As the city is isolated by the mountains, it gave perfect location for numerous schools of
Ninjutsu martial art in the past. It is said that art of
Ninjutsu came to Japan from China through Korea and is not that much about the strength of a person, but it's the way of using intellectual solutions to fight - manipulation or parapsychology.
The river
Hattori, which crosses
Iga, was named after
Hattori Hanzo, who lived in the
XVIth century and is considered to be one of the most awesome ninjas ever. He started his trainings at the age of 8 and managed to posses more skills than any other ninja in history and what is even more, the legend says that he had supernatural powers such as ability of predicting things. It seems that the name
Hattori was not accidentally given by Quentin
Tarantino to the sword smith, who is one of the
Kill Bill movie characters.
Iga fits perfectly to the vision of the stereotypical Japanese town that was being created in my mind for the last 23 years. It has all those typical wooden houses with
tatamis on the floor, gardens with trees that look like huge
bonsais and crowds of children wearing typical uniforms.
The main tourist attractions of
Iga are the castle, the house of
Matsuo Basho (world's most famous haiku poet) and the Ninja Museum. Being honest, I've never paid too much attention to the stories about Ninja, except the
Ninja Turtles cartoon, so I didn't know what should I expect from the museum.
The first part of the museum was a
Ninja's house. Probably, during the presentation of the revolving walls, trick door, underground passage, lookout place or secret compartments for hiding weapon, I was amused not less than the children standing next to me. What was even more impressive, the person showing us all those "magical" things was passing through the secret door really fast.
Second part of the museum was an exhibition presenting everything that is known about Ninja lifestyle,
Ninjutsu techniques or genealogy. Last but not least, we've watched a demonstration of weapons and some ninja tricks, which was kind of scary, especially when "one of the Ninja guys" threw 3
shurikens in the same time. Unfortunately, all of the presentations were given in Japanese but anyway, I understood the part about not taking pictures with flash, while Daniel thought it's not allowed to take pictures at all. Practice makes the master!
I'm glad I've taken pictures of EVERY SINGLE THING in the museum, because I don't think there is any easily available book about the Ninja topic in Europe. If anyone is eager to learn more about Ninja, let me know!
(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.) 
As the city is isolated by the mountains, it gave perfect location for numerous schools of Ninjutsu martial art in the past. It is said that art of Ninjutsu came to Japan from China through Korea and is not that much about the strength of a person, but it's the way of using intellectual solutions to fight - manipulation or parapsychology.
The river Hattori, which crosses Iga, was named after Hattori Hanzo, who lived in the XVIth century and is considered to be one of the most awesome ninjas ever. He started his trainings at the age of 8 and managed to posses more skills than any other ninja in history and what is even more, the legend says that he had supernatural powers such as ability of predicting things. It seems that the name Hattori was not accidentally given by Quentin Tarantino to the sword smith, who is one of the Kill Bill movie characters.
Iga fits perfectly to the vision of the stereotypical Japanese town that was being created in my mind for the last 23 years. It has all those typical wooden houses with tatamis on the floor, gardens with trees that look like huge bonsais and crowds of children wearing typical uniforms.
The main tourist attractions of Iga are the castle, the house of Matsuo Basho (world's most famous haiku poet) and the Ninja Museum. Being honest, I've never paid too much attention to the stories about Ninja, except the Ninja Turtles cartoon, so I didn't know what should I expect from the museum.
The first part of the museum was a Ninja's house. Probably, during the presentation of the revolving walls, trick door, underground passage, lookout place or secret compartments for hiding weapon, I was amused not less than the children standing next to me. What was even more impressive, the person showing us all those "magical" things was passing through the secret door really fast.
Second part of the museum was an exhibition presenting everything that is known about Ninja lifestyle, Ninjutsu techniques or genealogy. Last but not least, we've watched a demonstration of weapons and some ninja tricks, which was kind of scary, especially when "one of the Ninja guys" threw 3 shurikens in the same time. Unfortunately, all of the presentations were given in Japanese but anyway, I understood the part about not taking pictures with flash, while Daniel thought it's not allowed to take pictures at all. Practice makes the master!
I'm glad I've taken pictures of EVERY SINGLE THING in the museum, because I don't think there is any easily available book about the Ninja topic in Europe. If anyone is eager to learn more about Ninja, let me know!
(This is one of over 30 posts, which I accidentally deleted one day in January. Luckily, I was able to recover them thanks to the backup done by DanielSan! It's a pity that the comments are gone but someting is better than nothing.) 
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