Late Night Karaoke/夜中のカラオケ

写真は以前撮ったけど載せるチャンスが無かったやつらだ。この話と関係無いけど。
台湾の大学生には面白い遊び方が有る。日本と同じく、カラオケはとても人気が有る。私は初めて台湾でカラオケに行った時には、台湾人の友達と何時行くかを皆で相談してみた。一人の男は午前三時行こうと行ったけど、彼はよくジョークを言うタイプだから、彼がふざけていると私は思った。でも、他の人と話してみたら、彼は真剣に言っていると分かってきた。なぜ午前三時にカラオケに行くかというと、そういう変な時間帯にもし行ったら、格下げして貰える。社会人からすれば、午前三時にカラオケに行って、朝六時とかに帰るのはちょっとキツいけど、大学生はわりとスケジュールがルースで、又皆はあまりお金が無いから、この時間帯にカラオケに行くのはおかしくない様だ。
日本でも有るかな？私は五年間日本で働いていて、しょっちゅうカラオケに行ったけど、相手は普通一緒に働いている同僚で、あまり大学生と関わる事が無かった。もしかして、日本の大学生でもやっているかな？アメリカは台湾や日本などの程カラオケは人気が無いので、お得と言っても、夜中にカラオケに行くアメリカ人の若者団がちょっと想像出来ないなぁ。

I went to Karaoke last night again.  Karaoke is pretty popular in Taiwan, more so than the US.  However, there's an interesting habit that the college students here seem to have.  It surprised me the first time I encountered it.
The first time I went to Karaoke with Taiwanese people, we were discussing what time we should go, and one guy suggested 3 am.  He jokes around a lot, so I just thought "Yeah, right, we're going to go at 3 am.  Very funny."  However, I quickly realized from the discussion afterwards that he was being serious.  It turns out that since the Karaoke places are open all night, they charge cheaper prices if you show up early in the morning.  That's the time when most people are finishing up their singing, so it's kind of dead time for them.  College students all over the world having fairly open schedules, and being the lovers of bargains that they are, it's pretty normal for a group of students here in Tainan to go to Karaoke at 3 am or whatever.
I never encountered this in Japan, though admittedly I didn't hang out with college students much.  I mostly went to Karaoke with coworkers, some of whom were in their 50's, so not surprisingly, we didn't tend to start anything at 3 am.  I really don't know if college students do late night Karaoke in Japan as well.  I don't really think that college students in the US do this though.  Karaoke just isn't as popular in the US.  I don't think I ever went even once in college, certainly not at 3 in the morning.