(link to Part 2)

Toei Kyoto Studio Park

The Uzumasa area of Kyoto is often called the Hollywood of Japan. The otherwise unremarkable neighborhood is home to the Toei Studios Kyoto (TSK), famous for jidaigeki films, historical dramas often set during the Sengoku (1467-1603) or Edo (1603-1868) periods, and often featuring samurais engaging in chambara swordfighting action. First built in 1926 by the "king of samurai dramas" Tsumasaburo Bando, TSK is both an active movie studio with multitude of indoor studios and sound stages and a huge, 5.3 hectare open set which, since 1975, became a one-of-a-kind movie-themed amusement park called Toei Kyoto Studio Park.

The open set used to film jidaigeki movies and TV shows is divided into several areas, all faithful reconstructions of Edo-period street scenes and neighborhoods. With a costume rental shop and professional makeup studio staffed by active film industry artists and veterans, you can feel like an actor in a jidaigeki movie as you become a sword-carrying samurai or young lord swaggering through the set. There are fun movie-themed attractions, a ninja training studio and trick ninja house with secret trapdoors, hidden entrances and mirrors, a performance hall where you can enjoy popular Edo period street performing arts, an exciting drama spectacle combining chambara and digital projection, a mock film recording studio where you can learn how jidaigeki movies are made, live chambara shows outside in the set with opportunities for participation, a 3-D maze for smaller kids, a reproduction of a terakoya school where you can learn about everyday life in the Edo period, a thrilling haunted house featuring film-quality special effects, and more.

In this first of a multi-part feature, we'll introduce some of the exciting things visitors can do at Toei Kyoto Studio Park.

Entrance

The first thing you notice when you reach this entrance of Toei Kyoto Studio Park are the life-sized ninjas keeping watch over you. If you keep your eyes peeled during your adventures in the park, you'll surely see them at strategic locations, stealthily perched on roofs, climbing walls, even straddling tightropes strung between buildings.

Jidaigeki, Behind The Scenes

If you've ever watched a jidaigeki movie or TV series, you've probably wondered how they manage to create such dramatic and action-filled scenes time and time again. In the Location Studio, there is a special show where audiences can witness a jidaigeki scene being filmed live, with the stage director, camera and lighting crew all working in coordination. The audience is positioned just at the right angle to be able to watch the action unfold, see the difference between what the monitors show and what happens on the set, and see the tricks and contraptions hidden to the viewers. Arrows are guided by nylon wire to reach their target precisely, mats are hidden beneath the camera's field of view to allow actors to safely jump off rooftops onto the ground, and many more tricks and secrets are revealed.

Ninja Star Dojo

We'll have a look at all the samurai swashbuckling fun you can have at Toei Kyoto Studio Park in Part 2 of this series, but for Part 1, it's all about ninjas.

To begin with, the Ninja Star Dojo is a place where you can hone your skills at throwing the shuriken (ninja star). After your ninja costume-clad instructor demonstrates correct throwing technique, you can choose between the throwing range, partitioned into four stalls, where you use genuine steel stars thrown at a target fixed to the wall, or the easier version with rubber stars thrown at a soft target attached to a straw curtain.

Ninja Mystery House

Now that you've thrown a few shuriken and are feeling a bit more ninja-like, it's time to visit the Ninja Mystery House full of revolving doors, secret passages, hidden entrances, fake hallways and other tricks and contraptions just like those that were actually used to protect ninja houses and strongholds from attackers and allow their residents to gain a strategic advantage.

Ninja instructors will lecture you on the different kinds of traps and tricks in the mansion before letting you loose inside the house as you search for the exit.

Ninja Cafe and Gift Shop

After all that shuriken throwing and scrambling through the Mystery Ninja House, you'll probably be feeling a bit tired. That's a good time to take a break at the Ninja Cafe and pick up a ninja-themed gift at the Gift Shop

Something else to take back to your hotel room or enjoy in the cafe is a box of tasty caramel popcorn shaped like a coffer which was used in the Edo period to store a thousand ryo, a unit of currency at the time which were flat, gold bars worth about 130,000 JPY each in today's money. The kanji on the box read "sen ryo bako" (literally, "box of a thousand ryo").

Traditional Street Performance: Nankin Tamasudare

At the Nakamuraza Theater, a reproduction of the famous kabuki theater by the same name in Edo, you can enjoy ninja shows as well as demonstrations of street performances popular during the Edo period. Nankin Tamasudare, which can be loosely translated as "Nanjing woven screen" is a screen made of loosely woven sticks which can be pulled out and twisted to create different shapes. The performer chants a catchy song while doing this (you can see an example at the Wikipedia link above).

For 60 years or so, the finale in a performance of Nankin Tamasudare had often been a rendition of Tokyo Tower. However, the stakes have gone up ever since Tokyo Skytree was built in 2011, replacing Tokyo Tower as teh tallest building in Japan. Despite the additional height, the skilled performer at Nakamuraza pulls it off without breaking a sweat.

Mito-Han Ramen

Since the long-running historical drama Mito Komon, based on the life of Tokugawa Mitsukuni, former vice-shogun and retired second daimyō of the Mito Domain, is filmed at Toei Studios, Toei Kyoto Studio Park prides itself on serving Mitohan Ramen (ramen from the Mito Domain). Mitsukuni was apparently the first Japanese person to taste ramen, when he took Confucian scholar Zhu Zhiyu under his wing. Zhu Zhiyu taught him how to make ramen using lotus root starch and Mitsukuni served it to his vassals with ginger, garlic, green scallions, green onions and rakkyo shallots. The ramen is delicious, and at only 800 JPY, is definitely worth trying when you visit Toei Kyoto Studio Park.

Costume Photo Shop

Although there is a more intensive and full-fledged costume rental shop for those who want the complete makeover experience and walk around the outdoor set (more on that in Part 2), those who don't want to invest the additional time and money or are hesitant to put on full makeup can get a wonderful souvenir of their experience in Toei Kyoto Studio Park at the Costume Photo Shop. You can choose from a variety of costumes such as princess, geisha, samurai, lord, vassal, and more. They will fit you with a wig, the costume, and then take your picture in the studio.

One of the staff demonstrated what a costume photo session is like for us.

Et voila! In just 15 minutes, she was transformed into a Japanese princess

Your picture is beautifully framed in a special card case for you to take home.

In Part 2, we cover an amazing ninja show with digital projections, a chambara swordfight and hands-on training, an informative lesson about everyday life in the Edo period, a haunted house featuring professional actors and special effects and a complete transformation at the costume shop, allowing us to leap back in time as a samurai walking through the streets of Edo in the open set.

Then, in Part 3, we will step into the heart of Japanese Hollywood in Toei Studios to reveal the world of details behind the scenes of jidaigeki film production.