Three little maids

There's lots of things to love about Kyoto but one reason is most definitely the frequency with which you come across women in traditional dress or in this case women dressed as maiko, apprentice geisha.

Gesha training generally takes 5 years, where they learn the various "gei" (arts) such as dancing, singing, music etc before becoming a Geisha. In Kyoto there is a thriving 'dress as a Geisha for the day' industry so these are unlikely to be the real thing! Still very lovely though :)

Fashions fade, style is eternal.
Yves Saint-Laurent