Maiko Sam or maiko-san?

BEFORE

AFTER

Ako (my host sis), her friend Mina and I went to get ourselves turned into maiko-san (apprentice geisha to the stars) on Sunday.  Carleigh, being smart, decided to flag the makeup and brain-crushing, migraine-causing, faint-inducing wig and opted to have my host mum dress her in a kimono while getting her hair done by my host mother-in-law (yes, I have connections far and wide).  A much cheaper and much more comfortable option.  Here's Carleigh BEFORE and AFTER:

"My friends asked me to go Kyoto so I thought I'd try to blend in." Here's Carleigh walking down my street to the train station. I like how her kimono's flowing about as she tries to avoid bicycles coming up behind her.  C thought she'd been stared at enough on the street.. ohhhhh, just you wait Carleigh.. just you wait..

Here are the four of us at Kawaramachi train station in Kyoto.  Can you pick who's Japanese in this photo?

So here I am outside Maiko Henshin (the maiko-dress up place) in Kyoto about to get in drag for this maiko gig.  Hmm.. As for the "60 minutes" sign, try 120 minutes! It took us 2 solid hours to get our gears on. We definitely weren't rushed through that's fer darrrn tootin'.  At one point during the make up session, I had to close my eyes for ages.  When I was asked to open my eyes, I got a bit of a fright.  All that make up.  So much make up.  We also got to choose our kimonos so that was pretty cool.

.. and here I am in maiko drag!! The several million layers of obi (belt) were fine on my ribs but it was the WIG that was the killer. I developed a massive headache later in the evening. It wasn't immediately heavy, but after a while, it starts to squeeze one's brain.

The cool neck pattern and what I look like up close.. the ONLY time I would understand someone saying "konnichiwa" to me on the street.

We were walking along and heard someone saying in English "Excuse me! Excuse me!" so turned around and encountered a wee fan club behind us. Carleigh said that it was only fair we got to take a photo of them too.  .. we can see why they wanted to take a photo of us.. I mean, look at us here.. who wouldn't want a photo of this - The White Girl and her Japanese Friends.

All in all, an EXHAUSTING but fun day.  Definitely an only ONCE in a lifetime experience.. I wouldn't want to do it again.. unless someone paid for me.  We had people taking photos of us everywhere we went!

Possibly the most amusing moment of the entire day was when I was OUT of my maiko-san drag.  We were on our way back to the train station when we bumped into another intern from Wellington - Jayde (who had done the maiko thing a few weeks ago).  We were chatting to her and Mina and Ako were chatting to her host dad....

Me: What are you doing in Kyoto?
Jayde: I got kinda bored, so wandered around here for a while.. got totally lost.
Me: You got lost?  You ... came here by yourself?
J: Yeah...
Me: So I guess the gentleman standing behind you is not your host dad then?
J: What guy??

So we turn and look at him and he asks in English if he can take MY photo as "photography is my hobby".  He was probably totally harmless but I don't like photos taken of me by randoms when I'm in my normal gears... unless they have proof that they're talent scouts or something.

I declined the photo opportunity and we all headed on our way back home.. with Mina and Ako recalling in horror how they stood so close to the henna ojisan (dodgy old man) and were chatting to him in a friendly manner as they thought he was Jayde's host dad - seeing as he suddenly appeared behind her and stood so close to everyone!  Mina even said to him: "Oh, it should be fine to take her photo.." and started to rattle off about my background as she thought he was kosher.