Kamishichiken Geiko

Katsukiyo and Umewaka, 2 geiko of Kamishichiken district, perform during the Kitano Odori.

A short excerpt from the Kitano Odori programme:

Kamishichiken is the oldest and most distinguished gay quarters (as in merry, not the modern connotation) in Kyoto, and training of geiko is given with the idea of producing an excellent few rather than a large number of mediocre entertainers. Therefore they are required to master many arts, such as shamisen, hand drum, dancing and traditional ballads like kiyomoto, tokiwazu, kouta, and nagauta...

Stay tuned for More to come!

Jodie Marsh smuggles babies!

Jodie Marsh is so blatent in her smuggling of babies across the UK border...I bet she sells them for her tanning sessions...

Look she even greased the babies' heads...what child abuse...

Colors of Spring

枝垂れ桜　【しだれ桜】（shidare・zakura) A beatiful, weeping cherry tree on the banks of the newly flooded rice paddies, soon to be planted with this years crop. Most of the cherry blossoms have long since fallen to earth, petal by petal like snowflakes in the warm spring wind, gathering in pink puddles beneath the trees. I found this tree in full bloom near Nagano, in　Magome、 a small yet remarkably well-preserved Edo period post town on the Nakasendo (中仙道･The Road Through the Mountains), which once connected Shogunate power center Edo (now Tokyo) with the Imperial seat of Kyoto. Magome is also the birthplace of one of Japan's most revered and beloved authors, Shimazeki Toson. (Conveniently located about 20 minutes from my humble abode! (^-^)/)