geisha hunt

there is a special area in kyoto calls GION that has a lot of Geisha...i have been in Japan for 8 weeks already and im ashamed to say, i havent seen a real geisha...ya, seen a few before...on movies...hahaha...oh well, so as not to be so "sua gu" (translation: 乡巴佬）, i made a plan to visit the area...so i took a train, walked a bit, took the bus and arrived at Gion...it was a nice area, with a lot of temples and shrines (PS: kyoto is full of temples and shrines...each meter u walk, u will see one...honestly, after a while, u just get tired of it and won't wanna see anymore of it)...it was a HUUuuuge area and i walked and walked and walked and finally, i came to an alley....which looked like a traditional japanese street....so i turned in and saw on both of my sides, a lot of japanese restaurants, with Geisha posters at the entrance...i walked for hours in that area and it was quite disappointing, coz after hours of effort, no geisha spotted...when i was abt to give up...suddenly, there was one pretty geisha walking pass me...i was soOOOooo excited...I quickly took my camera out coz i wanted to take pic as sourvenir...but i was too shy to take openly..so i took a pic of the back of the geisha...i thought it's a sign that i shld go bek to the street..so i turned and walked back to the famous street...and guess what? another geisha passed by me...and again, i was too shy so i used the zoom function to take pics of her..and again...it didnt seem to work quite well...

so i decided to see them with my own eyes..i guess this should be enough..but still, i was determined to get a pic of at least one geisha..so i waited and waited and waited....when i was abt to give up...again...suddenly i saw a lot of ppl standing outside a restaurant..so curiosity took over me and i went and joined the fun (or crowd)...I stood there like an idiot, not knowing wat to anticipate!!!??? then just after abt 10 mins, there were two very beautiful and expensive geisha coming out from the entrance, with an obviously very rich OLD guy...so i got excited and walked closer to take pic...then this fierce looking guy came towards my direction and shooed me away...crap!!! but i managed to take a few pics...i saw this western guy getting very excited over geisha..obviously he watched the movie too..he just took the pics of these ladies right in their face...wah..so open???!! you know what? actually, geisha is not easy to spot there also...need to wait and depending on ur luck, u might not see one at all...then after me pacing up and down, i saw one coming towards my direction, so i ditched my shyness and just acted like the ang mo and took the pics of the geisha right in front of her...she looked happy though, to receive the attention...

somehow i felt a reporter...coz you have to pace up and down the street, waiting for geisha to come out while you get your camera ready...gosh..it's tough job but i see geisha with my own eyes and taken a lot of pics ^^ (^^)y success!!!

• this is my first attempt and the motivation for me to walk back to the street to spot more geishas

• this is the fierce looking man who tried to shoo me away for taking pictures....this is like a scene from the movie...the guy must be rich...but old :p

• After pretending to be reporter for a while..finally, i dare to take a pic of the geisha right in front of her face...they are all very pretty ^^ now i also finally understand the underlying meaning of 一白遮三丑 (fairness covers all the ugliness) ^^