Karaoke - A Taiwanese Cultural Phenomenon and.....The Very Last Place We Wanted To Be That Day!

The day after our first night out, we had to go to Karaoke. In Canada, we know very little about Karaoke. We may have seen it in a few bars, we may have even gone up to belt a few tunes out! However, it is impossible to explain the scope and utter fascination with Karaoke over here. There are karaoke places on every corner. They are like small to medium sized hotels. The one we went to had 13 floors with about 10-12 rooms on each floor of varying sizes. Our room was big enough for about 50 people. The whole idea of a hotel sized building dedicated solely to Karaoke was somewhat baffling to us. After being here for a while and seeing how many karaoke places there are, you begin to realize that it is simply part of their culture. As hockey, snowmen and beaver tails are to us, karaoke is to the Chinese.
Anyways, being hungover in a large karaoke room, with over 50 people, singing various Chinese and English songs was quite possibly the last place in the world we wanted to be but by the end we found ourselves warming up to KTV... we're not planning to make a habit of it but it was certainly an experience!