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。
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.
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.
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...
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.
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. 
