My friend Hisae (Shibuya) took these pictures of our trip to Washington, DC, for the Sister Cities 50th Anniversary Celebration in July 2006. Karen and Deb (who came out from Rice Lake), and Itoh-san and I (who came over from Japan) received awards for our work with the Sister Cities exchange programs. There were many other award recipients too (My mom, Peg Leisz, the Vonaseks, Jana in Zamberk, etc... Sorry I don't remember them all. I'll try to put a page up on my tripod site with all the nominations.) About 10 people from Miharu also came along for the ride. Yuko and Hisae, and Hisae's nephew Kobari, Reiko and Fumie from my Sunday English class, a friend of Sampei, and then Ishikawa, Yokoyama, Tanabe, and Sampei from MIFA. The last night there was this fabulous party at the National Building Museum - gorgeous and FUN. This trip took place during a brief truce between MIFA and myself. I was on good behavior, not that it got me anywhere. They promised to talk about settling new terms when I returned from DC, but before I even got back to Japan they announced that they would NOT offer me a job after all. Still, the REST of the group was fun. (Kevin was here too but with his friends from HUD so not in these pictures - I have some pictures somewhere, I just have to find them.)