Not too expensive karaoke bar in Tokyo?

Looking for recommendations for a nice karaoke bar for me, my husband, and our 17-year-old son for one evening in Tokyo next month. We can't spend a fortune! Also we don't really want to go into a booth and sing to ourselves. We would prefer to watch other people sing in a public area. (more fun!)

We'll be saying around Ueno so that area would be great unless it's just not the right place to do karaoke. We can take a subway back to hotel from main areas, of course.

Thank you!!

I haven't seen a karaoke place where different groups of people sing with each other. I think the karaoke places here only have booths.

In my (limited) experience, bars that have a communal karaoke machine are either small Japanese bars that may not be very welcoming to foreigners or non-Japanese speakers (especially in Ueno), or are bars catering specifically for foreigners. In either case, a 17-year-old shouldn't really be there.

I asked the concierge at our hotel in Tokyo about a good karaoke bar and he said that the bars where you do public singing instead of in private groups were basically strip clubs! This came as a surprise ot me and I thought he might have made a mistake. However on a trip outside the city, I saw several karaoke bars which also seemed to be advertising naked women... really, really odd. But I'm sure there must be some normal bar somewhere in Tokyo which does karaokie. Also the legal age in Japan I think is 20, so your son may have a problem getting into bars. Sorry I coulldn't be of more hope and hope you all have a good time! :)

Hi,

I've been living in Japan for 3 years and love a bit of karaoke with friends after a few beers and until recently hadn't even considered a western-style pub karaoke session since I had never heard of such a thing. Indeed, when telling Japanese people about how it is done in the UK I get strange looks. Anyway, at the moment I'm searching for something similar for an elderly friend who is in Japan at the moment and loves a bit of pub karaoke back home (UK) and isn't interested in karaoke booths.

So far I've found Fiesta in Roppongi and Smash Hits in Hiroo. They are both 3500 yen per person with 3 drinks included. There is a place called Bruce in Shimbashi on the west side for 2100 for women and 2650 for men. As a previous poster said, though, since these places sell booze, you need to be over 20 to go in, and none of them seem to fit your search for a cheap place. Better to make some Japanese friends and go to a booth with them - they'll be able to help with the remote control.

Bob

is that 3500yen/h, or just for the whole time you are there? And is the rooms big?
Going with some friends this week so are really in a big need of help to find a good and cheap place for us.