Gion

On the day of the 30th Mom, my sister and I went shopping along the main street in Gion. It was cold and windy out, but it was still very busy. We looked in on all sorts of shops, from extremely expensive kimono accessory shops to a couple smaller affairs. One that we found ourselves in was very small and non-descript, but had an impressive collection of Maiko fans (showing that they were patronized by Maiko from the Gion district) and a good mixture of little souvenirs and more expensive hair accessories for kimono. While we were in the shop, another woman was being closely attended by the store’s two workers. She was an older woman, with her hair in an unusual sort of chignon and an expensive-looking fur coat. I think that she actually might have been a geisha, though it is hard to tell older geisha in their day-clothes from other women. After some shopping we stopped at a noodle place in the basement of another small shop that was quite good and mercifully warm, and then decided to take a look at a ‘Maiko Experience’ store. This is a place where a person can pay to be dressed up as a maiko (complete with wig and makeup), and have professional pictures taken and/or go on a walk around the area surrounding the shop. There are many of these around Kyoto, including one in Gion where we had been shopping. We checked into it, but the woman said that they were booked for the day, so we made reservations to come the following morning.
-Around the new year’s season, many shops have ‘mystery bags’ for sale. These are bags that have a flat price and are filled with many different little things from the store, always worth more than the amount paid for it. I guess that this is a way that stores get rid of older merchandise before the New Year, but I got a great assortment of things from a fan shop in Gion this way, all very lovely things at a fraction of the total value.
-Make reservations in advance for dress-up things such as Maiko experience shops.
-The best western toilets to be found are almost always in the large department stores, and since they are so big I don’t feel as bad about not buying anything.
-A 24cm long foot (on a woman) qualifies as an LL (or XL) at Hankyu department store at least, and they don’t tend to carry much above that.