March and April

As everyone knows there was a huge earthquake in the northern part of Japan that triggered a tsunami and then problems at a nuclear power plant in the prefecture of Fukushima. The Japanese Red Cross is still taking donations though the US red cross just click here and follow the links to donate specifically for the Japan earthquake.
http://american.redcross.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000&s_subsrc=RCO_BigRedButton
Most of us here in Utsunomiya had some minor damage to dishes or glasses in our apartments, as well as a big mess of random stuff thrown everyhwere, no where near anything that the people in the north have experienced so we were all very lucky. There was some concern about the Fukushima power plant so Boeing had us all move down to Nagoya where the rest of the Engineering team. Below is a picture I took with my cell phone of a coworker of mine who was a bit worried. He carried this bag around with him for a few days that had a spare set of clothes, his insulin, and passport... just in case. He got quite a bit of harassment from all of us.

We ended up staying in Nagoya for about a month which wasnt too bad since we were staying in the Hilton. I say we because Misato was also able to come with me so there was no concern there.

My Family got to come to Japan at the end of April. Misato was great and helped plan the whole trip with the help of a travel agent to do the hotels and trains. We got to see some awesome sites and got really lucky with a Hanami matsuri near Mt. Fuji. We also went to this sweet ninja restaurant in Tokyo that was kinda cheesy, but really fun. They performed some ninja magic throughout dinner where our dinner was instantly turned from egg to quail, and it was also delicious. Momma san also performed some ninja magic with the lead ninja. We took a tour in Tokyo and it was pouring rain when we walked up to the imperial palace!! Then we went to see Asakusa and the Tokyo tower. From Kyoto took a day trip to see the Himeji castle, although its under construction, and got to swing by Kobe for a quick Kobe beef dinner, which was freaken awesome. In Kyoto we went to see the golden temple and tried to see kiyomizudera, but it wasnt in the cards. Then we got to see an authentic Giesha dance, sorry no pictures, but that is the policy. The next day we went on a train ride to get to a boat ride down the river which was man powered. After the boat ride we went to a sake distillery tasted a bit of sake and got a few free tastes. On the way back to Utsunomiya we drank the sake and were a little bit tipsy before we got here, then had a few relaxing days before my family sadly had to leave. Great trip though. Tons of pictures below.

Family Vacation Japan 2011