Doing your part to reduce the deficit

I stumbled upon a link to a page on the website of the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of the Public Debt.  Check it out here, (see the last question).  It turns out that we, the American people can make a contribution to reduce the national debt!  I'm mostly surprised that this is an option, and maybe a little glad that the government would make it so easy for it's citizens to take action, and I'm also hoping that nobody's actually sent a check in.

A few pics from Kyoto

The trip to Tokyo included a quick trip over to Kyoto. The city was the capital of Japan for a very long time and is full of history. There were countless shrines throughout the city. It was all very beautiful.

In addition, we had the good luck to be in Kyoto during a big snowstorm. Some would argue this was in fact bad luck. And at the time I might have been a bit cold/miserable. But the shrines we saw were amazing in the snow.

Here's a zen garden partly covered in snow:
Following our dinner in Kyoto, we immediately found an ice cream parlor that made nothing but HUGE ice cream sundaes. Mmmmm.
Our hotel room had no beds! Instead, we laid several futon mattresses out on the tatami-covered floor and all slept in a big pile. Here's Pedro and Kate trying to sleep in:

More Tokyo

More photos from the trip to Tokyo...

Our fearless navigators checking our coordinates on the map:

A fixture from the Meiji shrine, commemorating the emperor and empress who ruled until the turn of the 20th century:

Going shopping for a fortune at another shrine on the other side of Tokyo:

A really big drum heading our way in the Founders' Day Parade. I asked a couple Japanese what the Day celebrated (they all had Monday off of work) and they weren't quite sure.