We watched an episode in NHK World and discovered this interesting Ninja museum in Iga. We were excited to go there and experience it ourselves.
Ninja Train
Getting there was easy but was time consuming. You first have to take the Osaka Loop Line to the Tsuruhashi Station and then to the Kintetsu Limited Express and arrive at the Iga-Kambe Station. Once you are in Iga-Kambe, take the Iga Tetsudo line to get to the Uenoshi Station. The entire trip took us about 2.5 hours. If you choose this route, JR pass can only be used in the Osaka Loop Line. The Iga Tetsudo line was actually quite fun as the train station and the train were full of ninja themed decorations and ninja dummies.
Ninja Museum of Igaryu
A short walk from the Uenoshi Station will bring you to the Ninja Museum of Igaryu. The musuem was full of history and facts of the Ninja culture in Japan. For example, how ninjas tell time by looking at the eyes of a cat and their secret hand sign.
Inside the museum, you can pay a bit extra to see real life ninja performance. Although the entire performance was conducted in Japanese, we understood most of the jokes and thoroughly enjoyed it. Note: No photography or videography during the show.
Tsukesoba
After we were done with the Ninja museum, we headed out for a late lunch and found this little restaurant called 若葉. The entire restaurant had a single round table and was managed by a single person. It serves tsukesoba which means soba with dipping sauce. We waited for almost an hour outside of the restaurant. The soba was excellent and the meat was amazing. At the end of your meal, you can also put some hot broth into your dipping sauce and drink the mixture. Before you go, pay attention to the opening hours to avoid disappointment.