Epic Trip, July 2010: Dinner with Maiko

Aside from trekking up and down Mt. Fuji, the most memorable part of the Epic Japan July 2010 trip was probably the dinner with maikos. (Very, very sadly, due to timing U.B. was unable to come... I went a little wild with picture-taking, however, so hopefully this will show what it was like).

I know not all my family members know about maikos/geishas, so in brief: it`s not your "Memoirs of a Geisha" image. Maiko and geisha (more often called `geiko` in Kyoto) are basically artists. They intensively study traditional Japanese dance and instruments like the koto and shamisen. They`re also trained to converse fluently in all manner of topics, from art to politics, and do so in a manner that will put their guests at ease. They can be flirtatious and coy and play drinking games. And they do all of this while wearing about 30 lbs of kimono and accroutements on their slim bodies, without sweating off the white make-up latered on their faces, and being graceful the whole time. Oh, yes, and they represent the epitome of Japanese beauty.

Up until the night of our dinner, the most alluring thing about maikos, for me, was their elusiveness. I`d lived in Kyoto for months and seen many `fake` maikos, tourists who pay a couple hundred dollars to dress up like a maiko for a day and wander around famous temples looking chitzy. I`d even seen, on rare occasions at just the right twilight-time in the backstreets of Pontocho and Gion, maikos flitting from their taxis into high-class establishments. But I`d never been able to leisurely spend time watching a maiko perform with their carefully-cultivated grace. Those high-class tea-house establishments where maikos get paid thousands of dollars for a half-hour of their time? ...way beyond my price range, of course, and also mostly only open to well-trusted clients... there`s a saying about them that goes something like, "You can never come here for the first time." Basically, you need to be invited to a party there by someone else (who has, in the distant past, been invited by someone else) and then, maybe, you`ll be able to book a room yourself in the future.

So, touristy as it was, I jumped at the opportunity to go to a "group maiko dinner"-- a bunch of strangers in a room, each party at their own little table, with a couple of maikos working the room.

I hadn`t planned on going to a maiko dinner in Kyoto, though-- we just saw a pamphlet at the hotel and decided to go then-- so while I had plenty of now-grungy Mt. Fuji-climbing gear, I didn`t have fancy clothes for a dinner with maiko. It would`ve been beyond mortifying to show up in jeans, so the group decided to help me out by spending half of a day shopping. In Kyoto. For someone of generous, American proportions.

I am so glad that P, shopper-extraordinaire, was there, or I may have ended up wearing goodness-knows-what... something tentlike, no doubt, and probably in leopard print. P and C basically scavenged Shijo and Teramachi and found me a complete outfit, accessories and boots included, only cost a small fortune. Here it is laid out and ready to be put on--

...and here are us ladies, dressed and ready for our night out!

I shall begin, as always, with the food. We were at a high-class restaurant/ryokan in Gion, so of course it served kaiseki-ryori, the fancily-arranged, daintily-flavored sets that Kyoto is famous for. Ours came bound in a pretty red laquered box with a flower petal on top (and oh, yes, that`s white wine in the background-- it was nomihodai, or all-you-can-drink).

The first layer included a mini-chawan-mushi (steamed egg custard) and shrimp, among other tidbits.

While the next layer had bits of sushi.

After we`d had a chance to sample our meals, the maikos came in. Actually, there were two maikos and one geisha. There are many differences between them, some of which you can see in the pictures; basically maikos are younger and sort of like geishas-in-training, generally 16-20 years old. Their hairdo is all really their hair (geishas generally use a wig), and the kimono, hair, and makeup styling are a bit different from a geisha`s. It`s louder with more color and bits of glamor.

Here are the two maikos from our evening. The one on the left in green was younger (~16) while the one on the right, in blue, was on the verge of becoming a geisha (~20). There were subtle differences in their outfits, too, because of the different stages in their maiko career: one just starting, the other getting ready to finish.

The maikos started with a synchronized fan dance to show off their beauty and grace.

My camera couldn`t quite keep up.

Then someone associated with the hotel brought out a microphone and explained some of the features of the maikos` and geisha`s outfits. The whiter a maiko`s inner robe, for instance, the older she is (and the sooner she will become a geisha). The older maiko in blue had a fully-white inner robe with pale embroidery, while the younger maiko`s inner robe was red with white embroidery. And oh, my, they were gorgeous.

Another point was made about make-up; the younger maiko`s lips are only half-painted red, while the older maiko`s lips are fully painted.

The older and younger maiko`s hairstyles also differed fairly dramatically.

...I loved how the obi looked layered, too.

Here was our geisha that evening, who played shamisen and sang while the maiko danced. Her hairstyle and kimono are incredibly subdued compared with the maikos.

I mean, just check out all the things stuffed into this young maiko`s hair--

Then my favorite part of the evening came--the maiko came around to pour us drinks (beer, as is traditional at Japanese drinking parties) and chat. Here is P with the younger maiko:

...and the younger maiko pouring me a drink :)

Seriously, a once-in-a-lifetime chance.

C and P were curious about the maiko`s life, so I played translator and fielded questions. I was brimming with questions and excitement, too, but was a little overwhelmed to be sitting beside a maiko. I kept thinking that people who usually do this are super-rich; I was basically sitting next to an artistic courtesan, a living cultural icon. She had more grace in her pinkie finger than I had in my whole body.

So C and P asked about the maiko`s life. She skillfully dodged certain questions ("Are you allowed to have a boyfriend?"), but we found out quite a bit about other things. I thought that most maikos and geishas were from the Kyoto area, having grown up around the culture, but she was actually from a prefecture near Tokyo. Her family had come on a trip to Kyoto when she was younger, and she fell in love with the culture. Also, she had to apply to a geisha house through a process more rigorous than most high school entrance exams; while the numbers of maiko/geisha are dwindling, it`s still an incredibly competitive process to be accepted as a maiko-in-training. And then, of course, once you`re accepted, it`s even more work to learn traditional dance and music. She spends hours a day practicing.

It was a little difficult speaking with the maiko because maikos and geishas have their own dialect. You know, like different parts of America speak in different ways? Well, Kyoto has its own dialect, and --separate and distinct from that-- is a maiko/geisha dialect, including using completely different words for some things. Our little maiko was used to speaking a very different way near Tokyo, and she said one of her biggest challenges was learning to speak the dialect properly. It`s a softened, quirkily cute manner of speaking.

The maikos are also very busy in the evening. She said that our appointment was her first of the evening; she had two other parties to go to afterwards. I read another geisha`s memoir afterwards which said 30-40 years ago, the really popular maikos might have 6-7 engagements in one night.

After coming around to chat, it was time for drinking games. The two maikos demonstrated; there was a round disc which is manipulated in certain ways, and if you mess up then you have to drink a small glass of beer.

After demonstrating, the maikos came around to get audience members to participate. P went from our group to try.

....and she lost. Here`s the maiko pouring her beer.

I really loved it when the maiko in blue laughed-- so beautiful!

The next game was a full-body version of rock-paper-scissors, made into tiger-samurai-grandmother. The samurai beats the tiger. The tiger beats the grandmother. Oh, yes, and the grandmother beats the samurai. You lose against another guest, you drink! I tried playing this game.

First we were both samurai....

..then we were both tigers...

...then I figured the other person would go for grandmother next, so I went for tiger and won ^^

(the winner got a small package of `geisha-brand` oil/sweat-blotting paper for your face)

When the games were done, we had group pictures by table.

...and then the maikos and geisha posed beautifully...

...bowed...

...and left for their next appointment.

I`m still a bit in awe to have gotten the chance to go to a dinner with maikos. It was an amazing experience :)

Epic Trip, July 2010: Kyoto

The day after our epic trip up Mt. Fuji, my sore and aching group made our way to Kyoto. We went by shinkansen-- my first time taking that stretch of track-- and picked up fancy bento lunches at the train station. Delicious!

Going back to Kyoto was a little surreal. I`d studied abroad there for 9 months and gone back a year and a half prior while traveling with a friend over winter break. This trip was different than my other Kyoto-experiences, however. For starters, we were staying in a really fancy hotel. (The kind where you kind of feel like a movie star because people are tripping over themselves to help you... looking back now, I could`ve stayed at a hostel and gone scuba-diving for the same amount. But I wasn`t the one footing the bill ^^) Secondly, given the preferences of the group members, being in Kyoto wasn`t so much about dragging ourselves to temple after temple after shrine in the insane summer heat (which is what I probably would`ve done if visiting Kyoto for the first time), but rather taking our time, not trying to sqeeze too much in, enjoying fancy meals, and going to elegant bars afterwards.

Since I`d never had a vacation like that, it was new and fun.

One of the more memorable restaurants we went to was a funky little hole-in-the-wall near Shijo. It was advertised in one of the Kyoto guidebooks as a vegetarian temple-bar; the building was actually a registered temple, with a little Buddha statue tucked in between the bottles of vermooth and tequila, and the middle-aged woman who served us was a Buddhist nun. It had a very cozy feeling and a filling dinner set... brown rice, miso soup, a few hunks of squash, a lotus root salad, pickled daikon, and some deep-fried tofu balls.

Out of all the places we went to, I think this humble temple-bar was the biggest hit with the group.

Oh, and there was a sassy but adorable little cat tucked into a corner on our way out.

After the cheap-but-filling meal, we headed over to probably one of the most expensive and fancy (but still no-personal-introduction-necessary) bars in Kyoto. Here are our drinks; one of them came with a little show from the waitress that involved lighting a liqueur on fire and then passing the flaming liquid between two cups.

Here`s the Shijo sidewalk in summer; the lanterns above the covered walkway are in preparation for the Gion festival, which we just managed to miss by 3 days.

The group decided that they wanted to see 1 temple and 1 shrine (and spend more time shopping and eating out :). Anyone who`s ever been to Kyoto (much less lived there and loved it like I have) knows that there are are tons of shrines and temples, all with their own personalities. It was very difficult to pick a temple, but given the heat I went with convenience; we were just down the road from Sanjusangendo, so we popped over there one morning.

It was right around Tanabata, so we also got to see Sanjunsangendo`s tanabata display.

Our hotel was about a 15-minute walk to Shijo-Kawaramachi, and given how much shopping we did in that area, I got to see a lot of my old friend, the Kamo river. I really like the look of the raised platforms that all the restaurants put up in summer.

...and here`s a scene looking north from Shijo. When I studied abroad, at my last (best, and longest) host family`s place, I`d see this every day on my way to school.

Another day, we went to Nijo Castle. It`d been years since I`d been there, and I forgot how big the walls and gate are!

I picked Nijo over other Kyoto sights because of my memory of its lovely gardens. (Not quite as good as Katsura, perhaps, but easier to get access to). It rained a bit, being rainy season and all, but the rain had really brung out lovely green colors in the trees.

Sloping fortified castle wall and a moat--

...with a few bridges over the moat ^^

One of our last days, we went to Kurama.

I really wanted U.B. and friends to experience a Japanese onsen, and Kurama`s probably the closest one with a rotemburo (outdoor bath) and view. First, though, a yummy tempura lunch ^^

Mmmm tempura.

...the onsen was as relaxing as I`d remembered. No pictures of the view, sorry-- there were other people there, too.

Like I wrote earlier, we spent a lot of time wiling away evening hours in high-class bars with intriguing atmospheres. I mean, they were gorgeous. One of the restaurant-bars in our Tokyo hotel was so Japanese-ly basic, which further highlighted the seemingly-casual-but-actually-painstakingly-manipulated touches, like arranged flowers alcoves. I perferred the bars with a western atmosphere, like this one in our Kyoto hotel--

...it`s hard to get a feeling from my dark pictures, but it was just so cozy, with plush chairs and lit candles. (in retrospect, I wonder if this is one of the effects of living in a Japanese apartment-- comfy chairs? Really?? ...I don`t have to sit on a thin cushion on the floor? Oh, you lovely, lovely designer.)

U.B. went back to the states earlier than C and P, so I had one full day with them. It was Shrine Day. My favorite shrines in Kyoto are probably Fushimi-Inari and Kiyomizu-dera (or Kitano Tenman-gu on market day or plum blossom season, both of which we missed), but neither of them are what I would consider `typical` Japanese shrines... they`re among the big and showy, tourist-attracting shines in Kyoto. Like orchids in a flower show. Most Japanese shrines are smaller, humbler... like the wildflowers that spring up outside of a greenhouse. If they were only going to see one to set the standard of what a Japanese shrine looks like, I wanted to show C and P a wildflower-shrine.

I also really wanted to go to Uji to see the Tale of Genji museum that had been under construction while I was studying abroad. The group concurred that it would be more fun to go to a shrine that was new to me, too, so we went to Uji-gami Shrine. While it had what I consider a typical, semi-rural shrine atmosphere (that quiet, untouched feeling... completely opposite of the swarms of tourists usually found jamming the pathways of Kyoto shrines), it turned out that Ujigami Shrine had a someone interesting history, too. It`s even on the list of Japanese National Treasures!

Typical red torii entrance-- note the lack of tourists ^^

I liked the main worship hall. Note the two symbolic mounds of sand in front of the building and the quite unusual roof that arches at the edge.

...a thatched roof, I might add, with grass growing on top!

(Oh, how I loved thatched roofs...)

The shrine was known as one of the `Seven Famous Waters of Uji,` and here is its sacred spring.

...I got close enough to the holy water to see there were small animals living in it.

Holy crustacean!

Here are C and P at their first Japanese shrine ^^

The Tale of Genji museum was pretty cool too, but I wasn`t allowed to take any pictures inside. Just imagine lots of dioramas with people in long, layered kimono-- drinking sake, admiring the cherry blossoms, trudging through snow... oh, and the men sneaking in and out of bedrooms, of course... and you`ll basically get the picture.

That night, C, P, and I went to an amaaaaaaazing dinner-and-maiko performance at a snotty Japanese-style restaurant in Gion. It was so awesome (and I took so many pictures), it`s getting its own post later on.

The next day I got C and P off on their train back to Tokyo, then went to enjoy a few last hours in Kyoto. I met up with L for lunch and some crazy black-ink crepes.

Oh, and preparations for the Gion Festival were in full-force. I hadn`t realized it before, but the large, portable shrines used during the festival (to carry different gods around in) are assembled each year by hand. They also don`t use any metal, like nails... the shrines are lashed together with rope. It was incredible to watch the assembly process for about 30 minutes. (I think it takes them 3-4 days to get the shrines completely assembled).

Really, really intense ropework.

Oh, and did I mention that the portable-shrines are assembled throughout the Gion area, including on Shijo? Yup, this shrine is smack in the middle of the shopping district. Daimaru and other department stores are just down the street.