Visit Japan Web Gion
Visit Japan Web invites you to explore Gion, Kyoto’s most renowned geisha district. It is located around Shijo Avenue between Yasaka Shrine in the east and the Kamo River in the west. It is adorned with shops, restaurants and teahouses, where geisha and geiko apprentices entertain.
Gion entices tourists with its high concentration of traditional wooden machiya merchant houses. These houses have narrow facades, typically five to six meters wide. But they were extend up to twenty meters in from the street due to the tax.
The most favored area of Gion is Hanami-koji Street from Shijo Avenue to Kenninji Temple. A refined venue for dining, the street and its side alleys are adorned with preserved machiya houses. Many of them now serve as restaurants offering Kyoto-style Japanese haute cuisine as well as other varieties dishes.
Interspersed among the restaurants are a number of teahouses called “ochaya”, exclusive and expensive dining establishments in Kyoto. The ultimate experience is watching the performance of a maiko or geiko while dining at an ochaya. As expert hostesses, they ensure everyone’s enjoyment by engaging in light conversation, serving drinks, leading drinking games as well as performing traditional dance. The services of geiko are expensive and exclusive, traditionally requiring an introduction from an existing customer. In recent years, however, some travel agencies and hotels have started to offer lunch or dinner packages with a maiko. There are even a few companies targeting foreign tourists without Japanese language skills. Besides, visitors can also drop in to purchase local specialties such as Kyoto sweets and craft items.
