I was with some of the other ALTs a couple of days ago when we decided to wander around downtown Kyoto. As we walked through the various areas I saw far more gaijin than I have ever seen in Osaka, mainly due to the massive number of tourists here. However that is a story for another day. When we arrived in Gion, otherwise known as the geisha district, it was already getting fairly late so I figured we wouldn't see any geisha or maiko (apprentice geisha). Yet lo and behold as we were crossing the Kama river to enter the district we saw two obviously powerful businessmen with their own pair of geisha trotting alongside them. The men looked fairly yakuza, not exactly the clean cut gentlemen I had thought would want to be entertained by geisha, but the geisha were a whole different experience.

Both of them seemed otherworldly as they meekly followed along with the two men and for the first time in my life I simply stopped in my tracks and blatantly stared at them. I was simply dumbstruck by their beauty and grace. The other ALTs were babbling on, but I was transported to a completely different time and place. A place where samurai roamed the streets and women could stop a man in his tracks with a glance. Anyone who has seen Memoirs of a Geisha know the scene where the main character stops traffic with a shy look and until now I have always thought that was simply Hollywood. I can't even put into words how I felt seeing those geisha and as we continued on I saw several more with one that truly stands out.

She was standing outside her teahouse seeing a customer off and after he departed she opened her traditional bamboo umbrella with a simple flick of her wrist. Yet that flick carried in it centuries of culture and power. I can't put into words how moved I was by such a simple everyday gesture, yet here I am still awestruck by it. It also may be easy to confuse how I feel with lusting after the geisha or some similar physical feeling, but that couldn't be more wrong. They embody a part of Japanese society that has been almost lost and just thinking about them almost brings me to tears. Pure unadulterated beauty. Never in my life has something struck such a raw chord in my very essence. They are perfection.