Kimonos in Gion or other "traditional" places

I've been watching OnlyInJapan videos and this guy has said on more than two occassions that people that go to Gion dressed up in kimonos are "tourists". But from my experience, these people are speaking japanese. So I'm a bit confused. Do locals not dress up and go to traditional places like gion, miyajama or wherever? i'm confused.

So does that mean if I go to Gion and dress up, I'll be outed as a foreigner?!

Japanese people travel a lot in their own country, and when they do, they don't behave very differently from foreigners.

From my own experiences in Kyoto, people wearing "colorful" kimono are tourists with rented kimono/yukata, about 90% foreigners and 10% Japanese.

Are you under the impression that nobody will be able to tell you are a foreign tourist anyway? It's usually pretty obvious, isn't it?

Just go and have fun. Tourists are in those costumes every day, so no locals will even give it a second thought. You'll be the 10,000th person they've seen in a rented Kimono in their life. No reason they'd worry about you specifically.

people that go to Gion dressed up in kimonos are "tourists". But from my experience, these people are speaking japanese.

Why would you think that Japanese cannot be tourists???? You will find only few local people dressing kimono in Gion except workers in the local restaurants. But there is an entire kimono rental business geared both to foreign and domestic tourists. Also some kimono clad ladies you see might actually be Taiwanese or Korean. It is just a nice experience and a good occasion for photos.

Sometimes the teenaged japanese girls get out and about in Kyoto in their yukata, especially around Golden Temple and Kiyomizudera. It looks really pretty. Sometimes the guys do too. And I've seen foreigners doing it. More power to them all, in my opinion.

One of my daughters got dressed up in one of the Kimono places several years ago with the full makeup etc, which took over a half hour, then had the photos taken. She was too shy to go outside, but looked awesome.

We were with a guide once who pointed out which of the girls wearing the full kimono were "models" and which ones were maiko. Personally I couldnt tell the difference, they all looked spectacular.