Wadayama Idol

Given tickets by one of our kaiwa students, Aaron n I attended a local singing show. Basically, it was American Idol, but with a clap-o-meter. Judging by the "EEEeehhhh!"s of the audience, clap-o-meters are hot stuff. After sitting through an agonizing intro-- hosted by a typical mc wearing a typically tacky jacket, accompanied by the typically deferential show lady-- the show began.

It was a VERY mixed bag. There were a couple good singers, and one of my HS students was a contestant! But most of the contestants were retirees singing old traditional songs [enka]. Enka are ok for average male singers, but a female singer needs to be good to navigate jumping all over the register. There was a variety of stage presence styles, and a few singers had organized cheering sections. But after an hour or so, we ducked out. The contest was expected to run 3 hours, and enka just aren't worth it.

Still, it was nice to go out and see what the average Wadayama-ite does on the weekend.