Kyoto, however, started a campaign last month in which tourists pay 500 yen ($5.50) for a tea ceremony with maiko and geisha and a chance to pose for pictures with them.

Sam Brown attends a tea ceremony and is instructed by a geisha-in-training.

Make sure you watch this first! Here's why Kyoto is my favourite city in Japan! Here are all the best places to eat, unmissable spots, where to stay and so much more... best things to do in Kyoto: 1.

KYOTO -- Geisha and their "maiko" apprentices served tea to visitors to Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Japan's ancient capital on Feb. 25, adding their own dash of color and verve to the "Baikasai ...

A "maiko," left, brings a tea cup to a geisha making tea for the "Kencha-no-gi" tea offering ceremony during the Baikasai plum blossom festival at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto's Kamigyo Ward on ...

Like ghosts from another time, the real geishas seem to float silently along the streets at twilight, making their way to teahouses and restaurants where they will entertain elite, powerful men.

The most recent tea ceremony I attended was surely one that would make the Guinness Book of World Records for most ephemeral tea ceremony in Japan. I attended the spring Miyako Odori geisha show in ...