Chased by handsome swordsmen, we somersaulted across the raging river and sailed weightlessly over the green bamboo forest of Akame 48 Waterfalls. Camouflaged in stylish black uniforms, we carried an arsenal of poisonous darts, shooting spears, and hand swords. We glided over ancient temples and beautiful Shinto shrines, and at the end, we were captured by these swordsmen. It was a scene straight out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with Chow Yun-fat and Zhang Ziyi. Or so my girlfriends and I thought.
Four decades ago, I met three friends in Tokyo as exchange students on a study abroad program. We hit it off instantly. As innocent, 20-year-old idealists, we vowed we would travel together once a year for the rest of our lives. We kept that promise and nicknamed ourselves “The Travel Buds.”
“Hey, what do you think of going to a ninja school for our next trip?” I asked my friends one year. “In Japan,” I added.
Dead silence.
“Are you out of your mind?” was the unanimous response.
Eight months later, the Travel Buds flew halfway around the world to attend a ninja training school in the middle of Nowhere, Japan. A bullet train from Tokyo and a painfully slow local train ride later, we stumbled on to the tiny town of Akame (population 520).
Akame 48 Waterfalls is known as the birthplace of the mysterious ninja. During Feudal Japan (approximately 15th to 17th centuries), ninjas were used as hired assassins, specializing in guerilla-like techniques to commit espionage and infiltration. They wore black clothing to be “invisible” at night when most of their covert activities took place. With a river cutting across the lushly forested canyon, Akame served as the ideal site for ninja training due to its obscure and remote location. Today, Akame is also famous for their giant river salamanders and Farting Hot Buns (rolls stuffed with sweet bean paste).
On our first day at the Ninja Akame Training Center, the instructor led us to the dressing room where we would change into our stealth and stylish ninja outfits. However, to our dismay, the room was crammed with racks of uniforms in canary yellow, fuschia pink, turquoise blue, purple iris, and firecracker red. I was aghast. These bright jelly bean colors did not pass my “stealth and stylish” test.
“Where are the black outfits?” I asked.
“No black. Many colors only,” the instructor said.
“No black?” I asked again.
“No black. Pick a color,” she said.
I glanced at my friends and we burst into unstoppable laughter. We spent the rest of the day shrieking and howling our way through the abundant forest of Akame 48 Waterfalls – jumping high walls, swinging through tall trees, hurling star-shaped spears at human-like log figures, blowing poisonous darts over the falls, and swinging on braided vines over water. We looked more like bumbling Ninja Turtles than the clandestine ninja warriors of Feudal Japan.
We didn’t get a chance to eat the salamanders or taste the Farting Sweet Buns. Nor were we pursued by handsome warriors. But, we sure had a blast.
For more information on the Ninja Training Center, please contact the Akame Ninja Training Center.
