Kyoto

Kawaramachi and Gion in Kyoto City

According to the Kyoto City Tourism Association, the Kawaramachi area holds the city's largest shopping district, lined with department stores and luxury shops, and fills with young people at night. Pontocho and Gion are hanamachi, the geisha quarters, where you may sometimes see maiko and geiko walking by.

The association's evening guide notes that a night bus runs from Kawaramachi and Gion to Kyoto Station until 10:50 p.m. and that many trains run until around midnight. It also asks visitors to keep their voices down near homes.

Where the ordinance allows storefront venues

Article 28 of the national Amusement Business Act bans storefront adult businesses within 200 metres of schools, libraries, child welfare facilities and similar sites, and lets prefectures designate further prohibited areas by ordinance. Article 11 of Kyoto Prefecture's ordinance uses that power and sets out the prohibited areas by business type in a table.

The table bars soaplands (Act Art. 2(6) item 1), storefront fashion health shops (item 2) and outcall reception offices in all three zone classes, Class 1, 2 and 3. Because the appended table puts every area not in another class into Class 2, the three classes together cover the whole prefecture.

Under the ordinance there is nowhere in the prefecture where a new walk-in venue such as a soapland can open. Delivery health is an outcall format used at a hotel or another place you choose; on this site the area marks the venue's reception or base, and the service range differs by venue.

Getting there

Tokyo to Kyoto takes about 130 minutes on the Nozomi, and Nagoya to Kyoto about 34. From Osaka, the JR Special Rapid runs from Osaka Station to Kyoto Station in about 30 minutes, Hankyu from Osaka-umeda to downtown Kyoto in about 45, and the Keihan Limited Express from Yodoyabashi to Gion-Shijo and Sanjo in about 48.

From Kansai International Airport the JR Haruka limited express reaches Kyoto Station in about 80 minutes; from Osaka International (Itami) Airport the limousine bus to Kyoto Station and some hotels takes about 50 to 55. From Haneda, the Keikyu line plus the Shinkansen takes about 2 hours 30 minutes.

How RED LIGHT JAPAN divides Kyoto

This site splits Kyoto into four major areas: Kyoto City, Southern Kyoto Prefecture, Uji City and Northern Kyoto Prefecture. Kyoto City holds the Gion, Kawaramachi/Kiyamachi/Pontocho, Karasuma / Omiya / Nishin, Fushimi, Katsura and Yamashina areas.

Southern Kyoto Prefecture holds Kyotanabe, Uji City holds Uji, and Northern Kyoto Prefecture holds Fukuchiyama and Kyotango. Outcall venues cover different ranges, so check on each venue's page that it will come to where you are staying.