Kyoto day 12

Tuesday 26th November

I had a really enjoyable day exploring the shops! I went the whole length of Shinkyogoku and Teramachi arcade, and went along Nishiki market a few times. I also looked at some of the department stores and other shops along Shijo Street. I also visited some interesting shrines and temples in the arcades.

It took until about 11am for all the shops to be fully open in the arcades. I found lovely shops selling paper goods and rubber stamps. There's also a craft shop on Shijo, and Daimaru has a rubber stamp section. Everywhere is selling itemps for the new year, the year of the horse, and in particular there are lots of rubber stamps of horses. And although the Christmas window displays had been in place since I arrived, this was the first day of Christmas music. Constantly. Everywhere!

This was probably my best evening's geisha spotting. This was the first non-rainy evening that I'd been free since I'd been on the geisha walk. I stood and waited for about 15 minutes, and might have given up if it wasn't for a Japanese guy with a camera hanging about nearby who looked like he knew what he was doing. Then, like buses, along came three at once! It was a wonderful experience to see and hear them greeting each other, and after the first three I saw lots more.

When things quietened down there, I headed to another street just off Hanami-koji, and suddenly they were appearing one after another! I don't know if it was a big party being held there, or if this was just normal.

I added up all the different maiko and geiko I saw over the evening, and I think there were about 12-15 of them, with more than half of these being maiko.