Today I'm here with Kimicho.

She's going to help us with our first ever geisha ozashiki experience.

Hi, so my name is Kimicho.

And that is the Japanese arts name

(we say geimei in Japanese)

that I received from the mother of the geisha house here in Oomorikaigan.

You receive an artist name when you start kind of training in a certain type of art.

So since I'm taking dance classes and music classes I was able to receive that name.

So that's what I go by.

If we want to hire a geisha, what's the first step?

So when you book a geisha you kind of have to decide a couple of things.

First of all you have to decide the restaurant.

So to have a really good geisha party,

you need a private Japanese koshitsu style room.

The geisha needs to have a place to dance and play music as well.

And then the second thing you need to consider is how many geisha you'd like to call.

You CAN call just one geisha,

but if you really want to get the full experience, it's better to at least call two

because then you can have one geisha who plays an instrument while the other one dances.

Otherwise, if you just have one geisha they're probably going to dance with a cassette tape or CD,

which is totally still an amazing experience and I recommend it,

but if you want to hear the music live,

then yeah I recommend you try and call two if possible.

If you speak Japanese or if you know someone who speaks Japanese,

that's going to be the easiest thing to do beacuse

a lot of geisha houses, in Kyoto especially but some in Tokyo as well

have a special rule that's called "No first time customers."

Oh right, I've heard of this.

That rule basically means that you cannot call a geisha house or restaurant

as a first time customer and say "I would like to book a party with geisha."

You have to be introduced by someone who is already sort of an insider in the geisha world.

But if you know someone who speaks Japanese

they might have an easier time of finding a restaurant or finding a geisha house without that rule

and setting everything up in Japanese.

So if you don't speak Japanese,

your best option is probably going to be to find some sort of travel booking company

that offer a geisha experience where they will handle booking the geisha

and the restaurant and everything for you.

The geisha house that you're affiliated with,

they work well with foreigners?

Yeah! We're called Yoshinoya. That's the name of our geisha house.

We have an English language reservation form on our webpage.

We will help you get everything coordinated:

the restaurant, the time, and we'll set up the geisha for you as well.

Okay great! So we'll put the link of Yoshinoya in the description box

so if you would like to hire a geisha, they'll be able to help you with the whole experience.

Well, let's get started with the process.

Yeah, let's do it!

Pardon my intrusion.

Salutations.

First, the geisha will enter the room and give a formal greeting to the customers

and introduce themselves.

Next, guests will start the banquet with a formal toast.

So everyone's glasses will be filled [NOTE: It's polite to fill the geisha's glass]

and everyone will say kampai, which means "cheers" in Japanese.

Kampai

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu

She can't drink until you do.

Are you also supposed to touch the lower part of the customer's glass?

Yes.

After the kampai, the geisha will move around

and sit next to customers and make conversation with them.

At this time, if you'd like to give the geisha a tip, which is recommended,

[NOTE: A good tip starts from 3,000 yen (~$30)]

you can put it in a pretty envelope or something like that

and just give it to her and say something like "doozo" (here you go).

Here you go.

Thank you very much.

What's your name?

My name is Nanoha.

Nice to meet you.

How long have you been working as geisha?

I've been working for 4 years.

Have you had any foreign customers?

Yes.

I've had customers from China and India.

Did you talk to them in Japanese?

Yes, I talked to them in Japanese.

Sometimes they had interpreters.

We have someone studying in our geisha house who can speak English.

So, with her and we can communicate better in English as well.

That's nice.

Is that Kimicho-san?

Yes.

It seems like most customers are older generations.

Can young people also hire geisha?

Yes.

It doesn't matter how old you are.

Since it's possible to reserve geisha via the web

I think it's becoming more familiar to young people, too.

So geisha has become more open for people to access. Yes.

I had no idea that you can hire geisha online.

It feels strange.

Yeah, it does.

It really has become easier these days.

About half way through the party,

there will be a performance of traditional Japanese dance and music.

Please let me show you my dance.

Usually in the second half of the party,

there will be some traditional ozashiki party games

that the geisha will play with the customers.

ヨイヨイヨイ、お開きさん (yoiyoiyoi, ohirakisan) Go go go, open up your legs

JUN that was fast!

Here you go.

Okay.

I'll tell you when to drink.

Should I drink this all? Yes.

Okay, are you ready?

Don't you want to see Jun do something manly?

それそれそれ (sore sore sore) Go go go!

Jun's the man!

Could you give us a manly pose?

I can't take anymore.

Whoever spills the drink out of the cup loses.

And that person has to drink the cup.

We normally pour sake in the cup.

This is impossible.

Okay, safe!

You didn't spill?

Safe, safe!

Safe!

Safe!

Is it okay if I put some in?

Go ahead Kimicho-san.

Ah!

It's coming down out of this side over here.

It's coming? Arr...

Do you want to see Kimicho do something cool?

Here we go.

Well done.

She's a good woman.

This is how this game works.

In the last part of the ozashiki,

the geisha will once more sit next to the customers and make conversation with them.

And try to just create a fun atmosphere.

Before she leaves, she will once again give a formal greeting

and thank the customers for their patronage.

Everyone, thank you for today.

I very much enjoyed today's banquet.

I would love to be invited by you again in the future.

Excuse me.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for inviting us here and helping us have our first geisha experience!

Yeah, thank you so much!

I've always kind of viewed geisha as really high class

and so it seems like it's something that's very expensive.

How much generally does it cost to hire a geisha?

As far as the restaurant go, that kind of depends on your own budget. [Our meal was ~$100 each]

There's all sorts of different prices of restaurants.

The geisha fee will also vary depending on the geisha house.

But if we take the geisha house that I'm training at for example,

If you want to call a geisha in traditional nihongami (Japanese wig)

and white makeup (shironuri)

that's going to cost around 10,000 yen, or around $100 per hour.

And usually it starts from 2 hours minimum.

But sometimes geisha appear at parties sort of how I look right now.

We call this yohatsu, or Western style hair dressing, and a little bit more casual makeup.

And that usually is a little less expensive,

somewhere around 7,000 or 8,000 yen, so around $70 or $80 per hour.

Okay! You recommend that people go in a group with hiring a geisha?

Yeah, yeah. Of course a private party with 2 or even 3 people and 1 geisha is a really amazing experience

and if that's what you're interested in I totally recommend it,

but a really kind of fun way to experience the atmosphere of Japanese enkai (banquet)

is to go with a larger group of 6 - 10 people or something like that

and to call 2 or 3 geisha so that

you can really experience the lively atmosphere that they try to make at parties

And that way if you have a larger group you can kind of split the cost

of the geisha's fee a little bit

and it makes it a little bit cheaper and more accessible to everyone.

Okay awesome! So this is like something that anyone can do.

Yeah, definitely!

I firmly believe that anyone who's interested in experiencing Japanese hospitality

in the most traditional way... it's accessible to anyone.

I firmly believe that.

Thank you again for being here!

I'm so glad I could help you!

I had a great time today. We did, too!

Thank you so much.

We'll see you guys later. Bye!