Just to offer an alternative, I did this at a place called "Yume-yakata" (place of dreams) with my visiting US family. They're just off 5-jo, and were very professional. My Japanese family were very impressed with the results.

http://www.yumeyakata.com/

Actually, seeing gaijin dress in maiko gear has to be a riot... would probably fit right in NYC, too, if it didn't take women so long to get into the garb. :)

When my girlfriend and I visited Kyoto to spend some time with her family, she did something like this; it was at a textile manufacturing and selling concern, and it went rather well, at least as far as I thought. The funny thing was at the same time this really large and clumsy Australian women was getting the same treatment - I will never forget my girlfriends cousins looking at first shocked and amused when they saw the Australian women stumble out, and then hearing them say "beautiful" in (very unconvinving) English in a charming but doomed attempt to make the Australian woman feel good about her obviously comic appearance.

I know one (and suspect that all) of the maiko/geiko dress-up shops have different levels of costuming service. The upper level at this shop where two friends did an advertising photo shoot included newer and fancier kimono and new wigs with their own hair artfully blended in the front of the wig. While the kimono and makeup were exquisite, I wasn't (and am still not) too sure how I liked the blonde or red hair mixed with the black of the wig.

On a related note, I noticed last time I was there that the taxi companies in Kyoto (not sure if this applies to all of them) offer a 10% discount if the taxi's patron is dressed in traditional dress, including kimono, yukata, jinbei, men's kimono, or traditional monk's robe (can't recall the japanese for the last two). The taxi driver cheerfully told me that even foreigners can get the discount if properly attired. I tried to ask a Tokyo taxi driver if they have a similar discount, but he didn't answer (then again, he didn't respond to anything, even comments about the weather).

Yeah, MK Taxi (heart-shaped sign on roof) has the 10% discount, which we got last week when we called for a bigger-sized car to go to Yasaka Jinja for Gregory's Omiya-mairi (a sort of baby christening). We sat for a formal portrait at Yasaka's studio, so that will be posted after we get it.

I'm still trying to reverse engineer those obi masuri? ( in my head anyway) that the maiko only, seem to wear. I'm going to get hives thinking about it.

good website

Can anyone tell me how much it costs? My younger sister is coming to visit me at Christmas and I think she'd love it!