The Tan Tans' Life Begins

Iga's main festival is the Ueno Tenjin Matsuri held from October 23rd-25th and featuring a parade of locals dressed as oni (ogre or demons), mikoshi (portable shrines) and another procession of decorated, wheeled floats known as danjiri. The festival has a 500 year history. It was definitely an interesting experience watching the oni parading and frightening the wits out of babies, toddlers and young children, who responded by madly wailing their lungs out. Apparently it's good for children to cry on this occasion because the oni are scaring the evil spirits away from them. We also went on a treasure hunt of sorts and kind of won the top prize in a lucky draw - a box of really exotic grapes! The parade of the oni. An 'ogre' struggling to drink through a straw. The samurai (top) and the priest (bottom) warding away evil. Look at how horrified the kids were. The Danjiri (large wooden carts in the shape of a shrine/temple)! Mikoshi (Portable shrines). Lion dance ...

The trip to Iga was interesting. Just for knowledge sake, Iga lies between Nara and Matsusaka and is approximately 3hrs from where the Tan Tans stays. It is the place where one of the most famous and popular ninja clan in japan originated. But to those anime fans, I'm sorry, I couldn't catch any sights of Naruto and gang. The first sight that greeted us in Iga was "ninja". Take a look at the "ninja" transport below; Our favourite!! The twin ninja train! And the shopfront was full of "ninja" too! Cute origami too too !! And Mr Tan Tan had his shot of being a "ninja" tourist for the moment there too.. but.. he could never surpass the kid with his ninjitsu. ... * _ ^ The other signages around the area are interesting too.. . especially the signage for the restroom. And at the ninja museum, we were treated to a typical ninja house setup including secret hidding spots and weapon area as well as an introduction to all their equipments, gears...