Kyo no Maiko (Maiko/Geiko Okobo platform heels shoes balance walk)

Shit. All along, I thought they were wearing wigs. That's their Real hair. O.O

Look at the way that old woman pulls her hair and marks a path with the pointed end of the comb across the scalp that's red from all that pulling (I wonder if she loses her hair as she gets older).  Goddamn. All that work and beauty for all that pain.

What if you got an itch in there you need to scratch? Does she wash her hair at the end of the day? How to undo that stuff by herself?

And those beautiful (not plastic) flowers are done by a man (by hand). O.O Let me guess, a gay man? If he's gay, forget it... I ain't putting those flowers in my hair. He can keep it.

I was actually looking for how to walk/balance in Maiko shoes. Checked that such shoes are called "Okobo".

Then in the search results on how to walk/balance in them, I saw this Youtube video in English.  In the video, it says the Maiko is wearing 10cm-high platform sandals, but the one I'm getting is 8cm, so I feel the one I'm getting is not as authentic as I prefer *mouth frowns*. (But it's the only one that's nice).

I love this framing of the picture. ^_^ As they walk by... wow.  It's like characters of a fairytale just passed by.  The shoes give them impressive height and with that posture, it's pretty wow.  It would seem that they lean back their weight and stand straight to keep in balance.

And then in that video, I read the comments that pointed me to the original documentary: Kyo no Maiko.

So here it is below. But in Japanese.  Come to think, what's the difference between Geiko and Geisha? It would seem that from this video as I thought, Geiko = Geisha.  (Maiko as the English video covered, is an apprentice before graduating to Geiko).  I like Maiko ^_^ They are young and cute (as the English video says, they are between the ages of 15 and 20).   

Heyy... in that video about differences between Geiko-Maiko, the Ang Moh woman who was translating was also surprised that the Maiko's hair is not a wig. So surprised that she couldn't translate for a while. "Maiko-san, that's her own hair. It's not a wig. Wow.".  I was thinking that while the young Maiko looked amused, the older woman looked rather... disgusted (?) that the Ang Moh translator who was supposed to know (since she knows their language) doesn't know that it's the Maiko's real hair. Yes, that Maiko is damn Cute!! They really know how to makeup. The girl is so cute smiling like that.

Oh my god. She's carrying around 7 meters of Obi (cloth sash) at her back. O.O