Gion

Gion is the famed area of Kyoto close to and surrounding Yasaka Shrine. The neighborhood was originally developed to serve the needs of pilgrims to the shrine – mainly inns and restaurants – but ultimately came to be home to the tea houses, geisha, and night culture that have made the name of the neighborhood synonymous with the famous flowers of the night.

Today there are several hundred working geisha in Kyoto.

Though Gion in places is quite beautiful, much of it is like the rest of Kyoto. In particular, the area north of Shijo Dori that contains the hostess bars, “cabarets,” and other bars and brothels catering to middle-aged business men is astoundingly gaudy. And you will never find a geisha or maiko here.

In the area near Shirakawa Dori, however, telephone wires have been buried, there are no garish signs, and it looks like what tourists expect to find in Kyoto. On the other side of Shijo Dori, too, the area near the Gion Kaburenjo Theater  - where geisha perform several times a year - has also been well preserved.

Though the fortunes of the geisha have declined significantly, and they are perhaps not as exotic and remote as they once were - you however will not be entertained by one unless you have an introduction and are invited to a tea house (ochaya) where they work. The women are not sex workers – the word “geisha” literally means “artist person ” – and no amount of money or persistence will gain you entry into a tea house.Of the licensed geisha areas, or hanamachi - Gion, Miyagawa-cho, Kamishichiken, Pontocho, and Shimabara - the only one that caters to the masses is Kamishichiken. It opens a beer garden every summer in the grounds of the large temple in the area. The “garden” is open to the public, and as you drink overpriced beer, geisha from this hanamachi will flit around, stopping at your table briefly. It is a five-minute walk from Kitano Tenmangu Shrine.

If however you are famous or connected and do get into a tea house, what to expect? You will be wined and dined by the geisha, talk to her (if you can understand a rather anitquated form of Kyoto dialect), and get to listen to and watch the women sing and dance.
Depending on how long you stay and how many geisha are there, you will be billed anywhere from 70,000 yen ($700) and up.
If you hope to just catch a glimpse of a geisha, your best bet is to hang around Gion or Pontocho around five or six in the evening. That is when the ladies are en route to their first evening appointments.