Our Japan Journey

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Day 2 - Iga Ueno

We headed out to the Ninja Museum at Iga Ueno today but stopped for a look at the Ikoma cable car first. The cable cars are fashioned to look like a very cute dog and cat and as they pass each other, the dog goes woof and the cat meows. The cable car goes up to an amusement park at the top of Mt Ikoma but it was too early in the morning when we went up there so we couldn't go on any rides. Just as well though because we didn't realise it would take us three hours to get to Iga Ueno by train. There are 2 ways to get there - one is by JR train from Nara and the other is on the Kintetsu line to Iga Kamba, then the Iga line up to Iga Ueno. Unfortunately we chose the Kintetsu line and got to see parts of rural Japan that were quite depressing really. But the Iga train was painted up with very cool Ninja artwork which was a nice contrast to the otherwise depressing little town where the ninja museum is situated.

The ninja museum was small but very interesting. At first you are ushered into a room in a traditional Japanese building which has hidden rooms, revolving doors and ladders that masquarade as shelving. A host gives you a rundown of what is happening as ninja disappear through the revolving doors etc. but alas, it's all in Japanese. Downstairs is a display of shiraken, swords, ninja shoes etc. Then there is a ninja show where a couple of modern day ninjas show their skills with sword fighting, shiraken throwing and nun-chuck twirling - definitely well worth the extra 300 yen to see, even if it is in Japanese.

We rounded off our outing with a very quick trip around the small castle. The castle sits on the only high spot in the otherwise low lying area and would have afforded the local feudal overlord a great view of his holdings.

Our train trip back only took 2 hours which is just as well as we had planned to go to the Yamamoto-Nohgakudo Theatre for an evening of traditional Japanese performing arts. The theatre was conveniently located right next door to our hotel and they happened to be having a special night where they performed four different types of performing arts in English. There was Rakugo, a form of comedic storytelling who told us about how Bill Clinton came to visit Japan when he was president. The emporer was told he must try to speak some English words of greeting. So he was taught that Bill Clinton would say "how are you", to which Mr Clinton would reply "I am fine". The emporer was told that he should then say "me too". So he practised and practised saying these 2 phrases, "how are you" and "me too". However, when Mr Clinton finally arrived, the emporer inadvertently said "who are you" instead. Mr Clinton, trying to be inoffensive, said "I'm the husband of Hilary". And the emporer replied, "me too"......

There was another form of storytelling, called Kodan and a short Noh performance which was like an opera where the story is sung rather than spoken. Although it was sung in Japanese, there was an English translation projected onto the wall so at least you could understand what was going on. But by far, the most interesting performance of the night for me was the performance by a geisha. She danced a short dance then played a game with another helper called Tora Tora (Tiger Tiger). It's basically a form of paper, scissors, rock but done with tiger/samurai/old woman. Both players stand on either side of a full height screen and a song is sung about the tiger. Then at the chorus, when everyone is singing "Tiger, tiger, tiger, tiger", both parties come out from behind the screen acting out either a tiger, samurai or old woman. The samurai trumps the tiger, the tiger trumps the old woman but the old woman trumps the samurai (because it's his mother and therefore he can't kill her!)

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