Ninja Village

Last weekend, 13 of us foreign doods piled into 3 cars and headed for Iga ninja village in Mie Prefecture. When we got there, we rented ninja outfits and some of us (me and Jim) bought extra swords and ninja stars. Even though JJ and Gareth were giddy and jumping all over the place early in the morning, it took the rest of us until we had those outfits on before we could fully act the part. Once we got started, though, it was on. Hiding behind traffic signs, pointing our swords at people in cars, stalking children and old women...good times.

We visited an old ninja house, and the guides pointed out hidden doors, stairwells, viewing areas and weapons storage. All in all, pretty neat. They had a museum with explanations of weapons, tactics, and outfits, and obviously had a gift shop for purchase of phone straps, stuffed animals, and other cutsey Japanese type stuff.

We caught the ninja show as well, where some guys put on a demonstration of the different weapons, blew darts, threw ninja stars, fought, made jokes, and basically entertained the hell out of us. Afterwards you could throw 5 ninja stars for 200 yen...so obviously most of us did this 2 or 3 times. They put a target on a tatami mat and leaned it against a wall...some folks couldn't even hit the tatami, with the stars flying over, under and to the side of this huge mat. That was pretty funny.

Afterwards we climbed the walls of Iga castle, took all kinds of pictures with strangers, and basically just screwed around before heading off to return our gear. One of the funnest days I've had in Japan period.