Hanamikōji ("flower-viewing lane") is the spine of the Gion geisha quarter, running north–south for several hundred metres from Shijō-dōri down toward the Kennin-ji temple. The street is paved in dark stone and lined on both sides with the lantern-fronted wooden facades of ochaya (tea houses) and okiya (the residences where geiko and maiko live and train). Most of the buildings are private and not open to passers-by, but at dusk you can sometimes glimpse a geiko slipping between appointments through a curtained doorway.
The quarter has been struggling with a tourism problem in recent years — informal "geisha hunting" and increasingly aggressive photography have led the Gion business association to close most side alleys to non-locals and prohibit photography on the smaller streets. Walk respectfully, do not block or follow any geiko, and treat the area as the working residential neighbourhood it is.