Yesterday it was pouring with rain. Not too cold, just streets drenched with water. We didn't do too much, as Andy said, mostly turned up for a guided walking tour of the geisha areas that did not happen, due to lack of guide (I am sure we were there on time, and did not accidentally miss seeing the 6 ft+, blonde, kimono wearing Canadian). We decided to take ourselves off round the said areas ourselves as the rain had eased.
We wandered round Gion for a while at prime geisha spotting time, and sure enough we were by the most famous ochaya (tea/entertainment house), the Ichiriki, when we spotted a well dressed lady in kimono disappearing up a side street. We followed her at a discreet distance until she vanished into a house. We were then right by the Ichiriki, and in the next few minutes we counted 3 geiko and a maiko whip though the formidable entrance in the high dark wood walls, and several political looking cars (don't ask me how a car can look political) draw up. For all the weight of a kimono outfit and apparent difficulty of walking in zori or geta they move very fast! The maiko had an umbarella against the rain, and an assistant umbarella holder protecting her (I am sure) antique furisode kimono in grey and red. We also saw a very expensive black car slide by with a very pretty maiko in the back with lovely long dangling floral hair ornaments outlined against her white face in the dark glass.
After we decided that was it for a bit on the geisha front, we went in search of coffee as Andy said. The hot chocolate I eventually found was very good - hot choccy has figured prominently in my diet all the way across Europe and Asia, although it was a bit thin on the ground in Tallinn and Siberia. You can buy it in cartons by Van Houten in Japan, very good for breakfast or a snack, in my biased opinion.
After todays temple extravaganza, I finally got to go on my geisha tour with Peter MacIntosh. It was expensive, but satisfied a lot of my curiousity as to the reality behind the image, and sure enough, he pointed out the office where the admin is done (one of the main things I wanted to see, sadly), a couple of the schools where the geisha learn dance, calligraphy, shamisen, drumming, singing, flute and various other arts. We heard the drumming lesson, and later passed a house in a quiet alley with the lovely sound of a shamisen lesson coming from an upper floor. Peter pointed out the geisha names above the doors on several okiya, the small bowl of salt outside the door to purify the house, and a father and daughter kimono-dresser team entering a big okiya/ochaya. It was great wandering through the areas Andy and I had walked though already, but seeing things with new eyes, picking up new details, from the hanamachi's symbol on the lanterns to the big chalk board where the teachers mark up the lesson times for the geisha to note down easily.
We saw lots of trainees - those who are learning the basics and not yet working as maiko or geiko. They had just finished lessons and were mostly returning to their okiyas - giggling 15 and 16 year olds in pretty everyday kimono bowing politely to all their superiors, including our guide, who (with his ex-geisha wife) owns a bar where geisha entertain. A few stopped to say hello for a few seconds, as did an out-of-uniform geiko, possibly off to a supper-date with a client. Generally although the floating world is very elegant and refined, it is all business, and it's denizens move quickly from one appointment to the next. We told it was OK to take photos of the maiko/geiko, but not to get in their way as they hurried along.
We saw several gorgeously dressed maiko in roughly $80,000 outfits making their way to ochaya, although one very junior maiko we saw early in the evening was drifting gently along the atmospheric old street as she made her way round the district making respectful visits to tea-house owners other important local people. The maiko were very difficult to photograph as they do not stop, and all the swinging sleeves and swishing kimono hems mean a sharp picture is nigh on impossible in poor light without being so rude as to use flash in their poor faces. One stopped to exchange pleasantries with our guide for about 30 seconds and absent-mindedly posed for picture while she chatted, but later when another one walked right past me, she looked so miserable at having to endure the tourists cameras that I felt extremely sorry for her. They are hard working young women, and celebrity comes more easily to some than others, but an interested tourist, I'm hardly in a position to arrange time with one of these walking works of art.