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お父さん達の皆様、今日はおめでとうございます。父の日で家族と何か楽しい事ができましたか？
私達はドライブで戸隠に行ってきました。我が家族の戸隠「定番」が美味しいそば＠山口屋、忍者遊び＠忍法センター、奥社へのハイキング（途中の杉並木で自然の力が物凄く感じられます）。
今回の戸隠旅はいつもより深く体験が出来ました。(一時は深過ぎる！）まずは奥社の隣の植物園に始めて入ってみました。奥社への道が人で込んでいる訳でもないけれど、その道から離れて、植物園に入ったら、その緑と静かさで感動しました。葉っぱを通っている風と鳥の鳴き声だけでした。あとは思い切り静か。と自然。更に信州・戸隠のファンになりました。
それから日に入りの鏡池を見ました。戸隠山と西岳が雲と遊んでいて、それが池で反射して、とっても綺麗でした。つまとふたりで「あぁ、ロマンチックだな」と思ったら、ブッシャッ！次男のKenちゃんが鏡池におっこしちゃった。
子供は１人で止めるべきだと思っちゃった。と言うのは冗談！
そのハプニングのあと、ズボンとパンツ無しのKenちゃん（だって、小学生の為に着替え用のズボン何て持って来なかった）も込めて、皆で今度、本物の忍者体験をしました。また後日に詳しく書きますが、戸隠で毎週の日曜日の夜７時から３時間の稽古が行うので誰でも参加が出来るってお聞きしまして、ただ、本物だからけがしてもおかしくないってお聞きしました。前から気になっていたので今日は思い切って、やってきました。そして、体中が思い切って、痛いです。

最高な父の日でした。

A special Congratulations to all of you Dads out there on this Father's Day. I hope all of you spent a fun day with your families. We sure did here at the Lynch household -- we went for a drive up to Togakushi.
Our Togakushi trips tend to follow this formula: delicious soba noodles at Yamaguchi-ya, ninja fun at the Ninja Center, and feeling the power of mother nature among the massive, ancient cedar trees lining the path to Okusha Shrine.
This time, however, we immersed ourselves a little further into the Togakushi experience (a bit too literally at one point). After ooh-ing and aah-ing at the Okusha cedar trees, we decided to check out the Nature Reserve next to it. We had never been into the actual reserve before. The path towards Okusha isn't exactly crowded with people, but it was amazing that just leaving the path and entering the reserve brought us to a world of lush greenery and intense stillness. Only the sound of the wind through the leaves and the birds chirping could be heard. The quietness of the woods and marshes was powerful. Once again, we were amazed by Togakushi and became even bigger fans of Nagano.
After stopping for icecream, we drove over to Kagami-ike (Mirror Pond) to watch the sun set over Togakushi Mountain. Togakushi and its western peak seemed like they were playfully streaming their fingers through the high clouds that were drifting by. The scene was beautifully reflected in the lake surface. My wife and I were just thinking how romantic of a setting it was, when all of the sudden, Splash! Our #2 son, Kenny, had fallen into the pond.
Maybe we should have stopped after the first child. Just kidding!
After that little "happening", we took bare-bottomed Kenny (who would have thought we'd need an extra pair of pants for an elementary school kid!) and the other kids for a real-life, hard-core Togakushi Ninja training. I will write more about that a later time, but let's just suffice it to say that it was the real thing, and my entire body is in pain as a result.

Today was one of the best Father's Days ever!