(英会話リスニングスクリプト)
Maikos are trainee geishas who usually start
their two-year training when they are between 15 and 20.
Contrary to popular Western opinion they
are not high-class prostitutes, but highly-trained entertainers.
They learn traditional dances, songs and
stories so that they can entertain rich clients in the exclusive
teahouses and clubs in the Gion area of Kyoto.
Until recently, you were lucky to catch
sight of a maiko as she went from one building to another,
but now they seem to be everywhere; this is because maiko
tourism is a major new industry in Kyoto.
15 agencies offer young women the opportunity
to be a maiko for a day.
For \20,000 they have thick white make up
put on, they are dressed in an expensive kimono and are
fitted with a wig weighing 1 kg.
They are then free to wander around photographing
each other and enjoying themselves.
"It is every Japanese woman's dream
to be a maiko," said one girl.
However, not everybody is happy with this
situation.
The real maikos say that people can't tell
the difference between the fake maikos and the real ones.
They say that the tourists are ruining their
reputation by smoking, eating and answering portable phones
in public - something a real maiko would never do.
Although the maikos are angry at their imitators,
there seems to be nothing that they can really do about
it.
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