Teatime With Geisha

In Kyoto, one can have tea with Geisha. One way is to pay a lot of money and get an invite from an establishment in order to have this privilege or go when the public Geisha dances are held.

I took the second option and had tea prepared by a geisha in a room with about 50 other people. The public dances cost about $30-$40 plus $5 for the tea ceremony. The tea ceremonies are a montage from 3 events - the Miyako Odori, the biggest and most famous production held every April, the Kyo Odori also held in April, and the Gion Odori held in November.

You can keep the saucer that the accompanying sweet comes on. I have about 6 of them now.

The music in the background is from street performers in Germany.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Japan
• Geisha
• tea
• Kyoto
• culture
• japanese-culture
• geiko
• maiko
• beauty
• chado
• tea-ceremony
• ronindave

[Tuberinio1949]

I think Japanese music would have been more appropriate with this video. The whole thing just looks like a tourist trap. No Japanese tea ceremony done privately would have all that background noise and talking. It's for dumb ass Americans.

[RoninDave]

@Tuberinio1949 oh please! You don't what you are talking about. It was not a private tea ceremony. That should have been obvious. These tea ceremonies are the precursors to geisha dance performances some of which go back 150 years and they were open to the general public to begin with. The majority of people in there were Japanese not dumb ass americans so you fail there for observation. Take your preconceived notions elsewhere.

[kmah88]

how can you ensure that you get a good seat? is it dependent on the price of your ticket or first come first serve?

[RoninDave]

from my experience, they seat you wherever however some of the front row people are VIPs I believe

[heomak]

@Tibly -No, contrary to what SOME dumb ass westerners would like to believe, the geisha's aren't prostitutes. ...far from it, instead, they are high class entertainers trained in classical Japanese arts such as the tea ceremony, dance, and music. in fact, the term "GEISHA" literally means "person of the arts".

[SukoshiKoneko]

I've seen geiko hundreds of time, yet I continue to get excited every time I see one ^^

[Yochaved]

with the "Ave Maria"?

mmmmm

[smukase]

pffft! sorry but these ceremonies r so constipated, i wouldnt last a minute in there

[YukioSnowoBloom]

@Tuberinio1949 "dumb ass americans" huh? Last time I checked we were both HUMAN, one & the same. This isn't the kind of tea ceremony that everyone would be quiet in as people go in and out & its not meant to be a dramatically beautiful affair either. What would make you think that? These things are open to people of all races as it is the 21st civilized century, after all. So yes I wouldn't have made the video quite like this >.< but you are no better by calling someone an immature insult.

[sailorek2]

@zakurochan1 uh.. You're right. I looked at the wrong picture.

[zakurochan1]

@sailorek2 The maiko in black is Fukuhina from Miyagawacho, But i guess she does look kind of similar to mamehana. Fukuhina is also a geiko now.



[sailorek2]

Maiko in black kimono is Mamehana. She is geiko now.

[black27pink]

take me to japan with you :)