How To Experience Geisha Culture In Japan

The secret world of a geisha, their lifestyle, and what it takes to become one.

Listen carefully and you can hear the delicate sound of shuffling geisha heading towards Kyoto’s tea houses as dusk falls like chiffon across the Gion district. Admiring onlookers, mesmerised by their timeless beauty, stop and stare as they flutter along like butterflies, their jewelled hair dancing in the breeze.

What exactly is a geisha?

Long shrouded in mystery, the geisha lifestyle has captivated people from all corners of the globe. Young Japanese women dress like them, little girls play kimono dress-ups and some, entranced by the celebrity-type lifestyle, join the ranks to become one. But it’s a tough highway to hoe to reach geisha status.

Geisha history and the prostitution myth

During the late 600s saburuko (serving girls) were the first known geishas to wait tables, make conversation and sometimes offer sexual favours. By the late 16th century major Japanese cities had constructed walled pleasure quarters where oiran (courtesans) lived and worked as licensed prostitutes.

The original role of the geisha – meaning arts person – was as an assistant to the oiran, and regulations precluded them from engaging in personal relations with customers. Geisha became extremely popular in the 1750s and by the 1800s were considered accomplished professional entertainers, far removed from the ‘ladies of the night’ perception.

Where do geishas live?

Former Imperial capital Kyoto is considered the birthplace of geisha culture, and is still one of the best places to experience it. Here, geisha are called geiko, and their younger counterparts are maiko. Young women who want to become a maiko (dancing girl) are usually aged between 15 and 20 years old.

First though they must find an okiya – a shared boarding house for aspiring maiko – run by an okasan (the ‘mother’ of the house) willing to sponsor her. As a sponsor, the okasan will pay for everything during the maiko’s nenki (her contract).

Not all girls will be accepted though, as during the maiko’s apprenticeship the okasan can shell out as much as 10 million yen ($130,000) to support and train them. The money goes towards her lessons as she learns how to perfect the subtle hand and foot movements of Japanese dancing, the precise steps of a tea ceremony, and social etiquette while performing cultural arts.

Alongside buying high quality kimonos the okasan will also give her maiko a monthly allowance of around 20,000 yen ($250) for clothing and make-up. The houses are not large though and she’ll usually share a room with four other maikos.

It’s strictly a business portfolio for the okasan. They reap the benefits from earning a percentage of the maiko’s income as she begins to work during the second year of her apprenticeship. And like going to university and repaying a student loan, the maiko will repay the sponsor back once she becomes a geisha.

Kyoto is considered to be the birthplace of Geisha culture

Geisha’s will usually share a room with four others during their training

What is the true meaning of a geisha?

To enter into geisha-hood is to leave the modern world behind. The training period can last as long as five years, and they must follow strict rules to reach the coveted status. No longer called by their real name, they adopt a stage name given by the okasan.

Contact with family and friends is limited and mobile phones and any form of social media are off-limits. It’s like taking a vow of chastity – if she becomes romantically involved she has to leave the house. When there is attraction, a maiko has to learn how to create a barrier as it’s strictly forbidden for men to touch them, but she must also be playful in order to keep customers.

An interview with a geisha

In one of Kyoto’s tea houses, I meet 21-year-old Kahohana (beauty of flower), who recently graduated to geisha. In a softly spoken, trained lyrical voice she tells me about her apprenticeship. “At first our days are very hard, we are not used to it," she says, tilting her porcelain painted face to one side, “we have to sleep on wooden pillows to keep our hair in place and it took me six months to learn how to walk along in okobo, the high wooden sandal worn by the maiko."

Now she has completed her training, I ask Kahohana if she enjoys her work as a geisha. “Yes, yes, very much – I really love to dance and play Japanese instruments at the theatre and to perform in front of people at tea ceremonies." She controls her smile, careful not to break into a grin for fear of ruining her make-up. “I also really like to dress in beautiful kimonos", she adds before tottering off to her next appointment.

The original role of the geisha – meaning arts person – was as an assistant to the oiran

Maiko vs geisha

Young woman such as Kohohana consider themselves fortunate. Not all maiko reach the ceremony known as ‘turning the collar’ (erikae), where they transition to geisha status, and even then employment is not guaranteed. Some geisha work other jobs, and others return to study.

To be successful and in high demand a geisha has to be many things. Alongside being a gifted entertainer, she has to ‘listen’ with expressive eyes, know when to be a sounding board, and also be knowledgeable in the arts, history and politics. She is like a therapist, a confidante, and if she has mastered her skills, her diary will be full of appointments. In just two hours a geisha can charge 60,000 yen ($750) and in six hours, around 180,000 yen ($2200) for a private session. A percentage goes to the establishment she’s working in, but a geisha working between the ages of 25 and 45 years can earn a substantial income in her career.

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Geisha make-up

Most of all geisha and maiko must look as though she’s just stepped out of a Madame Tussauds’ wax museum: not a hair out of place, her allure is in her appearance. It takes time though to perfect the face of Japan. Maiko and geisha start getting ready around 3pm and work from 6pm onwards.

Make-up and hair can take one to two hours as she’ll paint her face and nape of the neck – considered the most sensual part of a woman – in oshiroi: the iconic white powder associated with geisha. As a geisha, she’ll apply red lipstick to both lips, whereas a maiko only makes up the bottom lip. The kimono alone can take 30 minutes.

It takes around three hours to transform into full Geisha makeup

How to spot a geisha

Transitioning into the world of geisha-hood is to pledge to be gracious, elegant, yet quietly strong and articulate. Even after a night of performing and accompanying men to theatres, geisha can be seen taking tiny steps in Gion district’s lamplight as they head home, perfectly composed, still carrying the air of secrecy to one of Japan’s oldest and most idolised professions.

Details:

Wendy Wu Tours runs an immersive 14-day all-inclusive Trails of Japan Tour starting from $9640 – guests attend a geisha performance and visit the Gion district in Kyoto.

Want to experience more of Japan? Here is our ultimate travel guide to the best eats, stays and experiences in Japan.

After youth-led protests in 2025, this year Nepal elected a 35-year-old former rapper as Prime Minister. In a country where tourism is its biggest industry, what’s next for travellers?

In 1986, Nepal changed its clock. It had used India Standard Time since 1920 so, to differentiate, it wound its clock 15 minutes ahead of, not behind, its big-brother neighbour. Boss move. “Nepal is strongly opposed to the idea that our identity is connected to India,” says Community Homestay Network (CHN) guide Bikal Khanal.

Tharu dance is traditionally set to hand drums. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

Today, Nepal is the only independent country with a 45-minute deviation to universal time; an oddity that’s become a symbol of national pride. The quirk is nearly as endearing as Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport where carved varnished wood and shiny red bricks rule. One sign points to a ‘Travelator’ and another to a ‘Grievance Handling Desk’ while visas are noisily stamped at customs for US dollars, cash only. When am I?

Spot the endemic Nepal gray langur. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The 15 or 45 minute anomaly sees me tap out completely on timezone calculations. Why bend my brain calculating if it’s quarter to or quarter past elsewhere when I’m in the honking here and now of Kathmandu where the air is high-altitude crisp, the prayer flags flutter and the street dogs howl?

How tourism is changing in Nepal

Bardiya National Park is rich with wildlife. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

India is not the only association many Nepalis would like to shake. With eight of the world’s 10 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest and Annapurna, Nepal has long attracted mountaineers and trekkers, and expedition numbers are continuing to rise.

Tourism is one of the country’s biggest sources of foreign currency, so this growth is not negative, per se. But according to Ang Tshering Lama, who co-founded Phaplu Mountain Bike Club, being reduced to a mere trekking destination is limiting.

“Trekking is just one layer of our identity,” says Ang. “When it becomes the dominant narrative, it limits how we’re seen and how we see ourselves.” Nepal’s recent success, however, in diverting trekkers to less-trafficked areas such as Manaslu mofuntain, where visitor numbers rose by 117 per cent last year, offers hope that tourism can diversify even more radically.

Local men in Bhada village. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

The founder of CHN, Shiva Dhakal, wants that change. “The whole idea of the Community Homestay Network is to promote experiences outside of trekking,” he says. “Community tourism changes lives and helps kids stay home instead of coming to the city or migrating to the Middle East.”

Ang grew up seeing people leave, “not because they wanted to but because there weren’t enough opportunities to stay”, he states. Yet from remote villages to living traditions; food, art, music and emerging subcultures, “there’s so much that’s not being seen.”

CHN is opening some of those doors. It doesn’t own, or fund, any homes. Rather, it promotes homestays to travellers on a single, slick platform, while fostering entrepreneurship in places where women, marginalised castes, Indigenous people and the youth stand to benefit the most.

A new generation demanding more

Dalla Town Hall, where volunteers discuss anti-poaching tactics. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The future prospects of next-gen Nepalis can no longer be ignored. On a Kathmandu tour with 33-year-old guide Monica K.C, we pass buildings torched in the September 2025 ‘Gen Z protests’, including the Supreme Court and Parliament House. Seventy-two people died. “They were anti-corruption protests,” says Monica. “Politicians’ children are living a lavish life but the airports are crowded with youngsters leaving to find work.”

We stop in ‘little Tibet’ at the wondrous sixth-century Boudha Stupa. “The wheel of life is Buddhism in a nutshell,” says Monica. “Things such as hate, ignorance and anger keep you rotating around the wheel, so you must follow the principles of Buddhism to detach. If you can’t, there’s no nirvana for you.”

Boudha Stupa's prayer wheels — Boudha Stupa’s prayer wheels are used to recite Buddhist prayers. (Credit: Kate Lewis)

In a sun-drenched twist to the usual temple visit, we ascend the stupa’s sloping plinth and roam its whitewashed dome. Tendrils of diaphanous prayer flags stream from a steeple-like structure where the Buddha’s unblinking eyes stare out. No nirvana for you…

bouda stupa prayer flags — Tibetan-style prayer flags embellish the whitewashed dome of Bouda Stupa, a Buddhist temple. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

The dome is delightfully free of guard rails or chiding from security. There is, however, a stern ‘No TikTok’ sign, perhaps in response to the youth’s newly flexed power. The booted-out Prime Minister, K.P. Sharma Oli, was replaced in a resounding election victory in March by 35-year-old Balendra Shah of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) – a former rapper and mayor of Kathmandu. The RSP’s manifesto indicates tourism is a priority, and that Nepal’s cultural identity in areas such as gastronomy will be strengthened.

Boudha Stupa vendors — Vibrant souvenir shops and cafes around Boudha Stupa. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

A more confronting stop awaits at Pashupatinath Temple. Today is Bala Chaturdashi, a Hindu festival where thousands of devotees gather to honour their dead ancestors. Vendors hauling foam mattresses do a lucrative trade as people set up for a night of vigil. This includes burning the bodies of recently deceased relatives on bamboo pyres in the Bagmati River, which flows into the sacred Ganges.

A woman at annual Hindu festival Bala Chaturdashi, in Kathmandu. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Wrapped in a shroud, the bodies are positioned with their heads facing north to the Himalayas where Lord Shiva resides. They’re covered with flowers and straw and set alight by male family members.

Hours later, the ashes are swept into the river where devotees will take a holy dip the next day. As much as Monica assures us it’s not voyeuristic to watch, I struggle to do so. “Here you see the reality of life because everyone ends up there,” she says, gesturing to the river.

Life unfiltered in the Terai region

tharu woman — Tharu woman and master weaver Parbati Chaudhary in Bhada Village. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

The reality of life needs processing time, which the western Terai region delivers in spades. The Terai is largely separated from India by the Karnali River and Bardiya National Park, where elephants, rhinos and the elusive Bengal tiger roam.

Once a nomadic tribe, the Indigenous Tharu people are now the largest ethnic group here. “They didn’t know their daily life was interesting for international travellers but they’re starting to understand now,” says CHN founder Shiva.

Take a Jeep safari through Bardiya National Park. (Credit: Bheem Thapa)

We fly Buddha Air to Dhangadhi airport and drive five hours to stay in Tharu homes. The journey to Bhada village is a blur of roadside fruit stalls, traffic-stopping sacred cows and fields sown with wheat, rice, mustard, spinach, cauliflower and potatoes. Nepal’s agriculture feeds only Nepal.

Marigolds are an important part of Hindu rituals. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

“The only thing we export is young people,” says our guide Bikal. As the light dims and we plunge evermore rural, mysterious mounds of compacted hay – some house-sized – loom like the creatures from Where The Wild Things Are. Even our trusty driver gets flummoxed by a dirt road that abruptly ends and we find ourselves hurtling across a paddock.

On arrival, some are ferried to mud-walled cottages greened by gourd creepers, with thatched roofs and rustic-chic mosquito nets. Myself and two others are ushered to the home of corner store owner, mechanic and mushroom farmer Man Kumar Chilaruwa and his wife Rajkumari.

community homestay entrance — A warm welcome at a community homestay. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

They escort us to a bunker-esque back building with steel doors and a folding security gate, behind which is gleaming linoleum, dolphin-printed tiles and a shower cavity that must be gingerly stepped through to reach the toilet.

The ceiling lights emit a rainbow of colours (the bathroom light gets stuck in, frankly, a quite frightening red). We’re nevertheless touched that our hosts invested in all this bling when the average salary is around $275 a month.

In the coming days, we participate in Tharu traditions such as making moonshine, dancing, weaving straw handicrafts and gold-panning. We’re fed well with staples of rice, mustard greens, lentil pancakes, daal, curried chicken and tomato chutney served on antibacterial saal leaves.

food at community homestay — Dig in. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Sonara community homestay president Indradevi Tharu tells us river snails are often served, and the boiled and pickled flesh of rats hunted in the rice fields. “Perhaps next time?” we say and all have a laugh.

The power of community homestays

community homestay owners in Nepal — Barda community homestay owners Parbati Chaudhary and Ram Krishni Devi Chaudhary. (Credit: Simon Urwin)

Immersing Western visitors in foreign cultural practices is not new. But with the Tharu, I never get that uneasy sensation that I’m being performed for. Despite being the only tourists, there’s no ‘othering’; just warm, composed and ultra-dignified welcomes. Like we’ve always been here.

“I love to have travellers in my village so I can see the world,” says local woman Parbati Chaudhary. “Why would I travel the world when the world comes to me?”

The graceful acceptance the Tharu offer, as well as the slow pace, works miracles on my frazzled nervous system. One day I even take a nap on a vacant homestay bed.

Sonara community room — An authentic stay in the Sonara community. (Credit: Kate Hennessy)

Roosters strut and goats bray as we sit on the ground in al fresco kitchens, rolling rice flour into cylinders steamed to make dhikri (dumplings). When water is needed, we fetch it using a hand-operated pump as a family of ducks strolls by, side-eying us like curious neighbours.

Animal lovers will delight in Tharu villages. Kind and resourceful inventions are everywhere, such as snacking stations where two posts lean together, with leafy boughs dangling on rope for baby goats to forage from.

CHN’s CEO, Aayusha Prasain, nods knowingly when one in our group says she cried when she left her host, Shayam Chaudhary, in Bhada. Shayam’s 17-year-old son, Prashant, had translated, which deepened the connection.

“Community tourism turns travel into a relationship, not a transaction,” says Aayusha. “It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, especially women and youth.” Since 2018, CHN has hosted more than 4000 travellers from 52 countries in 408 households, and estimates women’s participation has increased by 381 per cent.

In the Bardiya community, where vexing human-animal conflict has been a balancing act for decades due to elephants raiding crops, long-time homestay operator Salik Ram Chaudhary says young people keep the older ones on their toes.

“We can’t keep homestays stagnant,” he says. “We have to upgrade our service and redefine our product or young people won’t see it as an attractive business. If we can keep evolving with this travelling trend we’re confident the youths will stay and continue it.”

Back in Kathmandu, Monica explains that after the deaths of young protestors in September, a determination had spread to not let their sacrifice be in vain. “We want to keep holding the government accountable,” she says. “We don’t know what situation we’re facing, but we’re ready to face it.”

Interested in Nepal but prefer to experience it in total comfort? Read our guide to luxury travel in Nepal.

How to experience Geisha culture in Japan