IN THE FOOTSTEP OF THE GEISHA IN KYOTO
Kyoto was the final and one of the most awaited destinations of our month' long round trip in Japan covering natural beauties and fantastic cultural experiences. Cherry pick from all our posts on Japan here.
The Kansai region played probably one of the most significant roles in the Japanese history, as the capital was located here over centuries: before Tokyo the capital was Kyoto until 1869, and even before that it was Nara (until 794). In both cities many buildings commemorate their historic golden period - read about Nara here.
Kyoto has also been the home of the geisha culture for centuries. I find the beauty of the highest quality kimonos fascinating, and I think geisha are such unique examples of a living tradition that you don't encounter every day.
But naturally, as the former capital, you will find in Kyoto an extremely rich culture, temples, shrines, a castle, gardens, markets and much more. We tried to focus our attention to new experiences that we had not gained elsewhere in Japan yet, therefore we didn't visit all the 'must-sees', only a handful of special places. This way we could spend a few relaxing days in the cuty, our last ones in Japan.
The Golden Pavilion
We visited the Golden Pavilion of Kinkaku-ji, which must be familiar as one of the most used photos of Japan. It is a hall covered in golden leaves in a pond. A shogun built the original hall in the 14th century, which was then converted into a temple, and then rebuilt in the 1950's after a devastating fire. It's a picturesque place but way too packed with tourists...
Daitoko-ji zen temples
We also paid a visit to the chilling zen temples and gardens of Daitoku-ji. There are 24 temples here in the complex, all within stone walls. The zen gardens require special imagination and patience to understand as sometimes a single block of stone can represent whole stories – a bit too imaginative at times for rational minds… (e.g. the gravel represents the stream of life, and a lump of rock that kind of looks like a turtle, represents the futility of youth, swimming against the tide of life).
Nishijin
Kyoto is also famous for the textile production, which has been alive for centuries. We visited the Nishijin Textile Center which still produces today some of the highest quality materials, being used, for instance, for making the dresses for the annual Kyoto Geisha dances. We were lucky to arrive just in time for a fashion catwalk (it happens 4-5 times a day) that presented some beautiful designs and which was a really cool experience!
Gion
Gion is the area around the Yasaka shrine, but today it is more famous for being the geisha district, We walked through parks, shrines and cobble-stoned narrow streets here which have a nice ancient atmosphere.
We found out unexpectedly that there's an industry for women to rent kimonos to walk along the city, and the Gion area is especially packed with these rentals. The price differs whether you only want to dress up for a picture, or if you want to take the dress for the day, and of course, the type and quality of the dress is another factor determining the price. This way dozens of geisha-looking women walk along the streets so you need to look well to find out who is the real geisha amongst them. After some time it's easy to differentiate them though from the way they wear a kimono and the special hairstyle and make-up.
The annual geisha dance in Miyako Odori
The cherry on the cake was the geisha dance performance in the Miyako Odori theatre. It's a show presented in April each year by one of the Kyoto geisha schools, and those who read the book Memoirs of a Geisha know its importance for geisha. We got VIP tickets to be able to attend the tea ceremony before the performance and to get some good seats. Although the tea ceremony was short and overall a bit disappointing, the performance itself was truly spectacular!
The tea ceremony is basically performed by an apprentice and a geisha at stage. They prepare and consume their tea, while visitors also get some tea and some sweet to have. You can keep the hand-painted plate as a souvenir, but otherwise the event was over by the time we realised that it was already happening!
The dances, however, went through the 4 seasons with a new decorations for each, and with new kimonos for the performers, accompanied by shamizen music. Both apprentice geisha and geisha danced, the latter ones in individual pieces, while the former in group ones. The dresses, scenes, stories, and just the fact that you see the presentation of a still living history at the show make this a very memorable experience – even Szilveszter said it was better than he expected (not sure what he expected though…). As this was my program of choice (his was the visit to the Gunkanjima ghost island next to Nagasaki) I took it as a compliment! We saw several geisha at the show and around the theatre accompanying suited men, another interesting sight you don't see every day!
You can book the tickets online - and do them on time to avoid disappointment!
Advertisement of the dance performance in Gion; The tea ceremony
Bamboo Grove
On our last day in Kyoto (and Japan) we went to the Arashiyama district to visit the famous Bamboo Grove and to walk along the old streets with forests, temples with gardens (Gio-ji garden is especially worth a visit!) and tiny restaurants. We found that the area itself is really lovely that is often rushed through by people just visiting the rather short bamboo forest, but it would deserve some more time and attention.
Night out in Kyoto
Once in Kyoto we wanted to try something authentic, so we found a little corner restaurant specialising in Kyoto-style okonomiyaki and the also famous local fried tofu.
Finally, we ended up in a karaoke club in a private karaoke room, another great invention from Kyoto. There are many karaoke houses in Japan with rooms of different size, drink and food service and high quality sound technics with in-built voice enhancement! The best value for money option was the one with all-inclusive alcoholic drinks, which certainly improved our musical skills, or at least our perception about it.
Luckily the Kansai international airport is conveniently located within easy reach from Kyoto, so we could hop over to our next destination, China, from here the following day. We'll soon come back updates on how we spent the first few days in Shanghai, where we had the luxury of the Chinese and Spanish hospitality of our friends, Siyi and Santi.