Hi, this is Christine of GRRRLTRAVELER.
Today I’m gonna share with you some of the best things to do when you are in Kyoto.
Wow they’re really high.
Look at those shoes.
I always look for free walking tours of the city.
So I can get bearings, get a little more insight into what I’m seeing in terms of the neighborhood.
And I found online a free walking tour of Kyoto.
It will be in the Gyan area which is of course what everyone is fascinated about.
The geisha and maiko culture.
So I’m off to that right now.
Let’s see what it’s about.
Last time I stayed more like this area.
This time I’m a lot more central.
This is a famous kabuki house.
Kyoto is actually the original capital of Japan and because the city has preserved Japanese
traditional culture, walking down the streets you can still get a sense of preservation
in like an older style Japan.
This is the romantic impression that a lot of foreigners have about visiting Japan.
They’ll be seeing rustic architecture and wooden buildings in minimalism.
Behind me is a famous teahouse that is exclusive Members Only, high-end and very famous.
Getting into a teahouse can be hard because a lot of them are members only.
Some of these memberships have taken generations to build.
The only way for a foreigner to gain access to a teahouse is to know a member and have
them invite you over, but the thing is they risk a lot (of their reputation) by doing
that.
So a lot of members guard their their membership.
This is match tea leaves, which is planted on this ground.
It’s like a Matcha tea leaves.
It doesn’t have any smell.
So the founder of this area Kenji, brought Matcha over from China to plant here because
Matcha the tea itself is made from crushed or pulverize leaves.
So when you’re drinking the (matcha) tea you’re actually drinking the leaves versus
steeping matcha in a cup of hot water.
That means you have more antioxidants as well as more caffeine.
The reason why the founder brought Matcha over here was because his monks were falling
asleep.
Matcha was a perfect way to wake them up.
These lamps are like teahouse lamps and if you see them you might see geisha in this
area.
Here in Gion it’s kind of like the town of the flower and Willow.
The flower being good beautiful young and youthful maiko and the Willow a geisha who
has mastered the form of all these different arts.
It is kind of hard to find geisha because usually they’re almost always working.
They only come out really at night.
Sometimes you might catch one, but please be respectful.
A lot of times they’re on their way to work.
No touching.
This is an okiya.
Which is the name of the house.
The okasan, the mother of the house and the names of the maiko that she’s taken in here.
We all have a similar name which is given to them at a temple and this is usually helps
people recognize what house that that maiko is from.
Here’s another house.
Right here. and that’s a similar name.
Maiko is a younger apprentice of a geisha and most my clothes are kind of like around
15 or 16 years old.
It’s really hard to become an actual Geisha because a lot of practice and skill goes into
becoming one.
There’s also very strict rules like no dating, no cell phones you know, you’re living in
a world completely separate from society.
Some houses might not take many maiko because it’s a hefty investment.
She needs anywhere from 30 kimonos to lessons for the next five years and it can well range
like $4000 to $5000 a year.
When they wear those shoes they’re really high, But when they walk it creates a clunky
experience.
So it’s very reminiscent of innocence.. of being like a little girl.
Japan kind of like I guess it prizes it’s youth.
There’s a popular misconception that geisha sells sexual services and they don’t.
They are people who have mastered several different arts from dance, playing music,
to the art of conversation.
All these are all things are what the geisha has mastered over time.
It’s a popular thing you notice around town is a lot of people dressed up in kimonos and
they’re not Japanese.
They’re actually renting kimono costumes for the day.
You’ll find many rental places.
You can easily ask your hotel for them but you’ll find them and you’ll even find
men love doing this too.
I heard there’s something like 6700 temples in Kyoto.
Very easy to get templed out here.
This is a mini shrine for love and a little bit of fertility too.
Rabbits here in Japan have like a reputation or have been symbolic of fertility.
Finally I have a shrine that’s going to be popular with you ladies.
The shrine is very popular with maiko and Geisha that live in this area.
That’s because the shrine is dedicated to everlasting beauty.
You make a prayer up there and then you come down by the fountain and you cup some of the
water from it.
Put it on your hand and then smooth it over your face and then you’ll be blessed.
I don’t know, I feel like I wanna bottle that up and take some home.
OK we’re at Yasaka Shirine now and we’re on our way to Maruyama Park.
You can see right now there’s like all these food vendors because there’s Hanami celebration.
This Hanami celebration kind of gives folks a reason to come out.
It gives a reason for vendors to come out and sell some food.
Hashimaki.
This is kind of like a crêpe a seafood crêpe.
This one cost ¥400.
I guess the others cost ¥300 and I picked up 400 yen one.
There’s Japanese mayonnaise on it, green onions and I think that’s okonomiyaki sauce.
Let’s see how good this is.
OK this is a fairly heavy stick.
Bigger than I anticipated.
I haven’t had breakfast this is my lunch.
It should definitely fill me up.
OK.
This is really good.
Between the okonomiyaki sauce and the Japanese mayonnaise, oh my God. this is amazing.
It’s just really a pancake and I want to say there’s a little bit of seafood in it.
I could be completely wrong but this hashimaki has got like flavor.
There’s a little bit of vegetable and corn in this crepe.
I was wondering why it was called Hashimaki.
It’s because there’s chopsticks (aka Hash) inside and you can use it to eat your Maki
roll.
Roughly about four dollars to get a little bit of this meal.
Today the crows are really out in full force.
They must be happy about her hanami season too.
It’s actually quite legal to drink alcohol in the streets of Osaka that’s why you’ll
see the beers being sold here.
Sake.
Here you have some sake.
It’s got a little Sakura blossom inside of it.
Here I have a very interesting temple.
It’s small, it’s tucked away, could be a little challenging to find but this temple
is for people that want to release bad luck, welcome in good luck and are going to do it
in a slightly unique and colorful way.
So basically inside these little balls here is like a symbolic monkey.
What you would do is you’d write your bad habit on the monkey, which is kind of tight
and bound inside the ball.
Kind of like keeping the little naughty mischievous thing from coming out and then you would write
on the outside your wish.
Of what you want.
You have this temple that’s turned into kind of a weird, funky, colorful art form.
You consider trying all these balls wrapped up with all these bad habits people want to
get rid of as well as all the wishes that people want to fulfilled.
And here we are at Kodaiji Temple.
This might be the last temple of my day.
Paying ¥600 admission fee will get you into the temple area where there’s a lovely Zen
garden but I’ll leave that to you guys.
Right next to the Kodai-ji temple you have this tourist information booth.
They can give you these maps where you can follow the path along the way and kind of
rub the belly of some of these good fortune statues.
On the back it also tells you the meaning behind each of these statues.
That’s an interesting way to get around especially if you have a family with children.
Checking some of these out.
I want to thank Kyoto free walking tour for showing me around and giving me this additional
insight so that I can share it with you.
You give what you feel the tour is worth but obviously whatever they give you in that tour
is worth a whole lot more than whatever you’re probably tipping.
Thanks for watching I hope you enjoy this video.
Let me know what you think and comment section below.
Until then travel safe smart and fun and may the girl be with you.
Check out my Japan video playlist for more in-depth videos about these places and check
back for more GRRRLTRAVELER videos where I take you inside my solo travelers adventures.
As always links in the description box below.
Until then, travel safe smart and fun and made a GRRR be with you.