Day 37 - Ninja's Everywhere!

Today started off with ~2 hour series of train rides to get to Iga City.  There were a couple train transfers involved, but we managed it like pros.  Why were we going there?  Ninjas!  Iga City is famous for it's ninjas and we were going to the Iga-ryū Ninja Museum!

The first thing we noticed after getting off the train is that this town really is ninja-crazy!  Normal washroom signs?  Nope, they're male & female ninjas.  Little statues to denote crosswalks?  Ninjas of course!  Dozens of full-size ninja's hidden all over town?  Yup - even inside the grocery store!

Walked around a bit and eventually found our way to the ninja museum.  We had to wait a few minutes for the current tour to finish, but then we were ushered into the old ninja house for the all-in-Japanese tour.  Luckily it wasn't hard to follow along as the guide was demonstrating the various ninja additions to the house: fake walls, trick doors, hidden compartments.

Next up we toured the museum section: showing off ninja tools and weapons, disguises, etc.  I think I photographed all the exhibits.  :)  Did learn a bit about ninjas though: they believed in mysticism, they had secret codes (one of which was via tying knots in string as messages), they used cat eyes to tell time...

Then it was time for the live ninja show!  It was made up of two people taking turns showing off various weapons: katana, sai, weighted rope, ninja stars and even chopsticks!  The best part was next: for a mere 200¥ (~$2) you could throw 5 ninja stars.  I may have done it twice.  Turns out I'm pretty good, all that practicing as a kid with my plastic ones must have paid off.

After all this ninja'ing, we left and checked out nearby Ueno Castle.  It's pretty neat, though the building itself is pretty new (reconstructed in the 1930's).

It was getting late and we hadn't had lunch yet, so walked around the area looking for a place to eat.  Ended up at the grocery store and ate a nice sashimi & tempura lunch.  Though they didn't have little soy sauce packets for use so we had to buy a big bottle just for lunch!  It wasn't a waste though, as we ended up giving the rest to David before we left.

It was a lot of travel for a day trip, but so much fun!