Kyoto, Japan

Hello family and friends!

It’s been a busy week in Kyoto. We’ve seen so much, and really enjoyed what Kyoto has to offer. We wanted to share the highlights of our week with you in photos- we visited Arayashima with its Bamboo Forest, and visited the Gold and Silver Pavilions with their magnificent gardens. We loved peering through the torii gates into lush dense forests at the Fushimi Inari Shrine, and saw an incredible geisha show in Gion. Kyoto has 17 UNESCO World Heritage sites because it was not bombed during World War 2, and there seem to be shrines and temples on every corner. It’s actually quite amazing to see the old with the new, existing in the same time and place.

Geishas, once very popular in Kyoto, used to number around 3,000 yet now there are roughly 200. These women, who train for years, choose this lifestyle at the age of 15, when they forgo any further formal education, and go to art school to learn the art of being a geisha. When you become a geisha, you choose to remain single and childless. We were fortunate enough to go to a ryokan and have dinner while watching a performance by two geishas in training (called Maiko) and we were able to talk to them (via a translator). Once they graduate to become a geisha, they are not permitted to speak about the life of a geisha, so this was very insightful. It was from these 16 and 18 year old girls that we learned all about what being and becoming a geisha is like. It was fascinating. Their dances were beautiful and artistic, and they said that they loved conversing with people and entertaining. They taught us some of the games they typically play with customers at teahouses where they entertain, and it was quite fun to see Luna and Dad playing rock-paper-scissors with a geisha twist- transforming into farmer-tiger-samurai. When Dad lost, he had to drink! It’s not surprising that in this modern age, where women have the agency to choose what to do with their lives, that the number of geishas has dropped dramatically to less than 10% of what it once was. Luna loved seeing the geishas and their finery, and is still telling us that she wants to be a geisha when she grows up.

There are a lot of photos included in this post- and some very interesting ones. My favorites are the badgers and cat sushi.

We’re off to Osaka to explore and will send another update soon.