Farewell

We have said farewell to the fabulous Helen and it won't be long till Aileen heads off to her new life in Indonesia. We are going to miss you both so much.

Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament

We have discovered a spectator sport that we both love.

Gion Matsuri

We spent the 16th and 17th of July in Kyoto braving the torrential rain to see Kyoto's biggest festival. On the Saturday night we and thousands of others walked through the streets viewing the floats. On Sunday we got up way too early to stake out the perfect spot to view the first half of the days festivities.

The second part of the festival begins in the late afternoon. Hundreds of sake soaked men carry these beautiful floats from Yasaka-jinja through the streets of Gion.

Gion Matsuri is the perfect time to go Geisha hunting. The Geiko and Maiko have many parties to attend and they come out to watch the floats pass the famous Ichrikiya teahouse. We were also lucky enough to glimpse a Geisha and a Maiko serving at a dinner. This dinner was taking place in a Machiya which was open to the public for the festival so we braved the crush and peeped through thr open window to stare - it must have been very odd for the diners as people were excitedly shouting "Maiko-san" and pushing to get a front row view.

The day after the matsuri we visited the Sumiya pleasure house- a geisha teahouse that was active during the Edo period (1600-1867) . The highlight of this ageya is a room decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay.