THERE were two unusual visitors among the crowd that gathered to watch the city hornblower in action at Ripon.

Geisha Fumiyu and apprentice geisha Miehena, from Kyoto, Japan, stopped to witness the example of English history and culture at the end of a week-long visit to the county.

In a coup for the region, they had been performing in public for the first time in the UK and took part in a Festival of Japan at Swinton Park, Masham.

The visit was organised by Jill Clay and Katie Chaplin, of the local Geisha Events group. Ms Clay said: "I am not sure how much of the hornblower they understood, but they loved pretending to blow the horn and wearing the hat."

They were treated to lunch at Bettys in York, a trip on the York wheel and, before seeing the hornblower, an evening meal at the March Hare cafe, in Ripon.

Ms Chaplin will appear on BBC Radio 2 on Friday to launch a new feature on the Weekender programme, in which an expert will comment on new works of art each week.

She will speak about the filme Memoirs of a Geisha, which is due to be released on DVD.