The “geisha side of Japan” means to me the traditional arts (geisha literally meaning “art person” after all!) and Kyoto is the place to experience the different traditional Japanese arts, whether it is kaiseki food, bonzai trees or karesansui rock garden art, there is tons and tons to experience!

But, I can’t have a post with the word geisha and and not show a few … geisha! Always so special to see one, with their looks and movement invoking something from another world.

The intricate details on their kimono and hair is amazing.

When you walk past Kamogawa river, you can see the teahouses on the other side, and sure enough there were geisha entertaining guests there. Such a mysterious scene! You really feel lucky when you see a geisha (and maybe you are?)

The whole atmosphere at night is so moody in Kyoto. The lanterns are lit up:

Also very interesting are all the small shrines tucked away in corners in the alleyways

I wonder what they mean? They seemed to be for protection.

It started to rain, and honestly, that made the views of the Kyoto streets and alleyways even more beautiful:

For Wards birthday – hoera! – we had the chance to experience a stay in a traditional inn, called a ryokan. Here, they served a Japanese multi-course kaiseki dinner in the room!

Our own private room with garden!

Our hostess made a photo of us while she was serving us the most beautiful dinner :D

Local ingredients:

Still going with the theme of Japanese traditional arts: bonzai! We visited a temple area we haven’t visited before and there was a bonzai garden:

Some of them were over 500 years old. Can you imagine them caring for this tree 500 years ago?

The gardens around it were of the pebble kind, which I love, it reminds me of islands in a lake, or mountain tops above the clouds:

I really like the rhythm of the shapes, it is quite surreal

They mix it up with the flowy, organic gardens, and that combination is really beautiful.

We were quite surprised there were still so many beautiful temples in Kyoto that we had not seen before.

And this time we also really paid a lot of attention to the smaller shrines and temples around the city, discovering small pockets of cherryblossoms and plums hidden between the buildings.