(Kyoto mikados posing for photographs. Tea house where geishas serve and
entertain their guests.)



I am about to commit my next Japanese sin: walking to the breakfast room at the ryokhan in shoes. I didn’t realize that I am supposed to wear my slippers and robe inside the hotel and not just in my room. When I see the woman working at the breakfast buffet, I point to my shoes and she nods to tell me that it’s OK to enter the food area in my outside attire. Yikes! Sin #2 of my first week in Japan. I am not off to a good start. I only have 106 sins left for the year!

I stand like a stupid foreigner in front of the miso soup area and don’t quite understand what ladle is for what bowl. Luckily, a Japanese girl notices my luck of wonder and serves me a bowl of my favorite Japanese soup. (I hate Asian noodles, but I adore miso soup.)

I return to the Gion area to see the beautiful wooden creek front teahouses again. It turns out that the mikados are making their first public appearance of the year and I happen to be one of the few tourists who has spotted the professional photographers snapping away at the white faced ladies of Japan. It’s snowing and I have only my jacket hood to protect me. As one hand holds my camera, the other is in my pocket warming up. I follow the mikados and find
several other mikados going to a public hall where many eager Japanese are taking photographs. A Japanese man explains to me, after telling me he speaks no English, that this is the first pubic appearance of the mikados this year. Even though I am freezing, I can’t step away from all these mikados. When again will I see a real geisha in training?

After sacrificing my health to watch the famous Japanese traditional women, I walk to catch the bus to visit the Silver temple. My feet are soaked. The snow has melted into my shoes. Now it’s raining and I feel like I am walking in water. I do a quick tour of the silver temple and then walk for a while until I find the Japanese onsen, public bath. I know that there will be hot baths inside. I don’t care if I have to get naked to get warm. I just want to be warm.

I go into the women’s locker room and take off my clothes. Before going into the public baths, it’s required to wet a towel under a faucet and clean one’s body with the wet towel. The Japanese ladies near me seem to be using all their power to rub the towel on their body. I don’t think I’ve ever scrubbed my body as hard as these women are doing now.

First, I go to the warm pool. I feel so relaxed after a day of walking in cold and wet boots. Though discrete, I can tell that some of the Japanese women are looking at me. I am the only white woman there. And, I have curves: hips, breasts and stomach. My wavy brown and golden hair and green hazel eyes make me stand out on the street but here my curves and body fat are on full display. The women are so slender and flat-chested. I must look like another species! Before I leave, a black woman enters the bath and she becomes the new exotic attraction.

Mikados, you were my foreign wonder and now the eyes are on me. I prefer to be the observer rather than the observed!

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