My new career as an international singing sensation...

hmmmm... okay. That may be about as close to the truth as I am to winning gold at London 2012.

However, we did participate in one type of international event yesterday. An international Karaoke sing off between the UK and Japan! It was a close run race... as tense as the Liverpool / Everton derby. Both sides facing each other down like the gladiators of ancient Rome. Eyes locked across the battlefield, a beautiful traditional Japanese restaurant, ready to do battle. We brandished our weapons, they glinted in the soft light as they were pulled from their "non scratch, anti dust" sheathes. Elvis, Tom Jones, The Beatles... titans of musical history, selected and cast into the fray.

First up it was David "The Meer cat" Bathers... team leader. Honorable representative of District 1180 and secret crooner. He wowed the audience with his silky rendition of "are you lonesome tonight"... women swooned, men broke down in tears, cats ran in fear.

Next up came Mr Ashahi San... our guide through Tokyo that day... he took the floor confidently with a rendition of "let it be" by the Beatles drawing on the very sprit of Liverpool to power the song home. It was as if John, Paul, George and Ringo were in the room.

Ifer Gwyn took to the floor then, pulling off a truly heart rending rendition of "the green green grass of home" (including Tom Jones style actions). You could practical smell the distant mountains and valleys of Wales as he powered out those chords. I think everyone of us in the room understood the very essence of the word "Hiraeth" when he had finished.

Into this emotional wake stepped Mr Handa San with aｎ inspiring rendition of Elvis. Then stepped up the brothers of rock themselves... Simon and I. We tapped the very vain of rock and roll with our rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody. Not since the days of Queen has a more harmonious and in sink version of that song been heard. Heads were banging all round the room.

In the honor of his guests the Rotary club president then stepped up to sing a quintessential English song "green sleeves". Bringing home a millennia of British tradition... he was followed closely by the voice of the Mersey, Angela, and her rendition of Hey Jude.

To complete the proceedings... I stepped back up to the mark. slicking back my hair and reclining into a knowing swagger I threw my very soul into a rendition of "I can`t help falling in love with you". By the end of the song people were dancing in the aisles (or they may have been scrabbling frantically for the exit... it was hard to tell)

Then... Hai...

It was over... It is unclear who won but I am sure that if there had been a record company scout within earshot we would all have started today in new careers as international pop stars!?!?!