A very full day and I’m knackered. No wonder: I’ve done 24,500 steps today according to my phone.
First thing we did after breakfast was take the metro to a famous hilltop temple, Inariyamakan-Yuchi. We got there well before ten but it was already heaving with people and getting hot. I found it quite unpleasant. I’d hate it in summer I think.
We spent a couple of hours wandering around the entire complex, and then took the train to the Imperial Palace. This was located in an enormous park and it took us a while to find the entrance, it was great once we got in, much better than the Tokyo palace. We downloaded a free audio guide – entrance to the complex was also free – and spent an hour walking about. We didn’t get to go inside any of the buildings but they were beautiful on the outside and the gardens were lovely.
From there we took a bus to our rendezvous with the guide for the start of a geisha themed walking tour. The public transport here is super easy, you just use an app on your phone, it’s truly painless. All the more a mystery that long distance train travel is so hard.
I was nervous that our guide would be dressed as a geisha, but no, she wasn’t. Hana’s job was just to teach us about the business of being a geisha, and show us some relevant sites.
It sounds like geisha’s have a murky past where they weren’t too different to sex workers, although now they are (theoretically) entirely different roles. I can’t imagine the job appealing to anyone in this day and age, as the training is arduous and unpaid, and once you become a fully fledged geisha you’re never allowed to marry, although you can make large amounts of money if you’re popular. But apparently, politicians love them so our guide thinks they aren’t in any danger of dying out.
We had an early dinner booked at a posh restaurant, so had to make our way there directly from the tour, all smelly and shabby from our day of walking around exploring. It was a tempura degustation, very nice but expensive and I ate way too much. Taxi home in the rain for an early night.
Health wise, I’m feeling better in myself although my nose is still running and I have a sore throat intermittently, and I’ve developed quite a fruity cough. Overall an improvement.