Girlish, when I went to my uncles house, sometimes playing with a box of ebony engraved with small polychrome figures. It was a delicate geisha under the shade of a cherry blossom. I liked my imagination to contemplate while flying to the Far East. One day, many years after, that little box fell back in my hands, but this time it was empty, contained some airplane tickets Japan. Thus, I loaded the backpack and, upon arrival at airport Tokyo, METI me en un Shinkannsen hacia Kyoto, where supposed to be waiting for me in my old geisha those childish illusions.
I left the train station in Kyoto and headed for the hotel map in hand, with the curious eyes of a tourist and clueless newcomer. Stopped at a guest house near Gion and, after a good shower, I returned to the street. From there, I began to wonder why I had not traveled before to Japan.
Gion is a district famous for its medieval centuries teahouses and, course, by geishas roaming its streets
Gion is a district famous for its medieval centuries teahouses and, course, by geishas roaming its streets. Despite its decline, the fascinating geishas still room in modern Japan. Briefly, male entertainment professionals are characterized by an exquisite culture, subtle eloquence and refined coquetry, with great skills in traditional Japanese arts. They are hired to attend parties and various events, generally in tea houses or luxury restaurants, and the cost of their time is measured as it takes to burn a stick of incense.
I walked a good part of the morning in the footsteps of a geisha in Gion and Pontocho. The first time I saw a, within minutes of starting to walk, I thought how lucky I was, it is not easy to see them. I dared to ask him to pose for a photo and kindly agreed. Do not get over my amazement. Are not they so secretive and elusive? After a while I saw three more, and the three returned to pose for me willin. ¡The lucky me sonreía! Shortly after I saw a couple, then a group of four ... Humm, something strange was happening. I turned a corner and cleared all doubts. A striking poster hanging in the window of a photography shop. A photographer offered his services to Japanese girls dressed as geishas. The price included the elaborate makeup and costumes. Go disappointment, eran of geishas postín!
I dared to ask him to pose for a photo and kindly agreed. Do not get over my amazement. Are not they so secretive and elusive?
I walked away from Gion grumbling that fiction and carnival, leaving behind the beautiful sanctuary Yasaka, I entered the district Higashiyama. I immersed myself in a world of infinite beauty who worship the numerous temples and shrines: Heian, Sanju-sangengo, Shoren-in, Chio-in, Kiyomizu-dera... In Japan, and especially in Kyoto, celebrates the beauty in its purest, austere, simple and free of all artifice. True beauty is revered, which seeks the essence, not appearance, illogical, without reasoning, only emotion. The epitome of that ideal beauty is Japanese flowering cherry, el sakura, celebrated across the country. The Japanese sakura represents for the ephemeral nature of existence, because from the flower blooms until the petals begin to fall just a few days elapse, small moments of fullness, blinding and fleeting beauty. Every year, April arrival, Entire Kyoto consists shines and cherry blossoms with the most beautiful of the haikus.
I ended the day with sushi satiating hunger in a Japanese tavern, those in which the client sits in a bar around the kitchen between pans smoke, pans noise and clamor of the cooks who crumbled fish with sharp knives. Leaving there, after dark, I resarcirme the chagrin of the false geishas. Through the window on the first floor of a sumptuous restaurant glimpsed a back. His neck marked by outdoor-ashi sanbon, that bit of skin without makeup, exuded sensuality and languor. Yes, was finally a real geisha.
In Japan they worship the true beauty, which seeks the essence, not appearance, illogical, without reasoning, only emotion
The next day could not dawn better. First thing in the morning and was walking on the tatami Nijo Castle and, a couple of hours later, the morning light caressed my face in front of beautiful golden pavilion Kikanku-ji. The beauty again. And nothing more beautiful to walk in the shade of the cherry in the call Philosopher's Walk, where I went after. It is an idyllic path that winds along a canal along a couple of miles up into the forest. At the edge of the walk across a mosaic of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines: el Ginkaku-ji, el Eikan-do, the Nanze-jiSo beautiful ... as austere and simple in form, in sacred silence, in their empty spaces. Or maybe it was just the empty suggesting that beauty intangible. Despite the hubbub of tourists prowling around, I managed to open my mind to feelings, the sound of water, the flute sound that could be heard in the distance, the caw of a crow, the sun filtering through the first red leaves of momiji ...
A few days later, I despedí the Kyoto. Many other places were waiting still: Himeji Castle, Mijahima, Tokyo's stunning ... but still no match the train and as I felt the desire to return when the cherry floreciesen, a nostalgic longing that is repeated ever since arriving in April.