Day 3: Gion (祇園)

The small district of Gion (祇園) is famous for it’s Geishas and restaurants and sits on Kyotos east side. If you show up around sunset, you’ll see a number of maiko fully dressed, heading to tea houses. We admired and appreciated the ones we saw, but didn’t want to interrupt them with photo requests.

We wandered the streets, appreciating the small gardens and architecture that stood out in comparison to the rest of the city. One of the highlights of our adventures in Gion was a Maiko performance at Gion Corner. The short 1 hour performance showcases a number of arts including Kyo-mai Dance, Tea Ceremony, Koto Zither, Puppet Theater and Gagaku Court music.

The main street in the Gion district.

A small garden alongside a restaurant.

A small flower.

Gion Corner, a theater for Maiko performances.

The path up to a temple in Gion.

A parfait with ice cream, mochi and red bean paste.

Red bean paste and other ice cream flavors.

Entrance to the dessert shop.

Entrance to a shrine.

Dessert time!

Delicious Hokaido style ramen from Ramen Santouka.

Open kitchen surrounds the seating area at Ramen Santouka.

Our two favorite finds in Gion were a small dessert shop (with no English signage) that gave us a chance to get off our feet and enjoy some tasty treats. The Gion Corner performance was amazing too. The only downside was that photography was allowed – which meant half the audience spent most of the performance taking photos. I didn’t take any in protest to try to concentrate on what I was watching with all the distractions.