Make sure you look at some of the travel agencies for deals from your area. If you can live with certain airlines and slight restrictions on departure/arrival/return you can get significant discounts on flights, especially now since a ton of families are forgoing trips post-earthquake. I've used IACE Travel and gotten good discounts vs what Kayak can pull up, parents have used Sankei Travel as well. I'm sure there's other agencies with discounts that you could look around for. I used the insane bike tariffs as an excuse to get a Bikefriday. I'm eyeing either spring or fall '12, visiting friends and family whilst both riding and occasionally cheating w/ public transit.