The Blog4Japan and Japanlife initiatives are reaching a close, but that does not mean that we should stop thinking about the devastated island nation and Japanese geishas and most importantly giving. As the Japanese tsunami news begins to fade the country still needs a lot of help.
It is not necessary to be part of an initiative to donate to Japan and likewise it is not necessary to be a part of a movement to blog about Japan. We can and should donate and blog about Japan anytime.
In honor of this truth I am dedicating this week’s travel photo of the week to Japan to keep the blogs regarding the country of the rising sun going at least on my small part of the web. This photo was taken in Kyoto, Japan.
Japanese geishas are a colorful, mysterious, and beautiful component of Japanese culture that intrigues the minds of those that have and want to travel to the Far East. Often misunderstood for prostitutes, the role of the geisha has evolved and changed in Japanese society throughout their interesting history. I managed to catch up with a couple in Kyoto, Japan while touring the Kiyomizu temple.
Stay tuned,
TT
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I’m afraid they are not real Geisha, but “Geisha for tourists”.
Real Geisha won’t usually stop to have their picture taken with you (but that could happen if you’re really really lucky) and you don’t find them in touristy areas.
Also, those are dressed as Maiko (apprentices) but they’re obviously too old to be Maiko.
Sorry… 🙁
Nice picture though. 😉
David recently posted..Help a Takamatsu NGO Help the People of Miyagi
No problem… I can just be a snob about it because on my first trip to Kyoto, I had the chance to see two real Maiko and one real Geisha (not hanging out but walking to their appointment at night in the streets of Gion) as well as a few fake ones (between Kyomizudera and Kodaiji apparently, they like to hang out there, I guess it’s because it’s the nearest tourist area from Gion). He, he. 🙂
I’ll post the pictures on my blog, but you’ll have to be patient, it may not be before a few more months (they’re already in the French blog if you can search through it)
🙂
David recently posted..Help a Takamatsu NGO Help the People of Miyagi
I look forward to seeing those pictures of the geishas. If you have the link on your French blog feel free to send it to me via twitter @travelingted
I kind of knew these were not real geishas. On this trip I spent three months in Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines backpacking through. In Japan I only had a week and was staying with two friends who were teaching English there. After such hardcore traveling in the other countries I became a tourist for the week I was in Japan and let my friends take me around.
I remember the movie and geishas are quite intriguing. Glad to get clarification from David on these but still a fascinating part of Japanese culture.
Jeremy B recently posted..Can travel and March for Babies save a baby’s life
I should write a post about Geisha in my blog one of those days (as the post I previously mentioned won’t be in English before several months, it’s part of my second trip and I haven’t told the first one yet – not mentioning the fact that I’m not exactly done with the third, maybe I should just throw the timeline away).
On the other hand, Todd is the one that spent 5 years in Kyoto, I’m sure he has more than me to tell about them (Todd if you’re reading this and looking for ideas for your next post about Japan). 🙂
David recently posted..Help a Takamatsu NGO Help the People of Miyagi
Interesting Geisha comments on this thread. Just learned a bit.
santafetraveler recently posted..Santa Fe diversity – Japanese immersion for a day