I have never being there to test it, but I know that there are some ways of walking that are noise free. One of them we call it the cat walking. Ninjas were supposed to be effective stealth assassins, so most probably every effective alarm system of the time, should be designed to counter that.
Try to walk, with out your heels ever touching the ground and you will understand. If you are there you can test it, if it is designed to counter that and you can tell us after:)
I was actually there in Kyoto like 18 months ago. Now if I'm going to be brutally honest I hated it. The reason being that I had been out partying and I got home like 6 in the morning. My moron brother woke me up at like 8 to say that he had booked a tour to go and see the Nijo Castle and specifically the Nightingale floor. So 30 min later we were on a bus.
When we got there I had an EPIC hangover. My God I still have nightmares of that day. To top it all off I had to walk through the Nightingale floor. My brother, being the eternal pain in my @ss, kept running back and forth to piss me off. But it is very fascinating and interesting.
I know that it made a noise like a bird to warn against thieves, burglars, kidnappers, Assassins and ninjas in the homes or temples but what made it work? It made more noise the softer you stepped on it but what gave it the noise? how was it designed? has anyone seen them in real life?
