The other night several members of the Institute of Liberal Libations went to Kyoto Japanese Restaurant to drown our sorrow from the lack of sports on television with large planks of sushi and lots of beer. The first time I tried raw fish I may as well have been offered fish poop instead of actual fish; fortunately, as a fan of wasabi and Kirin beer, I couldn’t tell — and still don’t care.

One of the most elegant Japanese restaurants in the South Sound, Kyoto is also a rather lively place, often filled with couples courting each other at night, large family gatherings and loners watching sports above the sushi bar.

It’s lively, especially last Friday … due to us.  Specifically, due to wasabi.

There were the usual wasabi-based practical jokes. Like BENGAY in a jockstrap, wasabi in unplanned amounts and places can be very entertaining. So when the Construction Representative to the Institute of Liberal Libations made a pit stop, someone dumped a good tablespoon of the stuff in his Kirin. I have to hand it to the blood-alcohol content of the Construction Representative, because only a blind and deaf man wouldn’t have known something was going on. But it wasn’t until he got to the end of his Kirin that he noticed his mouth was on fire. He put down the glass, muttered something distinctly constructionlike and slammed the rest of the beer! Needless to say, this earned him a standing ovation.



[Kyoto Japanese Restaurant, 8722 South Tacoma Way, Lakewood, 253.581.7229]