Geisha Night

Saturday night we were invited to an evening at a traditional tea house to have dinner for our friend, Kitty's, birthday. The highlight of the evening were the 4 geishas in attendance. Geishas are a vestage of "old Japan" - they live highly traditional lives and pass down their knowledge in mentor/mentee relationships.

The geishas in attendance were from the Tokyo community of geishas (currently, there are about 300 geishas in Tokyo). In attendance were also a male geisha (one of only 4 male geishas in Japan), and the only non-Japanese geisha in the world, Sayuki.

The tea house our dinner was held at is in Asakusa, one of the remaining "traditional" neighborhoods in Tokyo. The tea house is not open to the public - you either have to be invited (as we were) or have an existing relationship with the house.

We started the evening with a kaiseki meal. The geishas circulated throughout the room, engaging us in conversation and serving us sake.

About half-way through the meal, the geisha performed for us - playing traditional music and dancing.

While the female geisha's' role is to be beautiful and graceful, the male geisha's role is to be witty and entertaining socially - even though he doesn't speak English he managed to connect with us and entertain. His "dances" were totally hilarious - here he is pretending to be a fisherman.

Sayuki played the instruments. She is truly a modern geisha - check out her ipod!

It was a great, unique night - definitely a once in a lifetime experience.