Chubu airport, railway station celebrate 'Ninja Day'

Happy Ninja Day! This is a really good promotion, and will attract big numbers of foreign tourists, mostly Western ones where there is a huge Ninja boom. Changing Chubu Airport to “Ninja Airport” permanently would be a good start, and also having week long street festivals, Ninja dances and fights etc. Ninjas are unique to Japan and can attract foreign tourists who are amazed, just like Maiko-san, Sumo etc. does.

The station is located in Iga, Mie Prefecture, where the famous Iga ninja clan was active in feudal times.

For those of you who want a more "balanced" approach to the whole ninja thing, let me recommend the city of Iga. It is an amazing city and is my favorite place in Japan. Been there over 20 times, and would have moved there premanently if we hadn't decided to start the immigration process to canada. The city itself is located in a a basin, which means that it has some AMAZING onsen that are very reasonable. The city's beef is also amazing although it is never marketed outside of Iga. They also have very clean water which makes for some excellent Japanese Sake. If you like good food, good sake, good onsen, beautiful nature, and historical sites that are off the beaten path, you could do alot worse than Iga.

If you do end up going, here is a list of historical ninja sites that you can visit:

https://www.iganinja.jp/en/place/index.html

Remember, if you go to Iga, you will need a car. Absolute MUST. public transport just isn't going to cut it.

It's good to be a ilttle silly every now and then....makes the monotony less mundane.

Elsewhere in Japan, Feb 22 was Cat Day - 22 being pronounced as nyan nyan - the cry of a cat!