I'm amazed they let you throw pies around in the karaoke room! Are they used to people being exuberant, or did you work out a special arrangement with the people in charge?

Yeah, cute and so much fun to shoot with.

A-ha! I should explain a little bit about karaoke in Japan...

I don't know about most other countries, but in Canada and the States, karaoke is usually something done in a bar or club, where the singer is standing in front of everyone in the place. But in Japan, karaoke is done in a private room. Karaoke places contain a bunch of small rectangular rooms; the smallest might have seating for four people, the larger ones might seat around 15, and you're assigned one based on the size of your group. Some places might have one or two "party rooms" that can handle 20+ people.

The rooms typically contain upholstered benches lining two or three walls, with a table or tables sitting in the centre; so, it's like a booth at a diner. Depending on the size of the karaoke place, it could be tight like a diner booth, or it could have a lot of space and even a little extra space to walk around or dance.

And, of course, there's a large TV & karaoke machine at one end of the room. The controls to enter songs in the machine are remote devices - one or two per room. And there are always at least two microphones - actually, almost always only two. And there are usually speakers mounted high on the wall in each corner of the room.

The room has a thick door (that doesn't lock) with a small window in it. If somebody really wants to look into your room, they can press their face up against your window, but it's really obvious. So, unless a staff member comes into the room, they really aren't seeing what you're doing in there. And the rooms are largely soundproofed, so they can't hear what you're doing, either.

There's a phone on the wall in the room, so you can call the front desk. We used to order drinks and food that way, but now it's done through the remote control. But if you don't want anyone walking into your room, just don't order any drinks until you're finished throwing pies or whatever you want to do privately.

That's exactly what we did that night: ordered our drinks, then after they were delivered, we started our pie-play. And since it was shaving cream, it was easy to clean up with dry towels before we left.

I should point out, though, that in certain larger karaoke places in Tokyo, they have cameras in the rooms and the staff can check on what's happening in them. A friend and I noticed one of those cameras for the first time after having smeared each other with whipped cream and chocolate sauce and torn some clothing off in an unplanned, horny food fight. We hastily cleaned up as best we could, and when we went to the front counter to pay our bill, none of the three staff members would look us in the eye, and one of them was visibly stifling laughter...