Iga,The city where almost everything is inspired by ninja

Our family enjoyed a day trip to Iga City. We put on a ninja costume and visited various museums to learn about ninja and Iga culture. However, I heard that there are many shops related to ninja in the town of Iga, and you can walk around the town as well as museums. So we walked around the city while wearing a ninja costume.

My name is Isis Akemi Muto, from Sao Paulo, Brazil. I’ve been living in Mie Prefecture, Japan, for the past 22 years.
Recently, my family and I started doing some day-trips around Mie.

It was hard to decide what to eat since everything looked delicious. I wanted something that was not only good but also ninja themed. That didn’t help much either since the menu has a vast variety of meals inspired by ninja, so we ordered the black udon and Hattori Hanzo udon, and also non-ninja themed meals, the Iga-pork steak set and grilled chicken set. You might wonder about the shape and colors of the foods, well, so did I. The staff told us that the color is to resemble the ninja clothes’ color, black. What about the shape of the “nori” (seaweed) on my udon? The “nori” was cut into the shape of Hattori Hanzo’s family crest! So cool! And while we were eating, we were still learning about ninja history by watching a video the restaurant plays.

“NIKAKU” also has menus written in English,and great meals that vegetarians can enjoy. Another interesting thing about this restaurant is that they have Halal meals and also a prayer room. This was the first time I saw a restaurant with this service. “NIKAKU” is definitely our recommendation if you are looking for a place to have a great meal in Iga City.

"NIKAKU"
https://www.iga-nikaku.com/en/

And after we finished our delicious meals, we headed back to Danjiri Museum to say goodbye to our ninja costumes. Being a ninja for the day was a great experience. We were even on social media! Someone who saw us thought it was cool, took a video, and posted saying, “the city is full of ninjas!”!

And since we were still at Danjiri Museum, we decided to take a look at the 3 “danjiris” (floats used in festivals) which are used during the famous Ueno Tenjin Festival, and the life-sized a-little-bit-scary figures that also appear during the festival. Then, we watched a video about this important festival which is held every year in October. The video of the festival on the big screen was very powerful.I thought it was very cool to see a parade of portable shrines, danjiri, demons, parading through the castle town.This year, we are definitely coming to be watch this great event.

Danjiri (festival float) Museum
HP:https://www.iga-travel.jp/?page_id=12
Mail：damjiri@ict.ne.jp

I think it was the day I learned about ninja the most in my life and was able to experience the world of ninja to the fullest.

We have all seen ninja in movies but we don’t know who the ninja really were, so I suggest that everyone come to Iga City to learn the true history of the ninja.

Iga-Ueno Tourist Association
HP:https://www.iga-travel.jp/
TEL:0595-26-7788
Mail: iga-ueno@ict.ne.jp

Tourist attractions covered by this article