kochi, my dad and i went out to eat on my aunt's tab. we went to a fancy izakaya where i had the best seared bonito (katsuo no tataki) of my life. afterwards, just as i was getting sleepy, my aunt dragged us in a cab to the suburbs for a night of karaoke and whiskey. it was a one-room bar with 5-6 tables full of middle-aged men and women singing enka ballads as if they were on national television. i was probably the only person under 40. of course, everyone has to sing, so i pored through the tomes of songs for something i could possibly do justice to, which is when i found good old Bob. The problem is i can only really sing ...