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This was an enjoyable taste of seven Japanese art forms seamlessly interwoven together in under an hour that at times it seems like one event with several sub-plots. The event highlights the tea ceremony, floral arrangements, geisha dancers, comical theatre, puppetry, koto musical instrument and court music. The variety keeps your interest and always infused light humor. Ticketing at the venue was well organized, despite the many people and long queues, it moved fast. Seating was intimate so you felt close to the performance. The costumes even down to the puppets were dazzlingly gorgeous. Of course it’s no replacement for the fullscale events but having been to a full tea ceremony before, we were able to better follow and appreciate the shortened version at Gion Corner. You may not have time to experience all the art forms during your vacation - so much to do in Japan - so for what this is aiming to do, I think they did a great job. Performance times are usually 6 and 7pm but not all days in the year. Show lasts just under an hour. Go early to get good seats and guarantee your tickets as there was no option I am aware of to pre-book. After the show, you can wander around the narrow alley ways in the environs. The antiquated buildings carry you back centuries and you feel you are walking through the walking on the set of the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. There a lots of restaurants in these alleyways but be prepared to spend mucho dinero! All in all, Gion Corner was an enjoyable night out! …
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Date of experience: July 2019
1 Helpful vote
Helpful
Not sure what to think about the whole experience to be honest. Yes, you get to see small performances of traditional Japanese arts. But the room is small, packed, you barely can see because everyone is hanging their smartphones in the air to film everything and worse of all: kids screaming all around you.…
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Date of experience: January 2020
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The concept is great but this was just sad. The performance lasted barely 40 minutes. The seating is not tiered so if someone tall sits in front of you you will have to just enjoy the music. The opportunity to have your photo taken with a genuine maiko (?) seemed unpleasantly exploitative.…
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Date of experience: January 2020
1 Helpful vote
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+1
1hr of all-round performance show to cover main varieties of Kyoto traditional leisure/entertainment activities. My 7yo son was able to sit through it all but was a bit bored by the end. Ticket is only available on the day at the actual ticketing office inside the theatre. Ticket sale starts at 5:30pm for the 6pm show but people start queuing 30min beforehand and the line is packed by 5:15pm. Foreigners also receive a discounted price which we found out at the time of purchase (can’t remember exactly but prob around 10-15% off). Some tourists who came a little later (before 5:30pm but the line was already long) claimed they booked tickets in advance at the station and tried to get into the theatre early were still told to wait in the ticket-sale line. So they ended up getting not so good seats (even though they claim they reserved tickets already). The key to get the most out of this show: get here early to get your tickets and good seats (you’ll be directed to the theatre straight away after buying tickets).…
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Date of experience: December 2019
2 Helpful votes
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As title says for such short show it's expensive, but for us it was definitely worth it to see piece of everything. And this year they always translated either in brochure or before each piece of show what it is about and so. So you definitely could enjoy it.
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Date of experience: December 2019
1 Helpful vote
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