The Iga Ueno City Hotel in Mie prefecture offers three ninja-themed rooms, each room is 23 sq m and can accommodate one to four people. - GREENS.CO.JP
TOKYO (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): For those who are fascinated by the legends and lore of Japan’s ninjas, you can now get to experience living in their world at a hotel in Japan.
The Iga Ueno City Hotel in Mie prefecture offers three ninja-themed rooms, with one room each available on levels four, six and eight. Each room is 23sq m and can accommodate one to four people. Room rates are around 10,700 yen (US$80) a night.
These rooms have features such as ninja wallpaper and scrolls containing riddles hidden under movable flooring, reported the Mainichi Shimbun on Thursday (March 30).
For example, some combat tools used by the ninjas are displayed in one of the ninja-themed rooms. This includes the infamous shuriken - also known as ninja throwing stars.
Another ninja-themed room also has a 120 cm-wide by 80cm-tall showcase on the theme, “firearms of the Igaryu ninja”.
This features replicas of various types of fire arrows used by ninjas, as well as excerpts of literature from the Edo period containing references to the items.
In January 2022, The Asahi Shimbun reported that the Iga-Ueno Tourist Association plans to turn hotel rooms and other lodgings for a fee to ninja-themed accommodations.
This provides guests the opportunity to feel close to the ninjas, who were skilled fighters in feudal-era Japan.
The association also operates the Ninja Museum of Igaryu in Iga, a city known as the home of the Iga ninja clan.
Through a collaboration with a Kyoto-based event planning company, it began creating the “ninja rooms” at hotels and other lodging facilities.
The Iga Ueno City Hotel is reportedly the first to request the museum’s service, with works completed in March.
The hotel’s manager Kazuhiro Matsumoto was quoted in the Mainichi Shimbun as saying that the hotel decided on the ninja rooms partly to attract foreign tourists.
The ninja theme is reportedly big business in Iga.
The Ninja Museum of Igaryu attracted about 200,000 visitors a year, including about 30,000 from 40 countries and regions, reported The Asahi Shimbun.
But when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, border restrictions led to a drop in tourist numbers.
The association then reportedly came up with the ninja-remodelling project to make up for lost revenues caused by the pandemic.
Ninja-themed rooms are not rare in Japan. They are also available in other cities, including Tokyo and Osaka.
