Well, the word of the trip was "sugaoi" (that means something like "wow, amazing, wonderful, beautiful" all wrapped up in one word!). Indeed, we were thankful for very good weather and a safe trip. 
I'll try to give you a few brief highlights. We had about a 11 hour flight to Frankfurt, Germany and then on to Salzburg. In Salzburg got picked up by a BMW taxi who took us (quite quickly, I might add) to our Pension Hotel. The next day we had a Sound of Music tour that took us to most of the major sights of this famous story. It was funny to see a bunch of tourists skipping down a wooded lane singing "I've got confidence..."!
We also visited Mozart's birthplace and residence. In the evening we enjoyed--that is when we were awake (jet lag!)--some Mozart music and a Mozart era dinner with costumed players.
The next day we headed for Switzerland. That is when the real "sugaoi"s started coming! Akihiro's mom had never seen such beautiful snow covered mountains. We made it just in time to take the cable car up to a high mountain and have a snack in the revolving restaurant and enjoy the views.After some delicious cheese fondue at the small mountain village of Murren and some more sugaoi's after seeing the sunset on these beautiful peaks we descended via cable car to our hotel in Lauterbrunnen.
The following day we went up to the Jungfrau and had a nearly perfect view. We were enjoying the vistas, when we heard some yelling up above us. We quick looked up and were suprised to see about 6 people falling out of an airplane--crazy skydivers! It was scary enough for me just to see them! We braved a slight blizzard and walked a little over an hour to a mountain hut for some warm soup and Swiss sausage--ah, delicious! We hiked part way down through some meadows with cow bells--what a wonderful sound! Kayuko looked like a little Japanese Heidi skipping along!
Since the weather was good, we headed to see the Matterhorn the next day. It was absolutely clear in Zermatt when we arrived--a picture perfect day to see this gorgeous peak. We took cable cars and gondolas up to get a better look and hiked down. Other people were jumping off and parasailing, but we all prefered to keep our feet on the ground! Ate some finger-lickin good spareribs (can't get those in Japan!) at a the top of a peak near the Matterhorn--ah--"saiko" (this means "best", but totally confused me at first because it sounded like "psycho"!). Then we headed for France--the knock-out punch of mountains--as Akihiro put it!
Early the next morning we took the lift up to see 4860M Mt. Blanc--again a perfect view!
Two very scared women (Mom and sis) were holding our hands as we got on the gondola that spans the 3 mile gap between the mountains of France and Italy. We were literaly hanging over huge glaciers! Spectacular. We hiked a bit to a mountain refuge where we ate the best omlets I have ever tasted! Must be that Swiss cheese!
The next day we finally let Kayuko do some real shopping in Geneva before we flew out that afternoon. We arrived back in Japan on September 15th--exactly one year since Akihiro and I first arrived in Japan! As I look back on our first year here, it is overwhelming to realize how much God has blessed us. So thankful!