One Sunday

Since our church was in the afternoons, the girls were usually looking for something in the morning. So, this is their activity one Sunday. They played with play dough.

日曜の教会が今年は午後なので、午前中ヒマをもてあましているエリとジュリア。ので、この時間を使って粘土遊びをしてみました。

This is Ellie's masterpieces. She made Mommy and Daddy's faces. She did pretty good. Colors were a little exotic, but she got most of the face parts, such as eyes, hair, nose, and mouth forming smiley. This is Daddy.

こちらがエリの作品です。ダディとマミーの顔を、作ってくれました。色はともかく、目、鼻、口、髪の毛、と、顔のパーツは程々に取り入れてあり、親バカながらよく出来てると思っちゃいました。こちらがダディです。This is Mommy. Notice that she made Daddy with short hair, but Mommy has long hair and eye lashes. I thought she did quite good.

そして、こちらがマミー。ダディが髪の毛短いのに対し、マミーは髪の毛長くまつ毛もある。ちゃんと違いがあるんです。

Noah's meal time

This is Noah's meal time.

ノアのお食事写真です。

Noah started eating since he turned 6 months. He is not a big eater compared to his sisters (well, Julia was too big of an eater...) First we struggled having him opening his mouth, but he started getting better at it.

6ヶ月になってから、お食事をはじめました。姉2人と比較すると食の進みが良くありませんが、それでもだんだん食べるようになってきました。One thing he is good at is that he cries with his mouth shut when he doesn't want to eat. That is a pretty good skill.

Palette Field Trip

Ellie and Julia's school, Palette, had a field trip to Inogashira Zoo. Weather was nice and all kids had a fun time.

エリとジュリアの保育園の遠足に、井の頭動物公園に行きました。お天気も快晴で、子供達みんな楽しんでいたようです。

This is Ellie's class picture. Ellie has a small class with only 4 kids.

まずはゲートで集合写真。こちらはエリのクラス写真です。エリのクラスは現在4名、小さなクラスです。Once we get inside, kids were more excited to look at animals. (Well, it is a zoo so I guess that's natural.)

中に入ったら、やっぱり子供達は動物を見るのに夢中。ま、動物園なので、当たり前ですね。Our girls in front of the elephant.

ぞうのはなこの前で。Kids had an activity in the zoo. They were supposed to get stickers in certain spot. Julia was happy getting a special sticker.

遠足のアクティビティーも用意されていました。子供向けシールラリーです。ジュリアは、シールがもらえてハッピー♪Girls found this to try out. Julia needs to learn how to look at the camera...

途中こんなものも見つけちゃいました。
スタンプラリーの最後にはみんなでお弁当タイムです。なかなか楽しい遠足だったようで、エリもジュリアも帰りはぐっすり熟睡でした。

Thai Festival at Yoyogi Park

Several of you know, but I was located for my project in Thailand back in long time ago when I was a consultant. Once in a while I miss Thai culture and food and I want to just feel it.

There is a Thai festival in Yoyogi park every year. We went once long time ago when we were still kidsless, but we haven't been there for several years. When Mike found out about it for this year, we decided to go this year.

When we get there, there were so many, probably too many people at the park. When we were there last about 4-5 years ago, there was not this many people. I guess it grew within several years. We wanted to have lunch there, but huge lines were on every shop. As some of you know, waiting in line for a long time is not something we prefer to do with our little punks.

But we had some fun there.
I'm not sure if we go back to the festival again with that many people. Where I want to go back again for a visit is a real Thailand. I think I will have to wait a little longer until our kids get a little older...

Golden Week Family Trip (Part IV)

**If you are interested in our trip, I suggest to read from Part I. I followed the exact dates and ended up being backwards.

From Gero Onsen, we moved north to Takayama. This is another historical castle town in Japan. We first visited Takayama Jinya, Historical Government House.

下呂温泉から北上。高山市内にたどり着きました。まずは高山陣屋へ。入り口でガイドをお願いし、ガイドさんと一緒に中へ。We were going to get an English tour guide, but the guide was taking the day off, so we got a Japanese tour guide. He explained in great detail every room of the house. Everything was amazing! But the house was huge and girls were having too much fun running around...

ガイドの方が、全てのお部屋を丁寧に説明くださいました。が、屋敷の中は広く、エリ、ジュリアはここぞとばかりはしゃぎまわり…。ご迷惑きわまりないです…。We had Hida beef for lunch. Since we are in Hida Takayama area, we had to taste Hida traditional cuisine, so this is what we got. Hida beef grilled on magnolia leaf. Hida Miso (soy bean) paste adds the flavor and it was delicious!

せっかく高山にいるのですから、ご当地名物をいただきましょう、というわけで、お昼は、飛騨牛朴葉焼きをいただきました。飛騨味噌のお味がお肉を引き立たせ、美味しかった～♪Then, we went to Sanmachi area. Japanese old houses are lined up on the street and was beautiful.

その後、さんまちエリアを散策。古い町並みが、なんともステキです。We stayed in the Ryokan in Okuhida Onsen, Nakao-Daira. In this place, they had 6 rooms and 6 Onsens, meaning we all had private Onsen guaranteed. 2 of Onsens were outside. After dinner (and dinner was wonderful too) we went out to one of the outside Onsens. It was gorgeous! We felt like the Onsen was right in the middle of forest. We could see stars clearly in the sky. It was so much fun!!

そして、奥飛騨温泉で旅の疲れを癒しました。高千穂温泉まで走り、とても落ち着いた雰囲気のステキなお宿に一泊しました。今回はコチラに宿泊させていただきました。このお宿、お部屋が6つで貸切風呂も6つ。確実にお風呂を貸切でエンジョイできるのです。雰囲気も最高、宿主さんの配慮もとても行き届いており、気持ちよく滞在できました。温泉も最高です！特に外の露天風呂は、夜空満点の星を見ることができ、大自然のなかでお風呂に入り、くつろげました！！

There was a Bear Park in Okuhida. So, we decided to visit for our final destination on our trip. At the entrance, wood bears welcomes us and girls were so excited.

奥飛騨に、クマ牧場があったので、通り道だったこともあり、翌日早々立ち寄ることにしました。入り口に木製クマさんがお出迎えをしてくれ、エリ、ジュリアは大興奮！Inside of the park, girls got to hold a baby cub. The baby was only 2 months old and was so cute! (Just FYI, they put a band on baby cub's mouth so we don't get attacked.) Girls pet the cub for the first time and they loved it!

クマ牧場で、赤ちゃんクマを抱っこさせてもらいました。まだ生後2ヶ月、生まれたばかりの赤ちゃんです。かわいかった～。エリ、ジュリアも大興奮でした。ジュリアは、「じゅじゅ、いいこいいこするー」と叫んでおりました。
We were so sad when we hit the last day of our trip. We had so much fun during this trip! We LOVE Kanazawa and Hida Takayama. We want to go there again!

Golden Week Family Trip (Part III)

**If you are interested in our trip, I suggest to read from Part I. I followed the exact dates and ended up being backwards.

From Shirakawago, we went further south. Gujo Hachiman. First we went to the castle.

翌日、白川郷から南下、郡上八幡を訪れました。ここも歴史ある古い町並みがあり、素敵な町でした。まずは、やはり岡の上にそびえる郡上八幡城天守閣に。These were the people who lived in this castle back in Edo era. This is how tall they were. Mike stood right next to them. He is quite a bit bigger when compared to them.

こちらが、当時の城主の等身大です。やはりマイケルと比較すると、格段の差が…。Gujo Hachiman is famous on plastic foods. It seems that food sample was originated in Gujo Hachiman. The idea came from candle wax dropping into water.

We decided to try out plastic food making. The place we went is called "Sample Village Iwasaki." Girls certainly had a fun time there.

郡上八幡で有名どころは、食品サンプル。郡上八幡は食品サンプルの発祥の地なんだそうです。というわけで、食品サンプル工房で、体験サンプル作りをすることしました。最初は町のど真ん中の「さんぷる工房」さんに行こうと思ったのですが、幼稚園以下の子供の体験はできないとのことで、急遽変更。「サンプルビレッジいわさき」さんにお邪魔しました。We made reservation on that day, so we only got to do Tempura and candles. If you make a reservation a day before, you can make different items.

当日の予約だったので、天ぷらとキャンドルしか出来なかったのですが、一日前に予約をすると、パフェも作れるらしいです。

First we made candles. Ellie was trying to do yellow and pink layered candle.

まずは、ろうそくを作りから。エリは黄色とピンクの2色キャンドルをつくろうと必死。星型のきれいなキャンドルが出来ました。Then, we made Tempura's. There were several items to pick from. We decided to do shrimp, sweet potato, and green pepper.

Basically, the vegetables were all ready. All we need to do is put Tempura yellow part around veggies. We drop yellow liquid into water and it start forming Tempura skins. It was quite amazing to actually try it.

次に天ぷらです。既に用意されているお野菜からいくつかを選びます。私達は、えび、ピーマン、さつまいもの3種類を作りました。黄色の蝋を水に落としててんぷらの衣をつくります。「実際、食品サンプルの発明のきっかけも、ろうそくの蝋が水におちたところからひらめいたそうよ。」と、体験を担当してくれた方が教えてくださいました。This is what we made! Not perfect, but pretty good. Looks like Tempura's, aren't they?

こちらが完成品です！てんぷらっぽいでしょ？ちなみに、体験のときにお土産でいただいた枝豆のサンプル携帯ストラップ、ジュリアはずーっと本物だと思っていて、かじっても豆が出てこないので、ひたすら「あーきーてー！」とお願いしていました。Daddy made a lettus. This was a little more difficult than Tempura's, but he did a good job. He mixed green and white wax together and start sliding down in water. That is how you get thin leaves.

ダディはレタスを作りました。緑色と白の蝋を、水に混ぜながら薄くします。レタス作りは、天ぷらより少々難しかったものの、まぁまぁ上手に出来あがりました。
I was really happy about this place. It was a factory and they are actually shipping food samples to various places in Japan (and maybe abroad.) It wasn't touristy and we actually got to see a lot of things.

Another thing I liked about this place is that they were selling outlet plastic foods for really low price. Definitely lower price than Kappabashi. (I think they ship to Kappabashi too.) There were huge section selling outlet plastic food for discounted price. I guess they were defects and could not be shipped, but I could never tell what were wrong with them. Regardless to say, I picked up several food samples there for really good price.

結果論ですが、個人的に私はここがかなり気に入りました。お洒落な観光スポットという雰囲気ではなく、いかにも工房、「実際つくってますよ」、という感じが、たまりませんでした。体験料金は他と変わらないと思うのですが、中で販売しているサンプルが格安で販売していたのも魅力でした。私の知っている価格は合羽橋道具街の価格なので、この差にびっくり！というより、サンプル工場なので、アウトレット品をディスカウント価格で売っていたんですね。でも、教えてもらわなければまったく気づかない、それも言われて良く見ないと分からないアウトレット品だらけで、素人目では違いがわからない！思わずいくつか買っちゃいました。

From Gujo Hachiman, we drove to Gero Onsen. Gero Onsen is one of Japan's Three Famous Springs. We stayed at Onsen Ryokan (hotel), Sasara. The price was a little higher, but it was an absolutely wonderful evening! The hotel (Ryokan) was nice, and our room was gorgeous. We had a private Onsen attached to our room and we all had a wonderful, relaxed, and fun evening.

郡上八幡から少し走り、下呂温泉へ到着。こちらで温泉に浸かり、旅の疲れを癒すことに。露天風呂つきのお部屋に泊まったので、家族でゆっくりとリラックスした、そしてとっても楽しい一晩を過ごすことが出来ました。こちらはお風呂ではじけてるエリ、ジュリア、ダディーです。

Golden Week Family Trip (Pat II)

**If you are interested in our trip, I suggest to read from Part I. I followed the exact dates and ended up being backwards.

From Kanazawa, we drove south to the world heritage, Shirakawa-go, where Japanese historical Gassho style houses are all around. The villages were small but absolutely beautiful. All the little Japanese style houses are there next to rice paddies.

金沢を満喫した後、金沢より南下。白川郷に向かい、合掌造りの集落を楽しみました。さすが世界遺産にも登録されているだけあり、合掌造り集落の風情溢れる光景が眼下に広がり、のどかな美しさに魅了させられました。この美しさは、和の心を重んじ、自然と共存して、貴重な伝統文化を残してきたこの村の人々の心の結晶だと思うと、胸に染み入ります。
Rice fields were pretty common where I grew up. But my girls are not familiar with them. It was nice that girls got to see and walk up to rice fields.

私が生まれ育った場所は、田んぼや畑がいっぱいだったのですが、都会育ちのエリ、ジュリアには新鮮だったのでしょう。あぜ道を歩きながらはしゃぐ2人でした。（この時のジュリアは、少々ご機嫌斜め…）We went inside of one of the Gassho Style houses (Kandake). This is right below the roof. Ellie is standing the other end of the house.

合掌造りの家屋内部を見せていただける、神田家さんにお邪魔しました。、合掌造りの一番上、屋根の下の部分です。向こうにいるのはもちろんエリ。They also kept the traditional Japanese style garden. This is right outside of Kandake house. Ellie and Julia were so happy standing on top of the stone bridge. But something horrible happened right after this...

神田家さんの裏庭です。とても素敵なお庭で、子供達は池の鯉に大はしゃぎ。池にかかる風情ある石橋の上での撮影です。ところが…Right after the picture taken above, Ellie wanted to get off the bridge before Julia, so Ellie pushed Julia off the stone bridge. Julia ended up having an unexpected swim with the goldfish in the pond. Daddy rescued her right away, but of course she was not happy.

Julia cried and said "Juju 'et(wet), Juju 'et." We borrowed a fireplace inside and had her clothes changed.

Funny thing is that Ellie was not happy that all our attention was on Julia. So, she pointed at her wet spot on her pants and said "Daddy, look! I'm wet too!!"

撮影直後、撮れた写真が見たかったエリは、ジュリアより先に石橋を降りようと、ジュリアを押しのけたため、バランスを崩したジュリアはお池にドボン！慌ててダディがレスキューしたものの、池の鯉との水泳を予想だにしなかったジュリアはもちろん号泣。あたりまえだよな…。

泣きながら、「じゅじゅ、ェトッ（ウエットが言えずこう聞こえます）」と叫ぶジュリア。急遽、神田家さんのいろりをお借りして、体を乾かしお着替えをさせました。

さて、犯人のエリは、全ての注意がジュリアに集まっているのがどうも気に入らなかった様で、水しぶきの付いたズボンを指差し一言。「ダディー、見てー、エリちゃんも濡れてるよー。」

意表をついたこの一言に、思わず笑っちゃいました…。At Shirakawago, we spent a night in one of the Gassho style houses. We stayed at Koemon. It was a wonderful place and we loved it! I was a little worried since it was a traditional Japanese style house, but everything was modernized, but yet have traditional things like fireplace, tatami, engawa, Japanese garden, etc. I especially loved the family room where we ate dinner and breakfast right by Irori fireplace, and the tatami room with heated floor.

The girls were happy there too. There was a little girl in the owner family who was about Ellie's age. She came and played with our girls. They were so cute together.

The price was reasonable and meals were all delicious! I would love to stay there again if we have a chance to go back there.

白川郷では、合掌造りのお宿に一泊し、幸エ門さんにお世話になりました。歴史ある建物で、いろりや縁側等に風情が溢れ、それでもお手洗いやお風呂等は設備が充実。とても清潔で、お食事もおいしくいただきました。気持ちよく滞在させていただき、大満足です。

This is right in front of where we stayed.

Golden Week Family Road Trip (Part I)

Finally I'm posting this. Please bear with me.

完全バックログです。スミマセン…。

For the golden week this year, we decided to go on a road trip. We thought about doing a little longer distance, but we were so certain that traffic will be horrible since toll price just went down in Japan. So, we decided to do a shorter circle of the road trip.

Here's our trip route:

Little circle, a lot of fun. Main places were Hida Takayama and Kanazawa. But we stopped many other places around there. Long drive, but kids enjoyed watching movies during the car ride, so it was really easy even with 3 little ones.

今年のゴールデンウィークは、金沢＆飛騨高山及びその周辺の家族旅行でした。移動はもちろん車。子供たちは、車内では映画観賞、時折の休憩で外の空気を満喫。というわけで、長時間の車移動＋乳幼児３人連れでも、とても快適でした。

This is how girls were in the car during the trip.

エリとジュリアの車内の様子です。ダディーが運転席から撮影です。
First day was basically a long driving day. We went clear up to Niigata and went down to Toyama, and we stopped at Kurobe Unazuki Onsen. Unazuki Onsen was a little town surrounded by mountain. Famous scenery is the red bridge and little tram train. To go see the bridge, we went through the little tunnel. Girls were so excited since it was the first official stop from long long drive.

初日はさすがに長時間ドライブでした。渋滞にも少々見回れましたが、無事最初の目的地、黒部峡谷、宇奈月温泉まで到着。やまびこ遊歩道のトンネルをくぐって、トロッコ電車の通る新山彦橋を見に行きました。This is Noah on Daddy's back. He was too happy that he didn't really show a good-looking face...

こちらは、初日のノア。あまりいい顔が撮れませんでした…。
Then, we all soaked in Onsen (hot spring.) It was really nice and relaxing. Girls had too much fun at the kids play area in Ryokan (Japanese style hotel.)

そして温泉につかり旅の疲れを癒しました。エリとジュリアは、旅館にあった子供用プレイエリアで大興奮。もちろん温泉も、プールのごとく楽しそうに所狭しと動いておりました。
Then, we drove from Kurobe to Kanazawa. Kanazawa is one of the oldest Japanese historical city. There were so many historical places to visit in Kanazawa. First we went to the Kanazawa Castle Park. We got a tour guide and he toured us around.

その後、黒部から日本海沿いに南下、金沢にやってきました。まずは、金沢城公園へ。ボランティアガイドの方が歴史や建物の構造等をわかりやすく説明してくださいました。

ちなみに、ガイドさんをお願いしたいのであれば、石川門口から入らないとお願いすることが出来ませんので、注意です。私たちはいもり坂口から入ってしまったため、石川門まで戻ることになってしまいました。This is us walking around with the tour guide. The castle park was huge. Many buildings were already destroyed, but can tell how big it used to be back in Shogun era.

ツアーガイドの方と、金沢城公園を歩き回っている私たちです。園内はかなり広かったので、ガイドさんと一緒で効率良く移動できました。
Then we walked over to Kenroku-en. Kenroku-en is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan (others are Kairaku-en in Mito and Koraku-en in Okayama.) The garden was all Japanese style and absolutely beautiful everywhere. Our tour guide continued to tour us around the park. It was nice to have someone explaining things around there.

その後はもちろん兼六園です。金沢城公園のガイドさんに、継続してご一緒いただきました。こちらも庭園内かなり広いので、ガイドさんとともに効率良く回ることが出来、おまけに歴史背景も詳しくご説明いただき大満足でした。Beautiful flowers all over.

きれいなお花もいっぱいです。This bridge is called "Koto Bridge" because it looks like Japanese musical instrument, Koto. And the lantern is called "Kotojii toro" since it looks like Kotoji (koto tuning device on top of koto.) Ellie and Mommy were excited since we both play Koto. (Well, Ellie just started taking lessons.) So we decided to take a picture on top of this bridge.

橋の向こうに見える灯篭は、足が二股になっていて、琴の糸を支える琴柱（ことじ）に似ているので「徽軫灯篭（ことじとうろう）」と呼ばれているそうです。その手前の橋も、お琴の形に似ているとガイドさんがおっしゃっておりました。というわけで、琴を弾く者同士のエリとマミーで記念撮影。By the way, this is what Japanese gardeners look like.
The next day was unfortunately a rainy day. So we went to Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art. There were so many fun things to see and girls had a wonderful time.

次の日は天候に恵まれなかったので、金沢２１世紀美術館を見てきました。見ても体験しても楽しい作品が並んでおり、エリ、ジュリアも十分楽しめました。

This is one of the famous collection in this museum. The swimming pool that people can be inside and would not get wet.

この美術館で有名な作品のひとつです。地上と地下（プール内部）で人が出会う作品で、プールの外側から中をのぞくと人がうごめいていたりします。あまりに面白いので、子供たちは大興奮。エリはプール内部では、はしごによじ登ってみたりしてます。ちなみに、プールの上からのぞくだけなら無料で、プール内部に入る場合は有料です。Girls found a little green mouse on the wall. The mouse was made by the laser and it moves all over the wall. When the mousie gets too high, girls were shouting to the mouse saying "come back down, mousie!!!" We thought it was pretty cute.This is Noah in the museum. He was fairly a good boy while we were at the museum.

美術館でのノアはと言うと、一応はいい子でいました。授乳室もあったので、助かりました。なんとこの美術館、託児サービスまであるんです。１時間500円（1歳以上）と、東京ではありえない金額。1歳以下のノアでも、時間600円なのです。このすばらしい施設、もちろん後ほど利用させていただきました♪Girls made coin lockers as a play area and they played hide and seek. Mommy was mean and shut the door, they of course did not appreciate.

その他コインロッカーも、エリとジュリアにかかれば遊び場に早変わり。美術館中で遊びまくりです。
In the afternoon, it stopped raining. So we went for a walk in Higashi Chaya District. This area had so many traditional Japanese chaya houses preserved and had a beautiful scenery.

その後、お天気が回復してきたので、ひがし茶屋街を散策。昔ながらの街並みが立ち並び、風情溢れる光景でした。そんな中、エリとマミーはプチショッピングをエンジョイ♪
There was a Japanese style storage building all covered in gold. Quite interesting...

黄金の蔵なんてものもありました。まさに、金箔で覆われた蔵です。さすが金箔で有名な金沢。それにしても、金の蔵とは…。
At the 21st Century Museum, we found a nursery facility available. The price was extremely reasonable, so we decided to take advantage of this place and Mom and Dad had a little tour date together.

21世紀美術館で発見したとてもお得な託児施設を利用させていただき、マミーとダディーで観光デートをさせていただきました。

Just 2 of us, we visited Myoryuji Temple which is also called Ninja-dera Temple. This is a temple, but was also used as an undercover base for Samurai's. Therefore, it has a lot of tricks inside of the building and looks like a Ninja house. This place did not allow kids under elementary school, and we had to leave kids. It turned out to be a perfect tour date without kids. Temple had 40 min full tour showing us every trick inside of the building. There were hidden rooms, hidden doors, secret path to outside, etc. It was so cool to see these things. The most amazing is that it was build several hundred years ago. We were both fascinated with what we saw in there.

旅行計画中、どうしても行ってみたいと思っていたのが、妙立寺、別名忍者寺です。ここは建物内に数々のからくりがあることから、このような別名がついたようです。しかし小学生未満の子供の拝観が不可。3歳以下を3名抱える我が家では、「子供が成長したらまた来ようか…」と言ってあきらめていました。ところが子供を預けることが出来たので、大人だけで意気揚々と行って参りました。お寺の中は隠し扉、隠し部屋等々盛りだくさん。建物の巧妙な設計に、驚嘆です。お気に入りの観光スポットになりました。

After Ninja temple, we walked around Nishi Chaya District. It was fun to see the old buildings along the street.

その後、西茶屋街を散策。子供なしの2人だけの散策を楽しみました。