Day 4: Iga Ueno
At Daniel's request, we headed for Iga Ueno, home to the Iga school of Ninjutsu. It took us an hour plus to reach there by train, but thankfully we had the JR pass, so it cost us less than 500 yen to get there and back from Kyoto.
The view of a town in the countryside from our train towards Iga Ueno. Really peaceful looking, isn't it?
The train we took to Uenoshi, where the Ninja Museum is located. Not sure if you can see it clearly, but there are pictures of little ninjas on the train.
The Ninja museum and village are located in a park along with a castle. Here we were walking in that park towards the museum.
Before we could reach the museum, we came across a Ninja technique demonstration show at 200 yen per person, so we went for it. This is the stage, and the words above the white background simply read: "Ninja Stage"
The 3 of us waiting for the show to start. Since all three of us take photos, you'll hardly find pictures with all 3 of us in them.
The apparent leader of the Ashura Ninja group performing some rite before starting his demonstration, cutting through the straw mats you see behind him.
According to the explanation given to us, the straw mats were soaked in water, making the thickness of the mats similar to that of a human body, i.e. if you were able to slice through the mat, you were able to slice through a human limb.
The ninja had to disguise himself, so they usually made use of everyday items such as the sickles above used to harvest rice as weapons.
Another member of the ninja group telling us that it was a lie that ninjas carried large number of throwing stars, since each weighed about 200 grams.
A display of some of the equipment that the ninjas used. The round wooden thing in the upper right were special shoes used to cross swamps.
A collection of various throwing stars that were used and some of the methods of throwing them.
A group of primary school children who were at the park.
The Ueno castle, not to be mistaken with the Ueno in Tokyo.
At the upper floor of the castle, there was an interesting grill made of arrows.
On the way back, we stopped at a nearby town where we had to switch trains. Thinking that since it was an interchange, there would be places to eat nearby. We almost ended up getting lost and thankfully a lady at the nearby tourist information centre pointed us to a family restaurant where we had an early dinner.
We dropped by Kasaga on the way back, cause eagle eyed Daniel spotted a sign for a natural hot spring in the area from the train in the morning. The hot spring was good, with several pools, including one outside and a jacuzzi.
The train station at Kasaga. Trains only come about once every 45 mins, and we had just missed the previous one, so that gave us lots of time to waste there.
The place is so ulu that the locals can take their dogs to walk alongside the train tracks.
Once back in Kyoto, we headed to the sushi place for dinner.
Staring intently at the belt of sushi, waiting for their favourite beef sukiyaki to arrive.
What can we say? OCX's still a growing boy.
Our last day in Kyoto would be spent at Nijo castle and the Arashiyama area, a scenic forested area west of Kyoto.
The view of a town in the countryside from our train towards Iga Ueno. Really peaceful looking, isn't it?
The train we took to Uenoshi, where the Ninja Museum is located. Not sure if you can see it clearly, but there are pictures of little ninjas on the train.
The Ninja museum and village are located in a park along with a castle. Here we were walking in that park towards the museum.
Before we could reach the museum, we came across a Ninja technique demonstration show at 200 yen per person, so we went for it. This is the stage, and the words above the white background simply read: "Ninja Stage"
The 3 of us waiting for the show to start. Since all three of us take photos, you'll hardly find pictures with all 3 of us in them.
The apparent leader of the Ashura Ninja group performing some rite before starting his demonstration, cutting through the straw mats you see behind him.
According to the explanation given to us, the straw mats were soaked in water, making the thickness of the mats similar to that of a human body, i.e. if you were able to slice through the mat, you were able to slice through a human limb.
The ninja had to disguise himself, so they usually made use of everyday items such as the sickles above used to harvest rice as weapons.
Another member of the ninja group telling us that it was a lie that ninjas carried large number of throwing stars, since each weighed about 200 grams.
A display of some of the equipment that the ninjas used. The round wooden thing in the upper right were special shoes used to cross swamps.
A collection of various throwing stars that were used and some of the methods of throwing them.
A group of primary school children who were at the park.
The Ueno castle, not to be mistaken with the Ueno in Tokyo.
At the upper floor of the castle, there was an interesting grill made of arrows.
On the way back, we stopped at a nearby town where we had to switch trains. Thinking that since it was an interchange, there would be places to eat nearby. We almost ended up getting lost and thankfully a lady at the nearby tourist information centre pointed us to a family restaurant where we had an early dinner.
We dropped by Kasaga on the way back, cause eagle eyed Daniel spotted a sign for a natural hot spring in the area from the train in the morning. The hot spring was good, with several pools, including one outside and a jacuzzi.
The train station at Kasaga. Trains only come about once every 45 mins, and we had just missed the previous one, so that gave us lots of time to waste there.
The place is so ulu that the locals can take their dogs to walk alongside the train tracks.
Once back in Kyoto, we headed to the sushi place for dinner.
Staring intently at the belt of sushi, waiting for their favourite beef sukiyaki to arrive.
What can we say? OCX's still a growing boy.
Our last day in Kyoto would be spent at Nijo castle and the Arashiyama area, a scenic forested area west of Kyoto.
posted by Jesse at
6:50 AM
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