And The Answer Is...

Starberries!

For those of you who tuned in on my Instagram feed earlier this evening, you saw a rather odd-looking image of a plasticine (modelling clay) strawberry in what appears to be a cute outer space. It's today's #Kawaii365 project - the idea came to me when Rob & I were talking and one of us was trying to say "strawberry" and it came out funny. Which is good, because it was a muse.

And here is the other recent space-themed Kawaii project (for March 14th) - it's available on RedBubble and was made in honor of Pi Day!

And did you know the flavor of the above 'pie' is Strawberry? Yum yum :)

And you've heard all the hype about the #KaraokeChallenge!

Earlier this year, this cute blog put out the call to you, the readers, to help me choose a song to sing for the challenge - since you guys challenged me by doing the survey and poll, and I agreed to do the song for you - now it's your turn to be given a song to sing. Just please make sure to include both the hashtags: #karaokechallenge and #kawaii365 ^_^

So here is the video for you guys! I hope you're happy!

What is Karaoke, anyway?

We're used to it as a night out with friends, often inspired by drinking alcohol first (some favorites are beer towers and soju - a fruit-flavored Korean shooter). Often times it will involve a screen, microphone and voiceless audio track set up on some sort of stage.

And if you're lucky enough, you & your pals may find a more private set up such as Nanta (in Calgary, AB) where you can rent private rooms by the hour, almost like a 'studio').

Rob & me at my 26th birthday party in a karaoke room with friends

This fun past-time has a history though... in Japanese, 'kara' means 'empty' and 'oke' means 'tub'. So the concept is for the willing participant to be able to 'fill the tub' (empty lyrics) with their own voice. Often it's a way to bond, show confidence, or even appease a group in a social setting (like if your boss takes the work team out to a karaoke bar after work).

And if you're shy about your own voice, never fear - this event was created specifically with amateur singers in mind :) In fact, you may be able to buy microphones (or some bars have them) that amplify your voice - features such as auto tune.

It's still fairly new! Most cool things about Japan's culture date back centuries... Karaoke seems to date back to approximately the 1960s, when singing with empty audio recordings was becoming popular. I learned this from Wikipedia, and from library books about Asian culture :D

Thank you everyone for your love and loyalty! If it weren't for your guys' smiling faces, I wouldn't be able to do this long term. And in the words of talk show host Ellen - be kind to one another 💗