Hundreds of Japanese students whose schools have been closed this week to contain a swine flu outbreak have instead flocked¹ to karaoke parlours with their friends, club operators² said.

Authorities³ in and around Osaka and Kobe cities have shut more than 4,000 schools, kindergartens and colleges after the first swine flu cases were confirmed Saturday and the number of infected reached 178 by Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of students have been asked to stay away from schools and avoid leaving home if possible -- but many teenagers are clearly bored.

"About 10 different groups of high school students came here yesterday," a karaoke club manager in Osaka, Yoshikatsu Ishida told the reporters.

He said he declined⁴ to accept the young customers when he found they were supposed to stay at home while their schools were closed.

Another karaoke club manager said: "We suddenly had a number of high school students after 2:00 pm yesterday, right after the announcement that schools would close for a week."

"All of our karaoke rooms were full at one point, and I'm expecting something similar today," he said. "I don't have the right to say something like 'you should stay at home.'"

An Osaka prefecture official said: "We've asked schools to close down and let students stay at home unless there's a special need to go out."

Asked about the students' karaoke bar visits, he told the reporters: "We'll observe the development ahead."

据娱乐场所业主称，最近成百上千名日本学生和他们的朋友涌入卡拉OK歌厅打发时光。为控制甲型H1N1流感疫情，他们所在的学校已于本周停课。

日本于上周六确诊首例甲型H1N1流感患者，截至本周二患病人数已增至178例。日本政府已关闭了大阪和神户一带逾4000所学校、幼儿园和大学。

数万名学生被要求远离学校，尽量呆在家里，但很明显青少年对此感到厌烦。

大阪一家卡拉OK歌厅业主Yoshikatsu Ishida在接受记者采访时说：“昨天一天就来了10伙儿高中生。”

他表示当他发现学校停课期间这些学生本应呆在家里时，就谢绝了这些年轻顾客。

另一家卡拉OK歌厅业主说：“昨天下午两点钟后，突然来了很多高中生，恰好在通知学校停课一周之后。”

他说：“包间一度满员，真希望今天还能这样。我没有权力说‘你应该呆在家里’这样的话。”

大阪一位县知事说：“我们已经要求学校停课，让学生呆在家里，除特殊情况外不得外出。”

在被问及学生去卡拉OK歌厅消遣一事时，他对记者说：“我们将关注事态进展。”

Vocabulary:

at one point：一度，在某一时刻

prefecture：地方官，日本县知事