The communal bath was very nice – I only spent about 20 minutes there but it left me feeling quite relaxed. The washing machine on the other hand was very stressful not least because someone beat me to it every time the previous load finished and in the end I didn’t get the laundry in until just before I went to bed
We took a bus to the Minamiza Theatre which is the main Kabuki theatre here. It is also the oldest Kabuki theatre in Japan.
And was the meeting point for our Gion Geisha tour. There are several different Geisha areas here and we wandered around three of them. They each use a different lantern to differentiate themselves. Here are a couple of them
It was a very interesting walk round the various districts and ended in the smallest district which had some splended cherry blossom still on show
Denis had dipped out part way through and we found him again exactly where you might expect
It only remained to have dinner and then we were all done for the day.
Today I was up early sorting the washing machine again! When all was done we went for breakfast and met our tour guide for the day.
We wandered through another geisha district and investigated an old canal system, learning about the history of the city as we went along. And found another cemetery
We then had a full tour of Nijo Castle which had housed the Shogun military rulers until they had handed power back to the emperors
It was very nice, especially as the weather was first class and there were some good souvenir stalls on the way out.
After that we visited the Golden Pagoda
And had lunch at a buckwheat noodle restaurant. We finished for the afternoon at the Nishijin Asagi Museum which was all about the beautiful fabric which is used for kimonos and in particular the obi which is a fundamental part of the kimono. Gorgeous
And that concluded the guided tour. We all felt in need of the hot bath and Anna and I had some serious repacking to do
Off hiking then tomorrow…
Pearl Blog 3 