tea break

Long day -- after a massive breakfast we checked out of Tawaraya and taxi'd to Kyoto station. We threw our stuff in a locker and went straight to Kodaiji, where a Maiko served us tea and danced. Absolutely the highlight of Kyoto. She is 20 this year, which means she will graduate from Maiko to Geiko (geisha). Cutest little thing, and I must say when she was dancing I think I fell in love with her for about 10 minutes. Absolutely mesmerizing. She graduated from junior high and, at 15, joined one of the houses to study: tea, dance, music, flower, etc. all the traditional arts. The priest who arranged everything at Kodaiji was a cool dude, too.
After that we checked out the gardens and buildings of Kodaiji, then wandered up the cobblestone, tourist-packed streets to see Kiyomizudera way up on the hill, then we wandered back down, grabbed a tofu feast lunch at Okutan, and wandered some more. We finally hopped on a bus back to the station and got the shinkansen back to Tokyo, slightly sun-burnt and very satisfied.