Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

Geisha
The highlight of my time in Kyoto has been indulging in my favourite pastime....celebrity-spotting. The pictures above are of Geisha. If you`ve read `Memoirs of a Geisha` or seen the film, you`ll know that these women are regarded as A-list celebrities in this country. They arrive in cabs and rush into teahouses in Gion to `entertain` rich businessmen. Apparently it`s all above board....hmmm. We knew the prime places to spot them and made our way to this street, cameras at the ready. We felt quite suspect as we were loitering with some serious intent. However, we needn`t have worried because the street was lined with dodgy-looking old Japanese men with the same intention as us. The low point in the stalking was when a particularly odd looking man in a sun hat carrying a camera with telephoto lens and a folder containing pictures of Geisha smiled and nodded at me as if I was part of his special gang. We weren`t disappointed. As soon as a cab pulls up to a teahouse, people descend on these women like paparrazzi. It`s a disgusting invasion of privacy isn`t it? Just shoving a camera up to a car window like that. Poor women. They then emerge from these teahouses at about midnight but we weren`t going to hang around to find out. It felt dodgy enough. (So Gary, not many points for context but quite a few for the actual celebrity rating, don`t you agree? Please consult the panel and confirm our scores.)

Temples
We have been temple bashing for the last 2 days. It`s an important thing to do when in Kyoto. (Sorry Dad, but there were no catholic churches on the sightseeing map!) Temples as you can imagine are full, or at least surrounded by, tourists. I was surprised by the fact that the majority of the tourist are........Japanese? Are the majority of tourist in London British? The good news for the buddhist community is that their country men come flocking to the temple and will pay for anything. Bits of wood to write prayers on. Lucky charms (Not the cereal) you name it they will buy it. We on the other hand don`t buy anything like this. Partly because we are living on a budget but mainly because we have no idea what any of the things say.

Visiting temples is a highly invovled event. It should not be entered in to lightly and certainly not by anyone who can`t tie their own shoe laces. Slip-on shoes would be a real treat for temple goers. If only I`d known I would have popped a pair in my pack to make the last 2 days easier?

Drag Queens
That ain`t no woman baby!

This season the fashionable Japanese ladies are wearing skirts and boots. They carry the style off very well (too well in fact - they even wear them sightseeing!) However, Japanese men do not have the ability to carry this style off! We had prime window seats in a cafe on Kyoto`s equivalent to Oxford Street - prime people watching location. Hairy legged Japanese men in skirt, tights and boots is not the type of spotting you want to be involved in. It can really put you off your lunch. (Don`t worry, I wasn`t put off my lunch - I`ve got some fainting-prevention to do!)