I only wear bunny ears for a really good story

April 16^th, 2006

This actually happened on the night of the 16^th, but I feel Kyoto is a separate chapter in this story, so I’m moving it to the next day. I checked into my hostel, but IT was staying at a different hostel for the night. My hostel = decent. IT’s hostel = scary, borderline unacceptable. Whew… I lucked out on that one. Fortunately for him, he gets to move to my hostel for the second night. IT and I came up with a couple of goals for our time in Kyoto. The first was to go to a restaurant and have them bring us whatever they like to eat. We tackled this one on the first night at an izakaya (Japanese pub). The waitress took it easy on us with a bowl of udon with pork and bean curd. Our next stop was to the downtown district via the subway. I love public transportation. I prefer when the signs are in English, however.

Downtown Kyoto is interesting. It is much smaller than Tokyo and, I would come to find out later, much less friendly to westerners. Walking down one of the streets, I looked up to see a restaurant on the top floor of a building and decided we should stop in to check it out. As the elevator doors opened, we were greeted by two ladies dressed in bunny costumes. I’m not sure who was more confused, them or us. Well, they decided we could sit down and you know I’m always up for a good story, so how could I resist. IT convinced me that other women were in the bar, so I figured if they could do it, so could I. Well, we soon found out that the ladies who came into the bar were actually hostesses as well and were in normal clothes because they only wear the bunny costumes inside of the hostess club. So, we sit down at the bar and two or three of the ladies sit with us and ask us mundane questions like where we are from and if we’re lovers. I nearly burst out laughing. IT tells people that I completely balked at the idea and pushed him away, but I’m sure my response was far more polite and subtle. I did respond that no, we weren’t, but that he was cute… and single. They just giggled and I thanked God that the evil look IT shot me didn’t actually injure me. Post $58 whiskey (for IT, of course. I stuck with a beer), we left and I decided that was enough of an adventure for the first night. Akusa and Chica were very nice ladies and good sports about my being there.

Our first full day in Kyoto was quite busy and started with strolling around a few random temples. They weren’t terribly exciting. On the way to lunch IT decided he’d like to stop in for a hair cut. Two hours later, he emerged a freshly groomed man. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on whose perspective, my Lonely Planet travel book entertained me and I mapped out the rest of our time in Kyoto. We spent the afternoon walking around much better temples and getting stuck in the rain. Funny thing is, I am actually stuck in the rain right now. Those darn April showers keep catching me off guard. Who am I kidding, I don’t own an umbrella!

I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of very cute boys in the lobby of my hostel on the way back. Wouldn’t you know it - they were German! I temporarily decided to life my ban on flirting with German boys due to their adorability. Sometimes you just have to accept your affliction and hope that it does not always end poorly.

IT and I grabbed sushi for dinner and talked to the self-proclaimed sushi papa. He’s not fond of Americans, but he’ll take our money just the same. He didn’t say it, but he didn’t have to! After walking around Gion trying to get into several bars, we finally spotted an Irish pub. They couldn’t deny me from there, right? Well, thankfully they did not and we spent some time hanging out with the other Westerners. Our last stop of the night was back in downtown where we met more Westerners and a cutie from Seattle named Mark. Mark looks like Matthew McConaghy. Tall, curly haired boys are adorable. Thankfully, this one wasn’t German.