In my quest to fill out my ‘Visited Prefectures’ map a little bit every month, I took a day trip to the cities of Iga and Ise in the neighboring Mie prefecture. As I’ve exhausted all of the nearby places to fill out on the map, this might be the last place I’ll be able to do in a single day. Even then, I was on the train at the crack of dawn, headed for Iga, a city known for it’s history with Ninja.

The first stop was the Iga Ueno Castle. The castle grounds and surrounding park were still full of beautiful fall colors, and provided a picturesque view while approaching the castle. Inside was a museum-like exhibit of important figures, history, and artifacts from the castle. Compared to many other castles, it seemed fairly authentic inside, which I always appreciate when compared to more modernized castles like Osaka castle, with it’s tiled flooring and elevators.

The next stop was the nearby Ninja Museum. Every half hour, they have a guided tour/demonstration of the various tricks, hiding places, and hidden exits that existed in a Ninja’s house, and explanations on how they were able to move around secretly and silently.

After the presentation, we were lead into the museum area, which was really interesting, with tons of cool gear and weapons, explanations of the Ninja lifestyle, etc. As an added bonus, the signs were almost entirely all translated to English, so I’d highly recommend it for tourists.

Lastly, there was a Ninja show. Unfortunately, there was no video or picture taking allowed, but it was really worth seeing. 3 performers explained various Ninja equipment/techniques, like swords, shuriken, bow and arrow, and kunai with live demonstrations, intermixed with skits of them fighting each other and doing lots of acrobatics, complete with bad sound effects and music playing from a speaker. It was equal parts impressive and cheezy, which made it really entertaining.

After finishing up in Iga, I took a train to Ise to see Ise-jingu, the first shrine built in Japan. The Ise-jingu area actually consists of 125 different shrines spread across a large area, but the main shrine houses Amaterasu, the sun goddess. Getting to the shrine is a big of a journey itself, and after crossing a bridge, you pass through wooded area that is kind of peaceful despite there being a decent amount of people. I always feel a bit strange going to temples and shrines, as though I find them really impressive, I don’t really know what to do with myself, so I end up gawking for a big, taking a photo, and walking off. Maybe some day I’ll learn!

Full gallery here.