Poets and Ninjas

My last day in Mie last Saturday was partly spent in the town of Ueno, part of the old Iga area. I have uploaded some pictures here. The town’s tourism board has maximized on Iga’s reputation for being the home of one of Japan’s famous ninja clans. Various city officials are dressed in black or pink ninja outfits, which sometimes mix strangely with their hats or white shoes. Signs are covered in throwing stars, there is a ninja udon noodle shop in the park, and I brought home some ninja throwing star cookies as a gift for a friend…

My friend Hiroshi’s parents were kind enough to take me to Ueno when I told them I didn’t want to miss out on all the ninja happenings going on down the road to the East of Kameyama. We visited a “ninja house“, watched a “ninja performance” (complete with recorded sound effects to add that TV feeling), tried out the “ninja virtual experience hall“, visited the “ninja museum” (which was actually not bad at all, it had some very interesting displays on some of the less well known tidbits of their history), visited Ueno castle, and a museum dedicated to the poet Basho. The weather was beautiful and Ueno park (that is, Mie prefecture’s Ueno), where all of these attractions were located is a beautiful little area.

Don’t forget to check out the hilarious “Modem Iga Ninja Life” page hosted by the museum. Here you can find helpful hints on how to practice ninja techniques in your modern life. For example, take this picture for example. The website suggests,

“It would be best if all of the members in a department would practice Kuji at the morning meeting in the office in order to make a good day and to win success.”

Also check out this picture of a ninja salary man working at his computer. The site explains:

“The most important mission of the Ninja was to accumulate information, andtherefore a good Ninja was a person that could gather and deliver necessaryinformation the most fastest. Now is an age when necessary information can beobtained speedily and efficiently through taking advantage of various media such ascomputer communication,internet and e-mail. By gaining information in this manner, business can be executed with the least stress.”

Finally, as this picture shows, sometimes ninjas have to hide from their boss at work.