Traditional wooden houses called machiya (townhouse) are a major drawcard in Gion, and since property taxes were based on the width of the street frontage, they tend to have narrow facades but stretch up to twenty metres in from the street. Some of them are ochaya (tea houses), traditional establishments where patrons have been entertained for centuries. As expert hostesses, maiko and geiko engage in conversation, serve drinks, conduct drinking games and perform traditional music and dance. Other preserved machiya houses now function as restaurants, serving Kyoto style kaiseki ryori (Japanese haute cuisine).
Having made my way through Gion I was ready to get away from the crowd, and the boots that had seemed so comfortable back when we'd bought them before the Cooktown trip were starting to squeeze the feet, probably as a result of having been worn solidly for a fortnight, with a pinch of prolonged exposure to wet weather thrown in for good measure.
Actually, I suspect that having got wet the outer layers didn't dry out completely and had shrunk marginally. Hopefully further wear will push things back into shape, but it's very much a case of wait and see.
Having made our way through Gion, we were off to the hotel, and here those factors involving unfamiliarity with the public transport system and lack of knowledge of the local geography kicked in again,and they kicked in big time, along with a pigheaded reluctance to say "That's enough, my feet need a rest."
After all, I figured, it wasn't that far, and, off course, following up on that emerging theme, it wasn't a bit more than we expected ("May as well walk," as I recall we're my exact words, "it's only a few blocks."
But it was considerably further than I'd bargained for.
Back at the hotel where any sane man would have had the boots off and laid back for a well-earned rest someone had to check out the Wi Fi situation in the lobby and while it was there, it was painfully slow until Madam joined me with her iPad and ventured into the territory of the bleeding obvious, wandering over to the Front Desk to ask about minor administrative details like passwords. Things sped up considerably thereafter.