Wowsers!! It was an action packed trip, so why would we change our last day to be relaxing or slow-paced? NO WAY!!! We got up at a fairly decent hour and stuffed our luggage into a coin locker at Kyoto station. Then we caught a bus to go to Kiyomizu-dera. We took the sort of back road up to the temple “Chawan-zaka”. Literally, teacup road. There were a lot of shops selling pottery, not many of which were open at that hour so we continued on up the hill to Kiyomizu. I was told by some of my students that Kiyomizu is where samurai warriors would come to be purified of any evil demons that may be clinging to them. It’s also popular with students wanting to pass exams. And you’re not supposed to go with a boyfriend/girlfriend as the gods will look down on your love and be jealous and split you up by the same time next year. I love japanese superstitions!! Anyway. There’s a waterfall that has three spouts, you stand in line and drink a cup of it. One is for education, one for wealth, one for longevity. But who knows which is which??
So after Kiyomizu we walked down the cobbled streets of Sannen-zaka and Ninnen-zaka. Three year road and two year road respectively. They were pretty quaint after you got past the super-touristy shops closer to Kiyomizu. According to japanese superstitions, if you fall on one of these roads you’ll get bad luck for two or three years. Though one person told me that if you fell you’d DIE within two or three years. hehehe. small difference…
And then we went and were magically transformed into Geishas!!! Well, maikos at least… (geishas in training) We went to Studio Shiki and had a really fun time! The whole process took about three hours from start to finish. It was like an assembly line and we just moved along as we finished each part. They were packed with foreigners and japanese girls alike. We had our makeup done first and then picked out our own kimono from a huge closet. We were dressed by one of the staff and then they chose an appropriate wig for us. Yes, it was a little painful. Tough to breathe in. The wig wasn’t particularly comfortable either. But it was still incredibly fun and goofy. After we were all done up we could hardly recognize ourselves, let alone each other. We took studio photographs and then they let us out a backdoor onto a pretty back street so we could goof off and take our own photos for about 10 minutes. Gramma and mom had fun trying to walk in the sky high shoes but i loved them!! Try not to laugh too hard as you look at the photos…… :-P
Phew!!! (again) so the last hour of our three hour adventure was spent smearing baby oil on our faces and necks and then scraping it all off with tissues. not the easiest stuff to remove. they help you put it on but no help getting it off!! i’ll hopefully finish off the rest of day three sometime soon…….
When in Japan, do as the Japanese do: travel by foot, train, or bus; eat yummy food; shop till you drop; and look good the whole time! What fine tourists we were :-)