Despite the fact that it's not an excellent photo this is probably my favourite from the whole trip. Everyone hopes to see a Geisha while in Japan but there are now so few of them that it's not often likely. However as we were leaving Miya Jima for Kyoto we came across these two on the station and they agreed to pose for me. Not a great photo because we were looking for our own train at the time so it was a quick snap. Oh well. Actually I think they are Maiko which are trainee Geisha. I've searched the web (what did we do before the web???) and found that Geisha's wear wigs and so their makeup goes right up to the hairline wheras Maiko's fashion their own hair and so there is always a gap at the hairline between the makeup and skin. Either way they were extremely beautiful and very gracious in agreeing to the photo. Also, note the enigmatic smile - you'll rarely seen Geisha smile with their teeth showing, I've read, becauase the bright white makeup can't help but make the teeth look yellow.