After meeting up at our traveler lounge, we settled in with a complimentary drink and started with a brief slideshow about the world of the geisha. Then, we started walking through one of the quietest districts of the area, the beautiful Miyagawa-cho where the geisha live and work. Here is a great place to talk a bit about the origin of the geisha and their unique world that has developed over the centuries but is still steeped in tradition. If we were lucky, we may have seen a maiko or geiko or two on their way to an appointment in full dress! 

After walking through here and taking in the charming glow of the beautiful lantern lit alleys we went to the grounds of the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, Kennin-ji. This is a really cool place to discover with the huge "hondo" hall which houses a painting of twin dragons on the ceiling. The oldest zen temple in Kyoto built in 1202. Here was a good place to chat a bit about Zen Buddhism and about the hard life of meditation and solving funny "koan" riddles too. 

After feeling all zen, we then walked up the hill and visited a Shinto shrine. Here we talked more about the native beliefs of the Japanese and how each shrine has a different specialty. And at this shrine, Yasui Kompira Gu, the ladies of the old days used to visit here to try and break off relationships with their lovers. In fact, now people partake in a little ritual where they climb through a large monolith stone to break off bad relationships, not only human ones but also unhealthy habits or disease too. 

After the shrine, we strolled further East to the Higashiyama area and saw the beautiful area of Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka. Here we also got that postcard view of the Yasaka Pagoda. I told you a bit about the unique structure and we then walked along chatting more about the history and culture of Japan.

We made our way towards the famous Yasaka Shrine and this was beautiful to see with all the lanterns lit up. I showed you how to do a Shinto prayer at this one which promises business success. Then we walked back to the other side of town. On the way back to where we had met we passed by some of the places where the "contemporary geisha" work, the many hostess bars and lounges. The well-heeled crowd of Kyoto likes to come here to play at night.