When in Japan I saw countless people wearing white masks. The Japanese citizens generally wore the masks for health reasons: to protect either themselves or others around them from sickness. Coming from a land where nobody wears masks even when sick, it fascinated me to see so many people wearing masks as the norm.
During my trip I got to travel around southern Japan and central Japan. Wherever I went, there were still so many people wearing white masks. About halfway into my trip an association between these Japanese individuals and their masks popped up in my mind. These Japanese people... some having ninjas as their ancestors, must be ninjas in hiding!
From that point on in my trip these people were all white masks ninjas. Some were camouflaging themselves as students, businessmen, but when needed were ready to perform their ninja duty. For the rest of my trip I observed these ninjas with awe and wonder. At one point in my trip I purchased some masks myself and tried to train parkour in it. That was a terrible idea.
M Kat