From Pennies To Yennies

I’ve had most people ask me about getting made into a geisha, and what it’s like, so I thought I’d blog about that today!

While my girl friends were in town visiting, we decided to do a Maiko, or Geisha, makeover in Kyoto. It was about $100/ person, which included makeup, costuming, photo shoot, and a cd with 20 personal photos and 4 photos of the 3 of us.

The entire process took about 3 hours. First went into a room where we changed into slips and took off all our jewelry. Then we got to choose our kimonos. It was hard to decide, but I settled on red, Brittany in teal and Amanda in blue. We then went to makeup chairs and got painted white and in full makeup. We were so white that our teeth looked completely yellow!

Once we were all made up, they dressed us in kimonos. So many layers! Another slip, then the kimono, then the obi belt, then ties to hold it all in place, a collar, and more decoratives. Finally, they put our hair in a hair net and donned us with wigs.

In short, we looked amazing.

Amanda and Brittany during my photo shoot

I haven’t put any of the professional photos on my computer yet, but I did like this candid Dan took

As fun as it was, we were happy to disrobe and wash our makeup off. It was so hot!!

Later that day, we visited Kiyomizu, a huge gorgeous temple in the forest of Kyoto.

I really like this picture Amanda took of Dan and I!

And finally, we visited Kinkaku-ji, also known as the golden pavilion. It’s so beautiful!!

Amanda and Brittany

I’ll end this post with some goals I have for May. I spent enough blog posts complaining about eating all our meals out while the girls were in town, and it’s time to get in shape! This month I plan to:
-Run 75 miles (1 down!)
-do 1,300 burpees (15 down!)
-12 hours cross training (um.. work in progress!)
I’m hoping that by updating my monthly goals on my blog I’ll be held accountable and get it done! Do you have any goals for the month?