Ninja Show

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On my final day in Japan, I hung out in Iga and finally got to watch the Ninja show. It was amazing watching ninja's fight each other, demonstrate how to use weapons, and even have kids come up to hold katanas.

We saw several demonstrations for using shurikan, which come in several shapes and sizes. Shurikan are usually dipped in poison, so that the small wound quickly becomes lethal. One of the ninja's working that day, I felt sorry for them having to wear such thin clothing in freezing weather. The younger ninja demonstrated how to throw one, two, and three shurikan at once. I'm not sure how the technique works, but the method of throwing results in all shurikan striking equidistant from each other in a straight line.

We also saw a live demonstration (planned but still intense fighting) of a rather deadly weapon - the sickle with a ball and chain. The ball can be thrown into enemies, bruising and breaking bones and the sickle is used to deliver the final blow. It's a versatile but difficult weapon and could easily overwhelm another combatant.

Aside from the ninja show we discovered a new coffee shop where we enjoyed a pastry for "lunch". Unfortunately, practically every restaurant was closed by the time the ninja show was finished, and wouldn't reopen until dinner. So instead me and my starving buddy had to settle for sugar overload as a light lunch.

After "lunch" we went to the だんじり Danjiri a museum dedicated to festivals! We watched a cool movie describing how the seasons influenced the festivals, and then were given permission to explore the rest of the museum although it was closed. We meandered around the exhibits, and then went to the tofu restaurant for dinner.

Tofu is one of those foods that I have mixed feelings about. I love tofu in miso soup, and I can deal with the harder textured variety that you can find in salads sometimes, but other than that I'm skeptical. This place served grilled tofu - it was the soft type of tofu (whose texture I don't particularly appreciate) but it did taste great. We even ate the bean curds the tofu had been made from in a delectably prepared side dish. There was a plain stock soup, some sweet tofu, seasoned vegetables, and fresh rice. It was a large set, but we were both famished. I couldn't snap a photo of the tofu as my camera died that day.

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Photos

Ninja fight
The sickle versus the bamboo stick. Sickle won!

いただきます！
Thanks for the meal! This was a nice set of vegetables, pickles, bean curd, soup, and rice. I ate the whole thing and all 12 or so sticks of grilled tofu.