Iga Ninja Matsuri

Something that isn't experience by so many people is the Ninja Festival in Iga, a city in Mie prefecture. It's about 2 hrs from fumikas house because you have to transfer at least 3 times.

the overnight bus to Nagoya. Look how nice it is, it's not brown and rotting like greyhound. there are two young and courteous greeters waiting to assist you with their fully functional state of the art self check in machines. How un-greyhound is that?

The Omiyage (souveniers) game again. this time it was suggested that i get "tokyo banana" for fumika's family. i dont know what these have to do with tokyo whatsoever because they are just banana cakes and the company started in 1990. anyway they are like the #2 or 3 most popular omiyage from tokyo according to some websites. The graphic design is awesome though. they taste good too. so tokyo banana gets my two thumbs up even if its expensive and not worth it, but then again all omiyage are like that.

Ninja trains to Iga.

the trains in this area are old school, here you have to buy a ticket from this guy on the train.

there was a long line to rent ninja outfits. but it was worth it. there were babies, dogs, grandmas, kids, milfs, and little girls galore dressed as ninjas.

Ninjas with heels.

they don't provide the two toed ninja shoes so everyone had to wear what they were wearing wether it be stilletos, pumas, or dunks.

fumika is doing the Ninja escape move. you're supposed to say "NIN" when you do it, which is probably the first character of ninja.

being a ninja is sweaty sweaty work, especially when you have to wear all black all day long. Ninja Lunch! attack that sandwich with a quickness fufu.

we got a little lost so we tested out our ninja skills.

hahaahha how funny is this picture of little fumika getting Jordan sized air.

the ninja museum. these are special shoes for walking across swamps.

grappling hooks, ladders, etc..

sharp pointy things you drop along the path when you're being chased

every clan has a different shuriken design.

ninja tea. it wasnt very funny to go around saying Ninja Tea! Ninja Jump!, Ninja this and that because fumika is japanese and doesnt find the humor in it.

scaling a castle wall then sweating profusely.

Ninja Dog!

Ninja Ho's! and me, im so cool.

thats me in the corner assassinating little children left and right with my poisonous blow darts. did everyone think i was a weirdo? no because no one could even see me. i was invisible, thats why i have to point out my location to you in the photo.

i guess there are no real ninjas anymore cuz that is like for the military special ops and stuff but the teachings have been passed down and now those guys are forced to do shows to make money or else. it was what you would expect from a staged show.

me in a tree assassinating passers by again.

afterwards we wanted to throw ninja stars. we should have just done it at the ninja museum where they give you sharp ones that stick into the wood target yards away but it was super hot so we went to return our ninja gear and found a place that ended up being for kids basically so we did get to throw them, and it is hard but they weren't very sharp so there was no satisfaction of the sticking like in the movies, they just bounced off, even when me a full grown gorilla adult was throwing as hard as possible in a tiny kids sized booth. this "ninja" video game also sucked super bad.

this was the coolest station inside this place, you use a little grappling hook through this trap door to grab secret documents or something. its super easy and 5 yr olds can do it.

look at me mom! a full grown adult captured a seeeeeecret docky-ment!!!!

pretty lame looking naruto

an old mamiya camera and super awesome flash!

here is a good example of how big these koinobori are, bigger than a one story house.

the strawberry ninja girls. i just made that up. but i'd like to believe that each one of them lives on the five islands in japan and live civilian lives but every year they meet here in Iga to discuss who to assasinate while wearing their strawberry red ninja gear and heels and leave their calling card of 5 half eaten strawberries on the dead bodies of their victims but they decided i was so cool that they wanted to hang out with me instead of throwing spikey ninja stars at my balls.

Ninja-ized louis vouitton pattern.

this is what fumika's mom feeds their dog, rice, maybe dried dog food, and these special dog and cat grade fish.

and the chinese are taking over the world. I came out of the shower to find fumika's mom and dad watching this random chinese lesson on normal TV. TV programing is so weird here, you could see the news, a comedy show, a food show, a chinese lesson, a golf adver-show all back to back on the same channel.

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