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Iga-ryu Ninja Museum

Iga-ryu Ninja Museum

Iga-ryu Ninja Museum
4
Points of Interest & Landmarks
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
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4.0
4.0 of 5 bubbles357 reviews
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MizuhoK
Hino, Japan4,154 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2024 • Couples
The Iga-ryu Ninja Museum is enjoyable for both adults and children. I discovered that this is where the term "plot twist" comes from. There are many other tricks, and if you're lucky, the staff will explain each one to you. It's also fun to watch the staff dressed as ninjas. The show is an additional charge. After seeing the tricks, the history of ninjas and the exhibits are also interesting.
I think the main attractions of Ueno Park are the castle and this ninja house.
Google
Written 24 May 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

heinzhuynh
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam4,186 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2023 • Friends
Small park and ninja museum. The tour around to show Ninja skills before we get in time for the show
Really fun show with entertaining.
It lasts less than 30 ‘ then you have chance to take picture with the “ Ninja”
Very easy to understand as using Nihongo and English
Written 9 April 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Andrew M
7,589 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2017 • Family
We visited the Ninja Museum as part of our "Ninja" day, where we saw both the Iga and Koka Ninja areas. Iga is located midway between Nagoya and Osaka, We had actually done a day trip from Tokyo and completed the day in Osaka.The entire trip was 14 hours, starting from 6am and ending at 8pm. It was a long trip, but worth it. The views and experience of riding the local trains was great, and very different to taking the bullet trains where all the sights are a blur. We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Nagoya, and then changed local trains twice to Reach Tsuge. Another local train took us two more stops to Koka. After a few hours in Koka, we went back to Tsuge by local train, and then onto Iga Ueno by local train. Note that if you have a Japan Rail Pass, all these trains will be covered by the pass.Finally, we took the Iga Railways "Ninja Train" two stops to Uenoshi. The Iga Railway train is a private railway and not covered by the Rail Pass.We arrived at the Ninja Museum, just in time to catch the 3pm show in the demonstration zone.

There are two routes to the Ninja Museum and Demonstration Zone if walking. Turn left and take the underground tunnel immediately on exiting the Uenoshi Train Station. Walk down, then up the stairs and exit the tunnel. If you turn left, and then take a right, the main gate of Ueno Park, in the shape of a castle gate will be in view. Walk to the right of the bollards, and then take another right at the "T" junction (the left path leads to the castle). A further 10 minute walk leads to the Gift Shop, Bathrooms and Ninja Demonstration Zone.The more adventurous path, is to take a right after exiting the tunnel, then a left at the main road. The path is adjacent to the road, and leads to the rear entrance of the park. A sharp left at the wooden directional sign, a short climb up a steep path, and you will be at the Gift Shop and Demonstration Zone Area. We found this route the more scenic, and as we were a little early for the Ninja show, did not mind taking this longer route.

Be sure to plan your trip in line with the Demonstration Zone show times. On the day we visited, the show times were 2pm and 3pm. The cost of entry is 400 yen, and the show lasts for half an hour. The show was well choreographed, and is a must for adults and children. No photos are allowed in the zone. The actors perform with narration mostly in Japanese, with a few english words for tourists. You will see demonstration of different ninja techniques, with the audience being included in many of the skits.After the show, you have an opportunity to practice throwng shuriken outside, or take photos (for a fee) with the performers.

After the Demonstration Zone, a further fee is required to visit the Ninja Preserved Residence, House of Ninja Art and lastly the Ninja Museum. The Ninja House was once lived in by a Ninja named Taroujirou. It was moved from a nearby Iga location in 1964.The guide was really great and involved the audience in the use of the different trick compartments in the house. Children will really appreciate the Zone and the Ninja House. The guide changed disguises quite a few times during the 15 minute tour, which the audience really appreciated. Shoes have to be removed and carried in a bag provided for the duration of the house tour.

After the house tour, a walk down a fairly steep staircase, will take you to the underground section of the tour - the House of Ninja Art. This is a small museum area, with quite a few displays. Most of the displays have english captions.There are quite a few displays on the clothing and weapons that the ninja used. Many other displays offer little known facts on how ninja lived and trained. It took 20 minutes to view this museum. Photography is allowed.A walk upstairs and to your right, will lead to the final museum.

The last area is the main museum - House of the Ninja Tradition. This museum has more extensive displays, and again provides additional information on Ninja techniques e,g, sending code by using coloured rice grains, elimination of body odour, methods of walking on water, climbing walls and a shuriken display. I think that the admission fee to these 3 areas (excluding the demonstration zone) was 700 yen.

On exiting from the Museum, the path leads back to the Gift Shop, where there were a few souvenirs on sale, but mostly geared to kids. Bathrooms are next to the gift shop. Do not miss the shrine, through the multiple red torii gates to the left of the ninja house. It does not seem to be regularly visited, and is not a part of the Ninja Museum tour. The Ueno Castle may be visited also, and is a 10 minute walk on the path leading to the left away from the Ninja Museum.

It was a long day, but if you want a real Japanese experience of travelling local trains and learning about Ninjas, this trip is a must, particularly if you have children between the ages of 5 - 13. The Koka Ninja Village has an authentic feel, located in a forest, and you actually get to try all the different Ninja techniques...if you can manage.The Koka Gift shop was excellent, and has great souvenir items including real swords and shuriken reasonably priced. In addition to this, you will get a Ninja Certificate for completing all aspects of the Ninja techniques.The village is mostly dedicated to children activities. The Iga Demonstration Zone, Ninja House and Museums are well presented, but the gift shop was not very impressive.

To get the most out of the day, please try both ninja areas. We took a long trip from Tokyo, so if you have children, I would encourage you to stay overnight in Nagoya, travel to Koka Village early in the morning e.g. 7am, then plan to reach Iga by latest 2pm. Remember to check the days and times of the demonstration zone, which is usually hourly shows between 11am and 3pm. There may be a long line at the Demonstration Zone, so plan to get here at least half an hour early. You could then return to Nagoya or go onto Osaka. The children can sleep on the trains, but remember that all local train connections in this area are quite close 5-10 minutes,and it is important not to miss any trains, as the next train may be 1/2 an hour to 1 hour wait. It will be a long day, but the memories from this day were probably the best on our Japan vacation.
Written 24 September 2017
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Tracey M
Melbourne65 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2014 • Friends
It took us nearly 3 hours and 5 trains to get from Kyoto out into the countryside to the Iga-Ryu ninja village, but it was well worth it. Just use GoogleMaps to get directions, it was very easy to work out the changes. The views of the countryside from the trains were gorgeous and we were very happy to have a morning of sitting in trains and waiting on platforms after 4 hectic days of sightseeing and walking all day. It's a 5 minute walk from the little Iga-Ryu train station to Ueno Park where the ninja attractions are. First stop is the ninja trick house. The demonstration is only about 10 minutes long and all in Japanese, but it's easy to get the gist of it all. You then go downstairs to the museum which is very small and they could do a lot more to develop it. Then it's on to the ninja show which is excellent. Mostly in Japanese with a bit of English commentary as well, there's a few ninja acrobatics, plus sword demonstrations as well as various other ninja weapons. If you hang around after the show, you can ask for a shuriken ninja star throwing lesson and for Yen 200 (around $2) you can have a go at throwing 5 ninja stars at the target board. The kids and adults loved it all. We had a meal at the one restaurant in the park, which was ok, but there were probably better restaurant options back near the station. There is a very small shop selling ninja items in the park, and if you have small children (or teenagers) when you arrive in the park you can hire a ninja costume for the afternoon from the shop. The rubber ninja stars were very popular souvenir purchases with our group. Ueno Castle is a pretty castle and it offers lovely views of the surrounding area, but not a lot to see in the castle itself. There may have been better ninja shops back at the station, but we were rushing to catch our train and didn't leave enough time to look around. The ninja train that takes you the last leg out to Iga-Ryu, and the 'hidden' ninja models and pictures all around the station were a lot of fun too. We spent nearly 3 hours getting there from Kyoto, 3 hours at the ninja park including lunch and 3 hours to get back to Kyoto, but it was a nice, relaxing day.
Written 20 October 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

MumPlusOne2012
Melbourne, Australia1,407 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2011
I travelled to Ueno Park and the Ninja Museum in November 2011, with my husband and teenage daughter. It was a nice change from all the temples we had been seeing over 2 weeks in Kyoto and Nara. We travelled by train from Nara, which involved 3 different trains! It was all very easy, but just be aware that on the final, short trip (from Iga-Ueno station to Ueno-shi) you will be changing from JR to a private line, so you need another ticket. It is best to buy your ticket from the machine on the small shuttle train (Y250) rather than hunt around for a ticket machine. The trains are timed to meet, so if you miss it you either have to wait another hour or catch a taxi for the short trip to the park.

The ninja residence is a short walk from the entrance to the park. You enter with a group and a guide, who will demonstrate all the tricks of the house (revolving doors, secret passage ways etc). The tour is in Japanese, but it's all very visual so there's no problem following what's going on. Then you go downstairs to the actual museum, which has good English explanations of all the exhibits. There are weapons, clothes and tools, and lots of interesting information as well as some hands-on exhibits. The last stop is the Ninja show, where several very enthusiastic ninjas demonstrate sword and rope fighting, throwing stars and other ninja skills. Again, it's all in Japanese but a ninja fight doesn't need translating. :)

We all really enjoyed the residence, museum and show and loved seeing all the children dressed up in ninja clothes (you can hire these at the museum - in adult sizes too, if you like). The park itself is qute pretty and it's only a short walk from the museum to Ueno Castle. This is a reconstruction, but rebuilt in wood rather than concrete, so it feels more authentic than many other castles.

Once you factor in travel to and from Ueno-shi, it's a long day out but an enjoyable one. It highlights a different side of Japanese history and culture. I wouldn't suggest going there instead of Nara or Kyoto, but if you have some extra time and are suffering from temple fatigue, it's certainly worth considering.
Written 4 February 2012
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

SSMiffySS
Singapore, Singapore25 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Nov 2013 • Couples
Your day would starts very early as a Ninja in order to catch the early train, change at least 3 trains from Namba in order to reach Ueno-shi. The staff at the train station are very helpful to give you a map and show you the direction, I think 99% of the tourist go there is asking for ninja museum. We had also hopped into the tourist info centre for toilet break and get more info about the city, there is a lady staff who can speak English fluently and present a little souvenir to us upon completing a simple survey. :)
Ok about the Ninja museum.... the very first thing they will show you the the ninja house. If you go early like us you are likely to get very personal attention and get the chance try the gadgets and tricks as well after the demo e.g. the revolving door. Otherwise you are likely to squeeze with 20 over people if there is a large group go in.
Next is you will go into the museums which showing all the ninja artifacts, tools, weapons etc. They all come in English explanations. At the end there is a souvenir counter where you can buy whatever you like.
The highlight is the show which is about 20mins long, 300yen. The earliest starts at 11am. It was full of actions and quite funny. It was full house as it's a Sunday, a lot of school children, teachers and parents went there in groups, some even dressed up in ninja costume. The atmosphere was really very good, everyone was enjoying themselves much. I believe the show time would subject to change depends on the day and crowd, as we saw the next show was 12pm when we bought the ticket, but after that they changed to 11:30am and the subsequent timings.
Lastly you can play the throws of 5 for another 200 yen before you finished the whole Ninja experience.
Food wise there is nothing, no food and drinks are allowed in the museum. There is only one little noodle shop outside.
Written 7 December 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Michael E
Camberwell, Australia99 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2015 • Family
You have to remember you're in the back waters of Japan and it's no high tech show, however these guys did a great job of entertaining us (great value), oh and our kids. The entire show is in Japanese and we were the only Westerners so they made an effort for the performers who could speak English. We even got a chance after the show to throw the ninja stars into a styrofoam target. Other elements that were great were learning about the ninjas at the museum and then elements of the secret ninja house. A fantastic day of it in this quaint little town. We then headed off to the local castle.
Written 6 July 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jey H
29 contributions
3.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2015 • Family
There are ninja house visitation / briefing with the entrance ticket and also ninja fighting show. You may also able to experience how to use Ninja weapon at one of the attraction spot.
Written 19 March 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Slava K
Brooklyn, NY3,370 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Apr 2014 • Friends
I got to this place by bus with a tour group so I did not have to worry about finding any means of transportation there and back. I found this place quite interesting as we saw the ninja show, the ninja house with hidden doors and storages, and the museum.
The show was quite entertaining, and I would suggest not missing it. However, I was mostly impressed by the museum because it makes you realize that ninjas are not the modern-day inventions, they actually lived in the ancient Japan, and you can see their tools of the trade from that time.
You can also rent ninja costume, and you can walk around the place, and attend the show being dressed as a ninja.
Written 27 December 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Languorous
Singapore, Singapore10 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2013 • Family
As everyone has said, it's a loooooong way away and frankly quite simplistic. But my kids and I enjoyed it still. The show was the best, although you really miss out if you don't speak Japanese. The presenter chatted extensively and seemed humorous because the audience frequently broke out in laughter. The stunts are indeed cheesy and the deliberately so, with funny sound effects.

Apart from the show, the rest of the place is truly rudimentary. Even the actual museum looks rundown and poorly lit and presented. The souvenir shop was like a school canteen, where products weren't particularly well displayed or lit so we almost missed buying some simple and cheap souvenirs. Yes, at least the souvenirs were generally not rip-off, which may explain why the place is quite basic and unfancy.

I didn't think much of the ninja house with all the trapdoors. It looked kind of tired but I must say that the ninja were truly professional in that they threw a shiruken within inches of my daughter, unexpectedly, and it lodged in the wall. Had she moved unexpectedly e.g. sneezed or fidgeted, I hope she wouldn't have been hurt!!!

I should warn you that even though there's a direct train to Iga, it runs only hourly and when we arrived that day, the tickets were all sold out until lunch (didn't know that we should've/could've booked in advance). And that started us on an odyssey that took us through multiple trains and lots of sign language with the various station masters. I think we took about 4 trains on 4 different lines to make that one main journey, since we missed the direct connection.

Because it took so long to get all the way there, we didn't even see anything else in the small town because we just wanted to go back to Osaka and rest.
Written 3 February 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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IGA-RYU NINJA MUSEUM (2024) All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos) - Tripadvisor

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