Stealth moves in Iga Ueno

Jodie practising his Ninja moves pre-museum
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This place was AMAZING!  Possibly the coolest place we've been to yet.  Even the train journey there was cool; thank you mr JR pass as we didn't have to pay any extra money at all during the trip, and we got to ride on a mini train decorated with ninjas!

The purpose of our visit was to see a Ninja complex Jodie found on the internet...it wasn't mentioned in our guide book, and we didn't see any honkys there AT ALL!  Only Japanese tourists.  So we were planning on visiting Iga Ueno castle, the Ninja Museum and the Danjiri Festival museum (latter wasn't actually part of the ninja complex, but it was included in our ticket price).

We are enlightened in the way of the Ninja!

Iga Ueno Castle...yes.
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The castle itself was nice to walk around, with a good bit of info about the history of the castle and a great view of Ueno.  Similarly the Danjiri Museum was interesting as it was specific to the festival held in Ueno once a year, but the main attraction for us was the Ninja Museum!  Seeing the real birthplace of Ninjitsu and getting accurate info rather than Hollywood info was great.  This deserves a seperate paragraph.

This.  Was.  Amazing.  We strolled up to the Ninja Museum, when we were greeted by folk dressed as ninjas.  They advised us that a ninja show was about to start, and asked if we'd like to go.  For 200 yen each, we were taught the ways of the ninja.  Possibly the best 200 yen we've ever spent!  These guys had some amazing moves, and they had authentic ninja weaponry which they demonstrated for us; Shuriken, Kama, Katana, Knives, Sai-daggers, etc.  They were so good at it all, and a couple of them translated the info into English for us.  They had some fight scenes which were incredibly good, better than the films, and it was all choreographed to hilarious music and sound effects!

Nichola disappearing into a real life revolving door in a real life ninja house.
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Post-show, Jodie had a Shuriken throwing lesson, the results of which can be seen on our You Tube page!  In fact we're gonna start uploading other videos we've taken on there so you can check it oot:

http://jp.youtube.com/user/CountJodius

After the show, we checked out some info on Ninja types in another part of the museum...this included Ninja trivia.  Did you know that Ninjas had their own method of telling the time of day by looking at the eyes of cats?  Did you know that Ninjas did not wear black like they do in the movies, but navy blue as this blended in better on lighter nights?  Did you know that ninjas had extensive knowledge of gunpowder and its' uses, long before it was commonly used?  Well, we know ALL of this now!  Yes.  Anyhoo, after that wee bit we visited a real life, hundreds-o-years-old Ninja house.  It was disguised as a humble farmer's abode, but if you knew the ways of the Ninja - like us - you would have noticed the revolving doors, the hidden floors, the escape route under the house, the shelves which could change into a ladder in an instant, the secret lookout points.  Oh yes, be afraid when you come to our house and use the toilet...that was a joke.

Nichola and lovely ninja girl doing the 'NEENJA' pose. This girl could kill you with her pinky.
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Didn't get up to much else here as we were pretty pooped after our Ninja experience, but if you're near Osaka/Kyoto you HAVE to go here...the Ninja place is AMAZING and so worth the wee trip out...YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS!  Here's the website for the place...go, go, GO!:

http://iganinja.jp/en/index.html