My first “Trip Report” will actually begin with a pre-trip report. My family (5) flew to Tokyo 7/15 for my wedding ceremony 7/22. Pre-ceremony plans, pre-vacation work preparations, and a week of showing the family around all conspired for a busy July!

My parents and my sister’s family flew ROC-DTW-NRT on NW. Other ff’s berated my failure as a son to get them here on a better airline, but the flights all went fine, apparently.

The week in NRT was great –1st time for my sister’s family, 3rd for Mom and 1st for Dad since Iwa Kuni back in the early 50s! Time constraints made for “local” adventures, many of which focused on my 6 year-old nephew. Anyone planning a Tokyo trip is free to contact me for local tips.

One highlight of their visit was my wife working out a good deal with the Capitol Tokyu Hotel. Always friendly service and decent rooms, etc. The best part was the outdoor pool, especially given the mid/high-90s that week. My wife and I stayed at the Osaka Hilton in May (UA 50% cert.), and they wanted 2,000 yen (US $19) per person to use their pool. (A standard practice at the few hotels with pools.) The Capitol, however, had friendly, English-speaking pool staff with toys for the kids (and pseudo-kids) at no charge. A great break from the heat and the jetlag.

7/22 was almost 100 degrees, but a fine sunny day for a wedding. After 13 weeks with only 1 non-rainy Saturday, we were lucky indeed. The ceremony started at 11:30, and reception/parties went until 8:00 or so. Everything blurred by so quickly that we are hoping to see someone’s video to help remember the goings-on. We also stayed at the Capitol that night to get a few final hours with my family as our flight out was 4 hours ahead of theirs.

Soon to come: Having a ball in Bali.

Special thanks to Craig6z for telling me of his SIN/Bali report ( http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/000823.html ) I will try and limit the following installments to actual “Trip Report” info!

-KP back in NRT