I still cannot say goodbye to the beautiful cherry blossom season... Now it is already Golden Week in Japan, a series of national holidays when most companies and schools take a break. It is a bit weird for students as the new semester has just started yet we have another holiday. We are of course happy about it though! And this year is special because it is the beginning of a new era, the Reiwa, so the usual 5-day holiday will become a 10-day holiday! How awesome is that? However, this also means that prices for flight tickets have gotten insanely expensive, so no overseas trip for me this year 😅
Last year for Golden Week I visited Taiwan and three years ago, South Korea! I bought the tickets in advance and was lucky to get them at reasonable prices. If you are living in Japan, what are your plans for the Golden Week?
And yes, I made an obsession for taxis during this cherry blossom season, especially for blue ones, which I think are the most rare 💙 Tokyo has many colorful taxis but the most common ones are the black ones 🖤 then 💛 and 💚. In another spot, I waited for over an hour for a blue taxi and none came 😅 And then I found this photo that I took completely by mistake!
Today is an important day in Japan because it is the end of the Heisei Imperial Era (1989-2019). The change of the era is caused by the abdication of Emperor Akihito. A new era, Reiwa, will officially start tomorrow.
This has been on the news and all over the Internet all day today. What a time to be living in Japan! Feeling really grateful to be here during such an important period 🙏
Many Japanese people already feel nostalgic over the Heisei Era. Even though there were many natural disasters during this era, it was a peaceful period with many good things as well. How awesome is that we can talk about this and share our thoughts on social media right now? We might take it for granted already but if you come to think of it, it really is amazing how fast our world is changing.
Let’s hope Reiwa will be just like its name, a period of “beautiful harmony”. The name 令和 Reiwa is derived from Manyoshu anthology of waka poetry from the Nara period.
Photo taken in 📍Kyoto, Japan at my new favorite temple! If you want to know the exact location and more info about it, head over to my blog where I just posted a new blog post about my recent trip to Kyoto (link in bio) ☺️🌿 #そうだ京都行こう #平成最後 #japanexplorer #photohoshien2019...
Beautiful maiko walking through the streets of Gion ✨
When thinking about Japan, geisha might be one of the first words that come into your mind. Their culture is fascinating, but they are also often misunderstood because of certain stereotypes promoted by foreign movies or books... A geisha is a woman who is educated in the traditional Japanese arts, such as music, dancing, singing and so on and they are not courtesans as some people believe. Even the word geisha is made up of “gei”=arts and “sha”=person.
Maiko on the other hand, is an apprentice to the geisha. The word maiko, means “mai”=dance and “ko”=child. You can tell them apart by many factors, from hairstyle and makeup to kimono and obi. The kimonos of maikos are more colorful and their obi are very long, like in this photo.
Nowadays, both geishas and maiko have become “tourist attractions” of Kyoto and they can be spotted in Gion during the evening until midnight. Of course, you can also spot many throughout the day in Kyoto, but they are not real geishas, they are girls who rented a “geisha experience”. I enjoy watching them in Kyoto and I always try not to bother them and just snap a photo or two if I can. My camera is already old so my night photos didn’t turn out so well, but I am happy I managed to see a few beautiful maiko and geisha during late afternoon on my last day in Kyoto.
Let me know what you think about geisha!
Hope you had a great weekend ☺️ #舞妓 #祇園 #そうだ京都行こう #geisha #photohoshien2019...