Getting An Education

Every blog I read kept mentioning to visit the Gion district to see if you can catch a glimpse of a Geisha. I read that they’re somewhat rare to see, at least a real one, and you only really see them when they’re on their way to work, around 7pm.

Worth Seeing: 4 out of 5. Even if you don’t see a Geisha, it’s still a beautiful part of town that’s definitely worth visiting.

Getting There: East of Kawaramachi Station.

I was curious to see how rare they actually are, but read that if you do see one, they briskly walk through like ghosts, here one minute, and gone the next. Contrary to idea’s pop culture has injected into to the west in the last 10 years, Geisha’s aren’t actually prostitutes, but actually on the other end of the entertainment spectrum. They train for years in many different forms of entertainment, playing instruments, performance, etc…  The blogs did mention a few ground rules though:

a) Tell the real one’s from the fakes. Many people get dressed up as Geisha’s and stop for photo’s and to talk to tourists. I was told that’s the tell tale sign they aren’t a real Geisha, and in fact they’re more likely to be from Hong Kong or Thailand than actually from Japan. The only times you spot a real one is when they’re on their way to work, and as such, are usually in a rush and aren’t for stopping for pictures.

b) Many tourists apparently chase after them like they’re on a hunt on a Safari. Understandably, they’re known to get annoyed because they’re simply on their way to work, while people are snapping photo’s and wanting to chat. The gist of it, Don’t be that guy.

I didn’t get to Gion until closer to 8 pm, so i figured I was probably out of luck. That’s alright, it was a beautiful part of town, and it rained a little, keeping crowds away.

At this point I’d given up on seeing one. It was a nice part of town, and it wasn’t a bug point to see one, if I did great. I was walking towards the exit of the district, and as if on cue with my thought of that, the couple in front pointed behind me. There was a Geisha walking up, covered by an umbrella, and walking briskly. I scrambled for my camera, but by the time I looked up she was 20 meters in front. I managed to snap off one picture, but since it was so dark, it was hard to get a clear picture of anything not moving. Another guy upfront was upfront of me with a big ass telephoto lens, he noticed her too, and started snapping off pictures, lighting up the whole side of the street with his flash. I could only assume the poor girl was blind by the time he was done. I figured I wasn’t gonna add to her night by chasing after her, if the photo turned out, great, if not, that’s fine.

Walking out of the district and crossing the street, I saw another one pass me by through the crowd of people. Literally like a ghost, they pass in front and then disappear amongst the crowd and surroundings. Within the span of 10 minutes, I saw two, I started to wonder if I was just lucky, or how rare they really were; is it just to add some mystique and tourism in the area?

By this point in the day, I was pretty tired, I’d been walking around town all day and was ready for some down time. I was looking for a solid Japanese resto , but couldn’t find anything that sparked my interest. I did stumble across a British style pub; I really didn’t want to go to a pub in Japan for dinner while in Kyoto, but it was late, i was a little wet and quiet tired, so I decided it was my best bet.

I walked up to the bar and started to order, just then I heard my name called out. I turned around, and there were the same group of friends from university that I had ran into in Tokyo, sitting right next to the bar. What are the odds. We finished off some nachos and Japanese whiskey. Discussed our respective trips so far, what to see what to skip. I got some very good advice from them for the rest of my trip.

Not too long after that, we parted ways again, they were heading back up to Tokyo, I was heading south towards Osaka. But I wasn’t quiet finished with Kyoto yet.

As with all of my posts, the rest of the pictures can be seen on my flickr here.