Rabbit Run

I've survived three weeks of a new school year, and five weeks in my new life in Japan.  I'm finally starting to feel like I'm making progress, but I'm still looking forward to our three-day weekend commencing on Saturday.  The hardest part of work has been teaching anklebiters again.  Verily, it sucketh.  I mean, kids love me, but I'm out of practice when it comes to cat herding, so it's possible that I've been feeling a bit of that old Sunday night panic I haven't experienced since early in my Korea days.

Hint: You'll see ads like this there.

Perhaps that's why in spite of my "live for the weekend" philosophy I decided to take it easy last Saturday with a museum visit and a little light shopping.  Unfortunately, between my museum pace and all the walking I did in between, my feet didn't find it very relaxing.  To add insult to injury, I couldn't weave it into a blog post.  Well, I could have, but I value all six of my faithful readers, and if they're going to spend their time reading garbage that relies way too heavily on profanity and inappropriate jokes, the least I can do is ensure that it's well-curated garbage.

Yesterday I put together one such itinerary.  I browsed the weekend events, and was halfway tempted to go to a festival, but it was two hours away and I thought it might get old, writing about shrines and festivals all the time.  I haven't experienced temple-itis in Japan, ever, but I don't really want to start now.

Instead, I came across a listing for a "Usagi Symbol Exhibition" at a gallery in Tokyo, and since I've been a little homesick this week, I thought I'd go so Babysis could experience the fluffy cuteness vicariously.  She loves bunnies...but only the cute ones.  She and her husband have been talking about coming to visit - if this blog doesn't seal the deal, I may have to up the ante with Okunoshima, the rabbit island.  When I went to Kyoto for the very first time, I was impressed on her behalf with how many rabbit stickers and things there were, and I thought an exhibit about rabbit symbols would be interesting.

So I paid my 500 yen after waiting on the stairs outside the gallery, and was utterly disappointed to discover that the exhibit had pretty much nothing to do with rabbit symbols, but instead featured photos - admittedly, of rabbits - by a bunch of Instagrammers.  Which is not to say that they weren't completely adorable...they were.  But it wasn't what I was expecting and I'm not sure I should have spent that much money to stroke amateurs' egos (seriously - I only paid 620 yen to get into the Tokyo National Museum last week).

Once again proving that there is a manga for everyone...

I decided to follow the show up with a visit to a bunny cafe.  I don't know how much you know about animal cafes in Japan...I'm pretty sure it all started with cats.  Lots of apartments won't allow you to have pets, and someone had the brilliant idea of creating a business where people could go to get their snuggles without the responsibility of owning a pet themselves.  When I was in Tokyo in 2014 I visited one of these cat cafes, but came to the conclusion that cats just don't have the personality for that kind of work.  They're spoiled.

When I got to the bunny cafe it had been open for about 15 minutes but it already had all the customers it could handle - I was asked if I would mind waiting.  I sat down, mentally comparing it to the cat cafe.  There were a list of rules that I had to sign off on, including the fact that although I'd be wearing an apron, if the rabbits peed on me the establishment was not responsible for damages.  This place was much smaller than the cat cafe I visited before, and they had several enclosures with different rabbits you could visit in turn.

Like the cat cafe, they had profiles of their different bunnies, explaining that one was fickle (she won't care about you once the food is gone), another's charm point was his long fur.  Finally, one of the attendants came over to get me, asking if I wanted my drink now or after.  Admission includes a drink, but you can't drink it while you're with the bunnies, so I decided to wait til the end.  Sadly I missed the part where she said last call was 10 minutes before my time was up, so I didn't get my coke in the end, but life goes on.

Admission also included a small container of bunny treats.  This meant that unlike the cat cafe, the rabbits were actually interested in you.  They weren't at all shy about jumping up next to you and snuffling until they got what they wanted.  There were a few rabbits that were still in their cages - I thought maybe they had the day off, but one of the attendants showed me how to open the cage so I could pet this one.  She proceeded to lick my fingers until I took my hand back to take a photo.  I thought maybe it smelled the bunny treats on me, but when I offered her one she ignored it and started licking me again.

In case you're wondering, being licked by a rabbit is not as unnerving as you would expect.  It's pretty much as adorable and soft as the rest of the bunny.

To be honest, most of my adult experiences with rabbits involve being scared for my feet on Azhaar's toilet (when it doubled as Doog's hutch) or being scared I would be fluffocated in my sleep when sleeping on her floor.  She always claimed Doog was just a big fluffy bunny...which technically was correct, but on the other hand, I've seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  I know what rabbits are capable of.  But these guys were playful and just ridiculously cute, so it sort of made up for the stupid "art show."

Now, if I named an art show Usagi Symbol Exhibition, this is the sort of thing I would put in it.  I'm not sure what it says about Japan that they have construction barriers shaped like rabbits, but they do.  These are around the corner from my apartment, but I ran into the same kind on my way home near Kanda Station yesterday afternoon, so apparently they aren't an isolated thing.  Since I wasn't in charge of their exhibit, I'll keep it for myself here.  Leaving the rabbit cafe, I had an impulse to go looking for rabbit ears - I was in Akiba at that point and there are tons of cosplay shops, so chances are I could have rounded out my blog with that.  Another option would have been to see if any of the maid cafes were having bunny day, but I'd already decided that I would save Akiba for a time when I could do it justice.

Besides which, the last time I went into any of the shops there, I spent more money than I should have, even if it was less than I could have.  Until I get a full paycheck, I'm probably better off avoiding it.