Tuesday 15th October overcast 26 and humid but very pleasant. 

We had a relaxing start to our day with no planned tours until this afternoon. 

We took off down through the markets and onto one of the main shopping malls in Kyoto. But we arrived too early as most of the larger stores open from 11am, so we walked and window shopped.

We came across some very interesting food flavour combinations. Firstly, a shop selling Parfaits, check out the combinations... Fried Pork Cutlet Parfait, this contains cream, ice cream cherries and crumbed fried pork. A meal in every mouthful.  

If that was not bizarre enough there was the Crepe Restaurant that sold the Strawberry, red bean, whipped cream and Macha ice cream crepe. The plastic food displays are common and appear in the markets and outside lots of restaurants. This became common place from the time of the American occupation so they could order food.

We browsed through some of the department stores, which are more accurately described as multiple boutique shops under one roof, before our first tour which was a Tea Ceremony.  

We caught a bus to the the Camilla Tea House where we joined a group tour for a traditional Tea Ceremony. Socks are mandatory and Chris is discretely presented with a pair to keep. Our Japanese guide takes us through the process and traditions of the Tea Ceremony and we also have the opportunity to make our own Macha Tea and taste it along with a seaweed sweet, interesting!. She explains the four principles of the ceremony, Harmony, Respect, Purity and Tranquillity. It is a quiet time where you leave your troubles and fast pace life outside and come to enjoy quiet and soft conversation.

The area we go to for this ceremony is very traditional with little wooded houses and small shops. It's full of tourists today but you can see how quaint and old this district is.

We enjoy the Tea Ceremony for around 45 mins and have an hour before we meet our next guide for our Geisha Tour.

We stop at a café and I choose a sandwich for lunch, only to find it is like a club sandwich that cannot be separated.  So I have egg and potato with mayo and chicken schnitzel all together. Another unique flavour of Japan.

Our Geisha Tour is with a large group of 12, our guide is enthusiastic and knowledgeable.  We visit 3 Geisha areas and get to see some of the girls dressed up in full make-up on their way to work. There are Maiko which are Geisha's who are in training, usually 16 to 24yrs then Geiko who are older. These terms for Geisha are generally used in Kyoto. There are different levels within each category and it is not until they are in their mid 30's when they can choose their speciality, a musical instrument or dancing. We see where the Geisha school is and our guide Yunko points out the programme of the dance classes and musical instrument classes. 

There are only around 200 Geisha left in the city of Kyoto. They have a union and belong to a boarding house for their time as a Geisha. They are employed to entertain and generally there is a lot of drinking involved for those being entertained. While in training the boarding house takes care of all their expenses and they can keep tips. But once they are fully trained Geisha they earn a decent salary.

The tour last around 1 1/2 hrs and we see areas of Kyoto we would not have discovered on our own. It's been an interesting day.