Kōka Ninja Village — Attraction in Koka

Koka Ninja Village was easily the highlight of the entire trip. Let me start by saying that the staff was incredibly accommodating. We arrived at the station and just called their number for them to arrive within minutes to pick us up and shuttle us there, which is only about a ten minute drive away. As a heads up, I didn't find a phone at the station but if you have the Line app, you are able to make short, free calls internationally and that's what I used to let them know we needed their help. When we arrived, they asked which train we would like to take to get home and let us know what time we would need to leave the village in order to make it to our desired train. They even came to find us being silly at one of the rock walls to let us know it was time to go. AND they very kindly stored all of our backpacks and the stroller we had so we didn't need to carry it around. Just incredible people.

Next, I wish we had more time, really. We were there for two hours and we all wish we had more. The first place we went was the shuriken range where a very nice man taught us how to throw shuriken and we got to practice on different tiers of distance. I eventually got a bullseye and feel really good about that. Kids are allowed to throw, too, which is great. The shuriken are dulled so it's safe!

There are so many "ninja training" activities around the park, too. We spent so long at each of them having fun trying to do them faster each time, especially the log run and the wall run. The water shoes made for hilarious videos and are probably some of my favorite memories. We were told we were definitely using them wrong but, as we were also told, no one has really figured out how to use them right.

The museum was incredible. Take a lot of time there. Old ninja clothes, scrolls, grappling hooks, weapons- it's so cool. Another very impressive highlight is the house of trap doors. My niece had particular fun with this one as our tour guide made it a guessing game to determine where the trap door is.

There's also a ninja grave by a temple that is coming apart. It's beautiful and a little eerie and I could have stayed there for a long time. You can buy fortunes there, too, for the usual very cheap coin donation. I took a picture of mine before tying it to the tree so that way I could always remember what it said!

We ended up missing out on the pottery workshop and the restaurant, both of which we were hoping to do but because of reviews, we underestimated how much time we would want. I can't wait to go back to try those last two things out. I seriously can't recommend this place enough. It's an amazing place to be silly, try some physical challenges, and experience a history that isn't easy to find. If you have the chance to make it to Koka Ninja Village,...

Terrible but fascinating. Hard to believe it actually exists, being inside it feels like just trespassing somewhere completely abandoned. Everything is totally bizarre. The price is super steep and you get nickeled and dimed inside. There was an error on the card machine when entering and despite showing proof it went through on my end, they wanted me to pay again and then they "would PayPal me later". The "shuttle bus" is actually some Australian dude's car (on the way back it was a Japanese lady's). It closes when the staff want it to (they decided they wanted to go home 45 minutes before closing time, so they took me home 45 minutes before closing time). The Leaning Tower of Pisa is probably more stable than any of the buildings here, all of which are ostensibly listed but also happen to be covered, for example, in bits of tarp. I was the sole person there, and when the tannoy system wasn't playing creepy music or Americanised "roll up roll up" type announcements, the staff were just using it to talk to each other. One of the listed attractions is quite literally a muddy hill. Another, a zipline, runs you at full speed straight into a wall. Perhaps many moons ago this was a good place (indeed, it's listed in my guidebook!) but it is now hard to even call it functioning. Any sane person should avoid this place, but I have few regrets coming because it is now immortalised as an utterly singular,...

Depends where you are travelling from this place may not worth visiting. Though if you want to support local attractions I think that's a good reason to go. There were a few elderly people working there and despite the language barrier they tried very hard to help us out, which for me personally was the part I enjoyed the most. It's always nice to see someone who's well into retirement age working so hard and trying to create memorable experiences for visitors. For this alone I would probably rate this place a 5star, but I ended up rating it 3 because I am sure ppl not everyone are for the same reason.

There were very limited activities and we only stayed about 2-3 hours (including quick lunch and changing wet clothes). My 6 & 9 year old did enjoy the stay because they got to throw ninja stars, climb walls, and tread water, but there wasn't much to do otherwise. Especially given we were traveling from Osaka for a 5hr round trip, not sure if they would say it's time well spent.

Note - really the only way to get here is ride to koka station and call the number on the website for pickup as the shuttle buses don't...