A long with Mount Fuji, the traditional geisha with their white painted faces, elaborate kimonos, bright red lipstick and black shiny hair piled up in a chignon are one of the most iconic images of Japan.
Kyoto, the former capital, which is home to an impressive 17 World Cultural Heritage Sites, including the Nijo Castle and the Kiyomizu Temple, boasts a long tradition of geisha district in Japan.
Any visit to this city, which was named the World’s Best City in the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards 2014, has to include a tour of Gion (one of five geisha districts). Amid its old wooden buildings, narrow lanes, teahouses and exclusive restaurants, you can still get a taste of the traditional entertainment these highly skilled courtesans have offered for hundreds of years.
The Gion Corner offers visitors the chance to see a tea ceremony, flower arrangement, koto (Japanese harp) playing, Gagaku (court dance), Maiko dance, Kyogen (comic play) and Bunraku (puppet play) – all of which take years to learn and perfect.
If you are lucky, you may even spot an authentic geisha shuffling along the Hanamikoji outside, although you may have to look carefully as tourists like to dress in kimonos (which you can rent). However, to experience the company of a geisha your will need to head to one of the more exclusive and expensive restaurants where they perform traditional entertainment and serve sake. Be warned, an audience with a geisha is usually only for those known to the teahouse mother.
With Kyoto the main centre of kimono production for more than 1,000 years, another must-see is the Nishijin weaving area. Here, you can visit small companies nurturing Japan’s ancient textile tradition as well as the kimono museum, with its factory and shop. Even if you do not purchase a souvenir, the intricate and colourful designs of these silk fabrics are a marvel in themselves.
For a more modern shopping experience, head to Shijo-dori, with its big-name brand stores, fashion labels and traditional Japanese stores selling Kyoto crafts and speciality foods. The Takashimaya, Marui and Daimaru department stores, and the nearby Teramachi and Shin Kyogoku shopping arcades, help to make Kyoto one of the best shopping cities in the world.
However, Kyoto is famed for more than fashion and luxury brands – it also has a long culinary heritage so don’t miss a detour to the Nishiki Market, a colourful narrow food street known as Kyoto’s Kitchen, for traditional foods and local sweets.
For a more traditional, old Kyoto atmosphere, head to the preserved narrow lanes, historical stone paved streets and wooden buildings in the eastern Higashiyama District around Kiyomizu Temple, where you’ll find a range of souvenirs, speciality foods and handicrafts, including the famous Kiyomizu-yaki pottery.
Of course, you can’t leave without taking a tour of the breathtakingly beautiful shrines and temples, including the Kinkaku-ji, or the Golden Pavilion, which has two top floors completely covered in gold plate, and the Kiyomizu Temple, with its wooden stage, which juts out 13m above the hillside to give spectacular views of the city and the forests below. Meanwhile, the Daitoku-ji Temple, with 21 towers in its vast precinct, is the place to enjoy a traditional teahouse.
Other things you have to try are a stay in a traditional ryokan, or inn, complete with tatami floors and futon beds (they range from the basic to luxurious) and a rickshaw ride.
The enduring appeal of Kyoto, with its Tamba Mountains in the distance, iconic Kyoto Tower and World Heritage temples and shrines, is its culture and traditions, which, like the geishas, have survived hundreds of years and are now waiting to be explored.