Tokyo train station is the largest station in Japan so we arrived with plenty of time to spare, ready to work out how to catch the super express bullet train.
Well I should have known that it would be pretty easy since the Japanese are so well organised and efficient. We found our train and had a great trip to Kyoto.
We arrived to this lovely hotel room which felt absolutely huge after a month living in a cruise cabin!
We spent the afternoon looking around the shops and then set off to walk to our night tour – a walking tour of the Geisha district. It was about an hours walk away.
The sun was going down behind the city…
Lots of people were walking home from work, these people were lined up for coffee.
Old buildings mixed in with new modern buildings.
We walked along the river…
Lots of young women out in kimonos, and some young men.
Today was a national holiday to celebrate Tokyo hosting the Olympic games in 1964 so many people were out for the night.
By the time we set off for our tour, it was well and truly dark and I don’t have a lot of good photos unfortunately. The area we started our walk in Gion, the area where they base the film set design of Memoirs of a Geisha on. The producers wanted to film it here but they the local council wouldn’t allow them to remove electricity and phone poles ( understandably, as a lot of people live here!) so they recreated the area to look like Gion.
We learned a lot about the history of Geisha. In Kyoto they are a called Geiko (finished training) and Maiko ( in training) – not Geisha.(read this for more info)
The narrow streets are lined with old buildings. This is a Geisha house and you can tell by seeing a small black plaque, above the door on the right side ( same height as the small light). Then you can see the names of the Maiko & Geiko of this house on the wooden blocks above the door.
To train as a Geisha takes about four to five years. During that time the trainees devote themselves to training every day. They attend a training school (we walked past this) to learning dancing, tea ceremony, music, ikebana – the art of entertaining. The women who runs each house & trains the girls pays for all their clothing, hair accessories, jewellery and kimonos. Kimonos cost tens of thousands of $$$. During the training period the girls are not paid, everything they earn goes to the woman training them. Once a girl has completed her training she has to fund herself completely, which is difficult. To have a Geisha party with three girls – 1 Geiko & 2 Meiko for 2 men for 2 hours would cost about $3-$4,000 Aus.
Our guide also explained the different, hair, makeup, kimonos and other small details that were really interesting. We learned a lot as we walked about the streets – places we would never have found without the tour.
We stopped off to visit the shrine at night.
This is the view of the main shopping street of Gion from the steps of the shrine where we had just walked- seeing the biggest Geisha house in the area and shops selling Geisha accessories, as well as all the regular shops.
Inside the shrine area at night was great!
Then we continued on through the back streets, seeing more geisha houses.
… and just before we finished our tour these two Meiko walked by quickly…
The tour was fantastic – we really had a good time. But after three hours of non stop walking we were ready for a taxi back to Kyoto station. We say the Kyoto tower.
We walked through some of the shopping area and just as we got off an escalator these steps lit up and then we had a light show on the steps.
Then it was back to our hotel and tomorrow we’re going to Hiroshima after lunch.