Day 3 of the Vacation, and a bonus Ninja Castle!

Today is a relaxing Sunday in the dorm.  Kind of.  I've talked to my mom a bit, which was nice.  I've been cleaning, which I'm taking a break from now to get this and a few other less active things crossed off of my to-do list, which for once I actually have written out so I don't forget anything.

Yesterday was a field trip to Iga Prefecture, which is home to one of the most renowned ninja training grounds from feudal Japan.  Yes, ninja were real.  They didn't have magical abilities or anything of that nature, but they were very able combatants and absolute masters of subterfuge and guerrilla warfare.  The castle was cool because it showcased a lot of the weapons and armor that the feudal lords of the region used.  I especially liked the ninja weapons displays, since they're kind of rare to see.  Some of the more simple tools they had that weren't combat related were pretty genius as well.

The field trip started off with a stop at a silk museum, since that region is noted for the silk production there.  They let us take a bunch of pictures and make some bracelets.  This was at the Iga Kumihimo Center.

 

We started off making these bracelets.
The way their table worked made me really
want to make one for the knotwork jewelry stuff
that I make.  It usually takes me anywhere from
45 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on
what I'm making.  This was the first time I've made
anything like this and it took me about 30 minutes.

 

Some things from the museum at the silk place.
Their silk products were used to make anything
from rope, to ties, belts, and even the cords used
to bind together o-yoroi.

After the silk museum, we went to lunch, which was fun because on the bus ride, I made a few new Japanese friends.  After lunch, we went on to Ueno Park, a ninja museum that has Iga Ueno Castle within it.  It was kind of out of the way, in the middle of a mountain valley.  The castle was very cool, but smaller than the other ones I've visited.  On the upside, the museum there included a ton of arms and armor, and we were actually allowed to take pictures!

 

Just like any other historical place, the village
and castle had shrines very close by.  I especially enjoyed
the tori gates that led up to them here.  Not all of them
include those, and I think they're always beautiful.

 

Some of my favorite things I've seen in person now.
Ninja weapons and tools, including one of my favorites,
the kusari-gama.  It's the sickle shaped blade with the ball
and chain attached to it.  It is one of the most subtly effective
weapons ever invented, and credit for it goes almost entirely
to ninja clans like this one.

 

As I said, Iga Ueno castle isn't one of the bigger
ones I've been to, but it was still very pretty.
Especially with the leaves starting to change around it!

 

As I mentioned, some of my favorite parts of this
castle were the collections of weapons and armor!
Here are a few examples of what I was talking about.
The sword displays were all beautiful, and there were
a large number of other varieties of weapons, which
I hadn't seen anywhere since I'd been in Japan.

 

One of the most outstanding things
about this castle's displays was that you
can see that these aren't merely for show.
For instance, the darker of these two sets
of armor has visible damage from black
powder bullets.  I feel bad for the guy that
wore it, but I guess having some cracked ribs
is better than actually having a musket ball
lodged in your lung!

 

So much beautifully crafted and detailed armor!

Those are the highlights of the field trip.  It was a lot of fun, even if it was an all day affair and the bus trip back to campus took about an extra hour because of some kind of accident or something on the freeway.  After getting back, some of us went out to have ramen at our favorite Chinese place and a few drinks, which was a lot of fun!  And we have a house party planned for a few weeks from now, so that should be fun!

* * * * * * *

Flashback time!

Day three of the vacation was spent in Nara, which is famous here for its deer park.  As someone from the Midwest in the U.S., the idea of feeding, petting, and revering dear is pretty foreign.  At home, they're a pest that we hunt and kill for population control and for food, or even just for sport.  Not that I support sport hunting much, but if you're putting the animal to use, I've got no problem with hunting.  That made it a little strange when I got here and deer would literally walk up to you and bite at your clothing to get your attention to see if you had food for them.

When we first got to the park, there was a local festival that was a lot like the country fairs at home.  There was a stage set up and they had local entertainers on it, there was a magician entertaining kids, and there were tons of stalls with local foods around the park.  The whole area was busy because this week was the only time in the year that the Japanese government puts on what is known as the Shosoin exibit.  Each year, they select a handful of the artifacts from the Shosoin (the national treasure house) and put them on display for the public.

 

These are pics from the festival.  It was very much
like the festivals in smaller towns in the mid-
west back home.  It was pretty cool to see.

 

The deer here were pretty interesting.  Turns out
this is all the way it is because Buddhists believe
deer are messengers of the gods, and used to bow
to them and feed them.  Now some of the deer will
walk up, and if you bow to them, they'll half bow back
to you in exchange for the hard wheat crackers that
are sold all over the park.

 

The first place in Nara we went was through the deer
part.  It was an old Shinto shrine called Kasuga.  It was
beautiful, but the spirit of the place felt dead.  I'll attribute
it to being a very popular tourist attraction.

 

While the shrine wasn't really that exciting to me other
than for appearances, it did showcase one of my favorite
Shinto practices.  When the Japanese people go to shrines,
they often get fortunes.  Apparently, when you get one,
you tie it to one of these sorts of places, or into a tree.
The same sort of thing is done over New Year's.
The Japanese write down something they want to
let go of in the new year onto a slip of prayer paper,
then leave it tied to a specific area of the shrine.
When the weather has destroyed the prayer, you
are supposed to be free of whatever you'd written on it.

 

Some of the views from Wakakusayama, the lookout mountain
we visited.  In the second picture, you can see the roof of
one Todaiji Temple, which we would visit the next day.

After leaving the mountain, we stopped in a museum full of ancient Buddhist artifacts and art, including some of the most famous sculptures from the 730s here in Japan.  Seeing wooden art that was that old really blew my mind.  It was history that predated the country I'm from being settled by my ancestors by more than 700 years.  It was awe inspiring.  Sadly, due to the age of the materials, we weren't allowed to take any pictures.  

That pretty much wrapped up day three.  We took our time making it back to the place we stayed for the night.  We found a place to have some Italian, had pasta there, but we weren't full, so we grabbed a pizza to go.  Sat back at the room and watched an episode of an anime and called it an early night.  Day 4 turned out to be really busy!

That's all from me for now!  I'll post again later tonight if I have time, or maybe tomorrow again. I still have three more days of vacation to post!