Samurai Museum + Ninja Trick House

 

 

I love exotic things, and I love learning. So going to the Samurai Museum and a Ninja Trick House seemed right up my alley. And for under $20, I was really impressed with what I got.

First I went to see the samurai. The shop seemed kind of small on the outside, but it houses an impressive two-story interior chock-full of ancient artifacts in pristine condition. There’s a free guided tour in English with your ticket purchase and I thought they did an excellent job of explaining the rich and deep history of the Samurai. 

 

 

Some interesting facts: people were a lot shorter just a few hundred years ago! The large headpieces that the shogun wore were to intimidate the enemy. They kept their hair long and wore lots of dark colors to hide any blood that may show during battle to give the impression of invincibility. There was a samurai leader who could actually catch flies with chopsticks.

They explained to us that samurai keep their swords upside down so that when they’re sleeping at any moment they can grab the katana by the handle and defend themselves. Honestly it seems like they had a plan for every situation in their day to day to be prepared for battle. Must have been completely exhausting!

Of course there’s some costumes that you can take pictures in too.

Afterwords, I want to the Ninja Trick House, where I learned the secret ways of the ninja. This one seems a lot more kid friendly. Like, it was pretty much made for children. But I wasn’t the only fully grown human to go through this tour alone so I didn’t feel too awkward.

This place was a lot of fun! Though the guide did not really explain much of the history as far as dates or names, he did a great job showing the benefits of the techniques using action over words. There was a lot of moving and slicing and secret doors. We even got to try out some moves on our own.

 

I was surprised that ninja stars are thrown straight and not sideways like we see in the media. Also I never found another opportunity to say “I threw ninja stars in Japan” so I’m really glad I took this tour. It was only $10 and they gave us some caltrops to take home too.

 

 

A few days later the Samurai Musuem had a ninja vs samurai show that was free with a previous purchase. This was a real treat, and I’m glad my friend talked me into it. There was a short demonstration of katana, kunai, and chain weapons. 

 

Then they duked it out! The Samurai had the advantage in range but the ninja got the surprise first. When he started to lose, he took cover behind an audience member. The guy was brave and actually stood to fight for the ninja! In the end it seemed like a draw but as the audience, we were the winners.