Kyoto and Maiko (Geisha in Training)
Post date: 29-Nov-2009 12:09:23
Whenever I think of Japan, I think of cherry blossoms and geisha. However, we're here in the fall so there are no more cherry blossoms, but we did get to see a geisha. It was almost an hour train ride to Kyoto (non-express train). We had a great view of the mountains and the bushels of broccoli like trees that covered them.
When we arrived we were so hungry that we made the mistake of eating in an expensive department store. For 25.oo we had 2 shrimp, a tiny salad and some chicken.
This sushi is about 350.00 Canadian
We visited the Yasaka-Jinja shrine and walked part way through Maruyama park which is on the other side of the shrine. The Shinto shrine was built in 656.
The pieces of paper are fortunes
Bells
Next, we walked to Hanamikoji Street in the Gion district to try and catch a glimpse of a geisha. I really wanted to go inside one of the old wooden tea house buildings. However, to meet with a geisha in a tea house you need to know someone to get in. We walked down many side streets and back alleys and saw a few places with security cameras. We suspect that the places with the cameras could have been tea houses.
Lastly, we walked along the main street of Gion and saw tourists swarming in one area. Could it be a Geisha sighting? As we walked closer, we saw two maiko (geisha in training) standing on the sidewalk chatting. We took a few pictures from far away and wondered how much they are paid to have tourists ogle them everyday. We saw one tourist go right up to one of the girl's faces with his camera to take her picture. She did smile for him though.
Other pictures from around Kyoto:
Two beautiful ladies dressed in kimonos
Even construction signs are polite
Matchy Matchy
These look comfy
Crazy Spider
Oh my...
View from the river in Kyoto
For our three year anniversary, Colin took us out for a wonderful pancake brunch. Our home stay host, Junko bought us chopsticks as a gift and cooked us nabe soup which is cooked and served at the table.
For dessert, we found some crazy ice cream flavors that were delicious.
For a romantic evening, we visited the Floating Garden Observatory. It's the 7th tallest building in Osaka and you take a glass elevator and then a glass escalator in the middle of the building to get to the outdoor observatory.
It looks like the Enterprise NCC 1701-D (Colin's a major geek)
View of the escalators from the rooftop observatory
Okay, I am gong to end this blog post on an unromantic note. I haven't talked about the western toilets in Japan yet and I have to. The toilets here are the most luxurious toilets I have ever seen. The toilet seat lifts up automatically (on some toilets) when you enter the stall, the seat is heated, there are front and back warm water bidet buttons, and if you're a bit shy you can play fake flushing sounds, birds chirping etc while you do your business. You can also download the flushing sounds to your iphone.
You can view our set of 164 pictures here: