1. What do you mean by guest house?

2. There really aren't that many geishas anymore. Kyoto still has a small Maiko world that seems pretty active. If you stay at a decent hotel or one of the high end ryokan they can arrange to have the Maiko team come to the inn to chat, drink, and do a Japanese dance. It cost a bit, however. Be sure to check the price.

3. Good Onsen and Tokyo is probably an oxymoron, but there is a large natural water Onsen just across Rainbow bridge in Odaiba called Oedo Onsen Monogatari. They had to dig deep to get that water. http://www.ooedoonsen.jp/english/what_is.html Its seems to be very busy on weekends. Note, if you have a tattoo you can't get in.

"Note, if you have a tattoo you can't get in."

Even if it's just a little "Hello, Kitty" tattoo?

Hi

we have just recently returned from Japan and had a wonderful travel experience.

in answer to your questions

1. the best way to have a Ryokan experience (traditional Japanese guest house) is probably to investigate a site called Japanese guest houses - they represent a number of Ryokans and have a good variety. their web address is www.japaneseguesthouses.com/index.htm

2. On our trip we found geisha districts in Kyoto and Kanazawa.

In Kyoto we took a Sunrise tour for a Meiko dinner. I would not really recommend this as the food was fairly ordinary. I would recommend that you contact a good will guide society in Kyoto and ask if one of the guides would take you on a tour of the Geisha district the email for this is www.geocities.jp/kyoto_samaritan/index.html as someone else has already said you can organise private dinners with a Maiko coming and dancing and discribing her life but these are very expensive. The Sunrise tour is good for this, it is just the dinner part that really is disapointing.

3. as someone else said you cannot really have a onsen experience in Tokyo because this involves a hot spring - a hot spring area close to Tokyo is Hakone (maybe someone else knows of another one) - We stayed in a beautiful Ryokan in Hakone for one night with a fantastic onsen - if you are interested I will send you the details.

Enjoy Japan - my other advise is the food is wonderful! - and you can eat amazing fresh food very inexpensively. Train stations often have very good little restaurants as well as basements of business buildings (the government building in Shinjuku has great restaurants in the basement).

Enjoy!