My Heart: Visiting Japan-Day Three

Castle from the town

May 21, 2013-Day Three:

It's our third day (second full day) here, and now we have a car, a very nice Toyota van big enough to hold us all comfortably (there are 4 adults and 2 children). The roads are nice and traffic flows pretty well. The main roads are toll roads and the tolls are high--for example, the two and a half hour drive to Osaka on Friday cost us 4000 Yen (about $40).

Ninja Warriors

Today, though we drove about one hour out of Matsuzaka to a small town with an old castle in it. The really cool thing, however, is that there's a place in town that rents out ninja costumes (for kids, believe me they don't stock ninja outfits in my size) and there is a ninja museum there. We expected the kids to have a good time and they did. Yuro was outfitted all in red and Reika all in pink and they really enjoyed playing their roles as ninja warriors while we toured the castle and surroundings.


Ninjas Yuro (red) and Reika (pink).

Pink ninja on the lookout

Red Ninja on the prowl

Ninja Museum

The place where they rented the costumes had a lot of cool-looking ninja stuff, including these wagons with their decorative tapestries and this procession. The procession reminded me of pictures I've seen processions in Spain, and it looks like they were chasing out demons or something. Nothing was interpreted in English and there was no guide or guide book so I was kinda on my own in interpreting what I was seeing.

After this part of the museum, and with the kids in their costumes, we crossed the street and went into a large park where the main museum and the castle were. The grounds of the castle area reminded me of a forest or a park in the eastern US, in that the trees were mostly deciduous and there was a lot of undergrowth. To me, it looked wonderful.


At the entrance to the museum.

Inside the main museum was a replica of a ninja hideout. The tour guide showed us trap doors, hidden passageways, secret weapons stashes, disguised observation posts, and stealthy escape hatches. She let the kids use those and they had a great time being sneaky, silent and dangerous ninjas.

Further on, there was a display of ninja weapons, including throwing stars of various sizes and shapes.

I was surprised to see that ninja weaponry included firearms, even primitive cannons. The wooden cannon, according to the sign, was loaded with rocks and wood chips and used as an anti-personnel weapon.

Ninja cannon!

A scary hand-to-hand fighting weapon.

Ninja guns

Ninja Castle

Next to the museum was an old castle. It sits on a hilltop and dominates the surrounding countryside. It was surrounded by a moat and formidable stone walls, and parts of the old moat still remain. It was a bit of a climb to the top, the path was paved with very rough stones that approximated stairs and was very steep, but reaching the top was very worthwhile. It was a wonderful and impressive location. I loved the park-like setting.

A portion of the old moat and wall.

The castle on its hilltop.

The grounds of the castle may have been a military fortress in the old days, but now it is a very pleasant and beautiful park. There were places to sit (which was good, it was quite a climb), and great places to walk. While there was a modest fee for the museum, the grounds of the castle were free. Mexica and I took a lot of pictures.