Ichimame's life is already an endless blur of parties, visits to the hairdresser, kimono fittings, lessons in traditional dance, music and tea ceremony, and countless hours in front of the mirror painting her face chalk white and her lips impossibly red.
Even so the Japanese 18-year-old still manages to find the time to keep what is probably the first Internet blog by an apprentice geisha, opening a small window onto a world shrouded in mystery and often misunderstood.
The elite entertainers of Japan's pleasure quarters have for centuries been fawning over wealthy guests in the cosy confines of teahouses and restaurants.
Now, facing growing competition from nightclubs, karaoke and hostess bars, Kyoto's geisha are gradually joining the 21st century with Web sites, English lessons and gradually less rigid introduction rules.
Some do modeling or even go on overseas tours.
Wedged in a row of wooden buildings on a narrow street in Kamishichiken, the oldest of Kyoto's five geisha districts, or hanamachi (flower towns), the Ichi teahouse certainly doesn't look like the typical home of an Internet blogger.
But it is here that for the past year Ichimame has been writing about her daily endeavors to master the three-stringed shamisen and the shakuhachi bamboo flute, and complicated traditional dance steps.
The site (ichi.dreamblog.jp), which is written in the lilting Kyoto dialect, has been getting thousands of hits every month from readers eager for a glimpse into the famously secretive world of the geisha.
Kneeling on the woven straw tatami matting of the teahouse, resplendent in a flowing green kimono, her hair perfectly coiffured and a face like a porcelain doll, Ichimame explained that through her blog she hoped to encourage other girls who might be thinking of becoming maiko, or young geisha.
Like her, many girls apply to become a maiko after they turn 15 but when they learn of the strict regime they often change their minds, says Ichimame, who declines to divulge more than her professional maiko name.
In the 1920s there were tens of thousands of geisha in Japan, but these days in Kyoto there are estimated to be about 280 geiko and maiko.
"So even if there are girls who want to become a maiko, the number of girls actually becoming one is quite small. I hope my blog will be a helping hand to those girls who really want to become a maiko," she said.
Her blog has already encouraged one girl to become a maiko at the Ichi teahouse, which now has three maiko and one geisha, or geiko as they prefer to be called in Kyoto.
In one recent entry, Ichimame described on her blog how she applies her make-up, including the white oshiroi face powder.
"Under my eyes, I add a hint of red. I paint my cheeks with pink and finally I paint my lips with rouge dissolved in water," she wrote.
Selling dreams
Like others in the geisha world, Susumu Harema, the 35-year-old manager of the Ichi teahouse, feels that foreign novels and films often misrepresent the artist-entertainers. Many foreigners have long assumed geisha are prostitutes because they are paid by predominantly male customers for their company.
The reality, he says, is "very different from the old-fashioned image that foreigners have" of a woman who sells herself to customers.
"That kind of thing does not happen, not once among our maiko and geisha here in Kyoto. While entertaining guests, the Maiko sings, dances and chats. That's her job."
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