Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

This year, the mailman didn't see fit to deliver any birthday cards on my actual birthday (plenty came the day before and also today, the day after, though; thanks everyone). This lack of mail actually made me feel a bit at home, since my birthday falls on Veterans' Day, and I'd never actually received a card on my birthday up until I moved here.

But...late last night, around 8:30 p.m., the mailman did deliver....my new camera!!! His arrival was greeted with an enthusiam akin to that of children's on Christmas Eve, and I felt somewhat bad for probably shocking the poor man after both Yuki and I plowed down the stairs to open the door. That emotion was quickly replaced by one of pure joy, though, as we cut open the box for the much-awaited Canon EOS Kiss X3 (aka EO3 500D aka Digital Rebel T1i)! --Side note: yes, that's right, my new camera has not one, but two pseudonyms!

I still need to work my way through the TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT PAGE instruction manual, but we did mange to figure out how to at least take a few photos on it last night. Hopefully my technique will improve over time (and after I read that evil manual). Here are a few of the pictures that we took last night, though, for your viewing pleasure!
  ***I'm not sure how these will look if you enlarge them, but feel free to try. I had to re-size them for uploading, since they were originally 15 MB each.

                      She also loves the Canon EOS Kiss X3 lens cap, the little thief!