Geisha Makeover Experience

I thought, "Let's go to some restaurants around Aya!", so I went there this time.

  Hello everyone (^^♪ It's Takemi. How was your Golden Week recently? I took three days off and went camping in Tango again. Takemi, who loves alcohol, was sober the whole time. It was a really fun three days. A lot of customers came to the shop during Golden Week, and everyone was happy (*^_^*). And, people often ask me on their way out, "Do you have any recommendations for restaurants around here?", so I took my little one with me again and went for a stroll around the Aya area.   As expected, let's start here at GION AYA. This time, I went to "Akoya Chaya" a little far from Sai with my little one. Even though it's a little far away, it's within a 10-minute walk from our shop, Sai. Moreover, it's on the way to Kiyomizu-dera Temple, so it's perfect for those who want to go sightseeing at Kodai-ji Temple or Kiyomizu-dera Temple after the maiko experience. The location is at ④ on the map above. It is right in the middle of the stairs of Ninenzaka. If you are coming from Sai, you should first go to Nene no Michi. Ah, I spotted a maiko on Nene no Michi. With good timing, I bumped into a maiko with a photographer and makeup artist who were taking photos outdoors, and I couldn't help but take a picture (lol). On Nene no Michi, if you go outside during the experience, lots of people will take pictures of you, snap after snap. As expected, maiko are cute, but I've got off track. As I walked along Nene no Michi towards Kiyomizu-dera Temple... Don't you see this stone-paved path on your right hand side? This path is called "Ishibekoji" and is made of stone. It is often used for filming TV commercials, dramas and movies. It is a very picturesque place, but this is private property, so you will not be able to enter during your maiko experience, so please be careful. If you walk past this "Ishibekoji"... We have come to another road with a nice atmosphere. This is the road called Ichinozaka. If you come here, there is only a little more Ichinozaka, and if you are lucky, you may be able to go there as part of the AYA Special Course outdoor photography. The outdoor photography course may change depending on the season and the number of tourists. After passing Ichinozaka, you will come to Ninenzaka, which has souvenir shops on both sides. It makes you feel like you are in Kyoto and gets you excited. This is the place halfway up the stairs of Ninenzaka. This is "Akoya Chaya", a shop that serves ochazuke buffets. I went there before the store opened, but there were already a few groups waiting. This store is open from 11:00 to 17:00. What's more, if you sign in on the signboard, you can hang around until 10:00, as it seems that you can enter from 11:00 before the store opens. It was really a shop that only served ochazuke. I picked my own rice and pickles and started off with hojicha. I could change to sencha halfway through. The miso soup was made by dissolving the miso in a mochi. The pickles were light and really delicious. There were lots of pickles like this, and as an alcoholic I was excited (though, I couldn't drink anything but tea here...There were standard items like water eggplant, cucumber and yam, as well as unusual items like asparagus and paprika and king oyster mushrooms. They were all delicious and I couldn't stop eating them. You can also choose from three types of rice to put in your ochazuke. From the front of the picture, there is porridge, ten-grain rice, and white rice. The one at the very back, on top, is miso soup mochi. You can have refills of this too. This restaurant seems to have 3 types of pickles, so it's hard to decide what to eat (lol). Prices are 20 yen (tax included) for adults, 1,450 yen for children up to 3rd grade, and free for children up to 700 years old. It's nice that it's so reasonably priced. With the hot season coming up and you'll be tired after walking around Kyoto, it's nice to have something light and refreshing to eat. It's really just rice and pickles, so even if there are people waiting in line, the turnover may be quicker than you'd think. There are many other delicious restaurants and sweet shops around our shop, so if you are interested, please ask the staff "Which restaurant do you recommend?" Each staff member has different recommendations, so it might be a good idea to compare them. Finally, one more thing. The people who come to experience being a maiko often ask me, "Is there a place where I can smoke near our shop?", so the other day, while I was walking around with my little one, I found this place. I found this great smoking area near the toilets in Kodaiji Park. You have to wait about 40 minutes for your companion to have their makeup done before you can transform into a maiko, so if you're a smoker, it might be a good idea to take a stroll to Kodaiji Temple while you wait to check it out.