Koka Ninja Village

This is Golden Week in Japan--a series of holidays that many people take off the full week for. Of course, the boys' school closed the whole time. Did you have to ask?

We took a trip to Koka, in Shiga Prefecture, to see the Koka Ninja Village.

Darrin dropped in to ask a couple of guys at the station for directions.

Thanks, guys, we found it!
We changed into Ninja rental suits. (In the unisex changing room!)
Does red make my butt look big? I think I should have asked for pink.
We tried all the ninja challenges.



Our little monkeys were right at home. (You can see Hugo wearing his Halloween costume from last fall. More authentic than the rentals, of course.)



Don't worry, just after this photo was taken, I kicked that blue kid out of the way.

Down the well for a quick escape
Here's Hugo, looking like an Japanese Huck Finn.

Darrin reports this task was a little tough on the groin.
After a narrow escape, Alek is helped safely to shore. (We saw several people wobble and fall in!)
The big kite there is a koi nobori--for children's day, May 5.
We also tried our hand at throwing stars. 8 for 300 yen, and a free lesson.

The boys got their ninja diplomas for completing all tasks.

Here's Darrin's diploma.

Back at the station, we enjoyed interacting with the locals.

Horses, cones, TV.

This is what our kids look like when we say we are going to visit another "famous shrine."

It was this one:

Last Sunday, they were having some horse race trials to get ready for Aoi Matsuri festival.

This shrine also had cool clogs.

And moss!
One of the horses had a bra on its head.

Okay, not really. But, I think it was embarrassed anyway.

This temple also had two sand cones . What's not to like, boys?

And in the middle of it, a TV crew from Tokyo asked Darrin and Max to use this old fashioned map. They are going to show parts of their conversation on a kids' English program on NHK. Third Saturday in July--tune in!

Hmmmm...where is Kinkakuji from here?

Veggie Vending

Last weekend, we saw a vending machine that sells vegetables!

They were almost sold out, but had onions and cucumbers left.

We got some cucumbers, just to say we did.