All Reviews for Cultural Experiences

I loved this. The Dinner was delicious and the show was mesmerizing, the Maiko was so cute! I definitely recommend this, great value for your money :)

The overall experience was great. Highlight of our journey. The location was gorgeous, food wonderful and the maiko really nice and friendly. We felt transported into the past. Will definetly do it again!

The performance is good, dinner too. Garden is pretty to see. Night view is beautiful. Value for money.

We booked the private Maiko dinner to end our day long tour of beautiful Kyoto. What a wonderful experience. We were escorted to a private tea house where we were warmly met and welcomed. We were placed in a beautiful room with tatami seating and lovely Japanese screens. This was booked as a completely private experience which made this all the more special. We were soon met by a lovely Maiko who entertained us with three lovely dances. Just gorgeous. Following her performance, she joined us in conversation while we enjoyed a most delicious authentic kaiseki dinner and sake! The two hours went by all too fast! Via our private guide who served as our interpreter, we all enjoyed the company of this poised young lady. She embodied Japanese culture at its best! This was truly a one-of-a-kind experience; definitely the highlight of our trip to Japan. This opportunity should not be missed!

We weren't sure what to expect with this dinner as it's a very reasonable cost we had low expectations, however were very pleasantly suprised. The hosts at Shozan were very friendly and accomodating and the food was lovely and traditional.
The arrival of our Maiko was announced and she danced so beautifully allowing the the rare opportunity for a photo with her even a few questions, followed by a walk in the gardens.
The bus tour allowed us an insight into places for us to visit in the following days.
Thanks for a great evening!

Out of my expectation for that value of money. for the price you are unable to find the service in Gion and i was surprised by all the events organised by them.

The Maiko dinner and show was Exquisite.
If travelling to Kyoto it must not be missed as the meal was a reflection of perfect Kyoto cuisine and to meet and see a Maiko performance is a lifetime experience.

We were very pleased with the wonderful dinner set out ready for our arrival. I am vegetarian but could not organise prior notice, so the hostess explained the food types and which were suitable for me. Three of our party are elderly and stools were quickly provided for them. The Maiko was exquisite and performed two dances with opportunity for photos at the end. The walk through the gardens was like a magical forest.
We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and highly recommend as an insight into Japanese culture

Not so impressed. If you just want to meet a maiko, it is okay. Nothing special. Food is average too. Select a better package!

We enjoyed the show and the experience. But being winter, we didnt quite enjoy the meal preared because it was 80% cold.

We booked the evening not being so sure of what would be the evening since i think the description of the product is not good, you cannot be sure if it a party or dinner.
We spent a wonderful evening with our Maiko in a tea house which in Japan means a private club house.
Dinner was the high Kaseiki Kyoto cuisine, sake was pouring freely.
Our Maiko was delightful, she entertained us and was cute, funny and her dancing was exquisite.
I booked the translation services in order for us to fully appreciate the evening and it was worth every penny, since we could communicate with our Maiko and Peter was very knowledgeable of the Japanese culture.
Great value for money evening, away from the crowed evenings.

Una actuación que recomendaría no perderse a cualquiera que visite Kyoto. Son bailes tradicionales japoneses y es posible que no a todo el mundo le guste pero creo que es algo que hay que conocer. La reserva de los asientos estuvo bien, lo malo que no puedes elegir asiento.

This is traditional japanese thing you definitely want to see.
I personally love it.
You can watch it only here and only 10 days in a year, SO JUST DO IT.
On the other hand, tea ceremony is not the thing you want spend money on. It's not even ceremony: you just get matcha tea and small sweets.

The opportunity to see the Gion Odori was such a lovely and unique pleasure. The dance was beautiful, and the costumes and sets were spectacular. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to see into the traditional and exquisite world of Geiko and Maiko.

We enjoyed every moment of this tour. It was well organized. The Kaiseki dinner was delicious. It gave us a taste of various kinds of Japanese traditional food. The Maiko dance was beautiful and captivating. After the dance, we had a short stroll at the very beautiful Japanese garden which was very enjoyable! The last brief stop of the tour was going to the top of a mountain to see the night view of Kyoto which ended the evening perfectly. We just found we hadn't had enough of all of it!

It's great that Veltra offered this service which allowed me to buy the ticket in advance. The tickets of this performance were actually only sold at the theater
As I bought it in advance via Veltra, I just collected my ticket at the entrance without worrying about the queue and out of tickets. The show was actually full house when I arrived there! So I highly recommended to buy ticket online in advance.
Before the show, there was a brief tea session in a big room with Maiko performing tea ceremony. The dance performance was like going back in time and totally immersed into Japanese culture!

The show was perfect, but my seat had a partial view of it! I was disappointed because I paid the same amount as other people but couldn't enjoy 100% of the show.

This is the meaning of it all, this is what the Geiko & Maiko are trained for. And this might be one of the very few opportunities that a tourist can see a Geiko perform. Not to be missed if you are in Kyoto during this period.

It was a really good experience, definitely worth doing. We had really good seats right at the front, and thoroughly enjoyed each performance. One of the highlights whilst staying in Kyoto.

Beautiful show of gheishas dancing singing and displaying beautiful kimonos and other costumes

We went to the tea ceremony and geisha performance in Kyoto and thought both weee wonderful. The geisha doing the tea was stunningly graceful- beautiful to watch. Re the performance, the Kabuki in Tokyo had finished the October sessions and the place in Kyoto was still not open after renovations but this performance was fabulous alternative. Beautiful costumes, live musicians, well designed sets etc made for a dramatic performance- not just beautiful girls moving around to recorded music.

Everything was perfect. The tickets were reserved by the time we checked in and the place of the seats were very good (third row quite near to the stage).

It was very beautiful and interesting show. As foriegner I didn't understand anything from songs, but I want to mention orchestra, very beautiful melodies. I enjoyed the show. Thank you!

As my heading states the show was great and the seats were perfect, we were sitting on the wing with a perfect eye level view of the stage.

We were very happy with the show and even more pleased we had the opportunity to be a part of the annual dance performance. The final act was beautifully done with Maikos and Geishas. The tea ceremony was quite rushed and did not resemble a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Overall a real authentic cultural experience, without any pictures as they were not allowed.

It was such a treat to see actual Maiko performance along with a nice kaiseki dinner. The evening tour of Kyoto was an added bonus. The Shozan Garden was beautiful!

The Shouzen Garden is so beautiful, especially at night. The maiko dance and kaiseki dinner were extraordinary. One word to sum it up- -unforgettable! Do go!

Seeing performance by Geisha is a must do in Japan. In the past you need to know someone from the tea house to arrange such activity and a private dinner. It's very nice that we can book private performance and dinner with a Maiko (geisha trainee) via the internet nowadays with English translator. Highly recommended activity.

We really enjoyed our calligraphy lesson, very well organised with great explanations in English with plenty of information about the cultural aspects of calligraphy in Japanese. Very achievable for all levels, and beautiful results to take home.

My friend and I had a wonderful time. The hostess was super quick at getting the kimono on and having us ready to walk around. She was friendly and was very thorough when going through the history of the house and some of the meanings behind the tea ceremony. We had a great time despite the other couple we were doing the experience with being sour the whole time.