Ninjas are sneaky and difficult to locate!

I really wanted to go to the Ninja Museum, which is located in a very small town in Mie Prefecture called, Iga Ueno. There used to be a large ninja school here, of the Iga Ninjas. This place turned out to be a pain in the ass to get to by public transport because it is in the middle of nowhere, unlike other places I'd been in Japan at this point. I visited even smaller places on my last trip to Shikoku, but we had a car which makes a HUGE difference.

So we rode this train through the mountains on the JR line until we got to JR Ueno Iga station. Well, you're supposed to transfer to a private railway line which will take you to a station that is much closer to the castle and ninja museum so you can walk there. Well, we got off the train and the signs were not clearly marked as to which direction the train from the other line was going. I thought Iga Uneo shi was the next station, but it WASN't. However, I didn't know that so I thought this other train was going in the wrong direction. That train was only there at JR Iga Ueno station for about for about five seconds after we got there before departing. As soon as it left, we figured out this is the last stop on that line, and that WAS the train we wanted! Ooopps! So now we're stuck in the middle of freaking no where in the sweltering heat for an hour! Damn those ninjas! They had tricked us! Now I wouldn't have time to see the temples I wanted to see in the afternoon. I was super pissed.

So we walked a little ways away from the station and this is what we found. Basically rice fields, streams, and some crappy buildings. This place sucked. You think the whole town would be cool and all ninja-fied, but NO! This was the most out in the country I'd felt in Japan at this point. It was was hot and I didn't want to be there.

FINALLY, an hour passes and another train comes. Look how dead it is, we're the only idiots all the way out here on it! I again wonder if it's another trick by the ninjas. I wanted to go back to Osaka at the point. I'd seen how crappy the town was and was not feeling the whole ninja atmosphere anymore. However, they did have a cool map which showed you, "Ha ha, you're no where near all the cool stuff. Haha!" (see the first picture).

Later I will reveal what the ninjas were hiding from us.