I go to the States tomorrow again.

This picture was taken when I went to the Grand Canyon with my wife five years ago.
This time, I go to the States again with my wife and two daughters tomorrow.
My company, Canon gives employees, who have worked for ten years, ten days special vacation and bonus. It also gives them, who have worked for five years, five days special vacation and bonus.
I’ve worked for Canon for ten years. I get the chance going to California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada in the States. I’m planning to rent a car for ten days visiting several national parks and after that I’ll take daughters and my wife to the Disneyland.
I’m very excited this journey.

A Randoseru or a school bag for primary school kids.

Most elementary school freshmen are given a new Randoseru from their parents or grandparents before starting school in Japan. Children become excited while touching it, wearing it and smelling the new leather of the bag in the end of March. They want to go to school and have new friends as soon as possible. That happened to Rina exactly six years ago.
Upper two pictures were taken six years ago and following two pictures were taken today. The Randoseru has become smaller, hasn't it? I think a Randoseru or a school bag has a special meaning to evey elementary school kid. It keeps a lot of good and painful memory in thier school age.
I don’t know when such a custom that classmates write blessing or comments on their friend’s bag has started in Japan.
What kind of memories in your elementary school days do you have?
Is everything wonderful for you?

A Doll's Festival Celebrated for Girls

Hinamatsuri is a seasonal festival (called sekku) on March 3. Also it is considered as a day for girls, most families with girls display a set of dolls to wish for girls' healthy growth and happiness.

The practice of displaying dolls dates back in the early Edo period (1603-1868). A set of hina dolls is put on display up to a few weeks earlier than March 3rd and stored for the next year.

A popular superstition states that if the family forgets to retire the whole set before the night of March 4, the girl will not marry before the next year.

We intentionally keep them on display more few weeks. How come?

We were so busy that we were late to display them.
And also, I think that dolls want to sit there at least until the end of this month.


"Shinno-kazari" which includes "odairi-sama," emperor and empress dolls wearing typical Heian era court costumes.

I bought a new camera.

I bought the Canon PowerShot A710 IS yesterday at KOJIM DENKI in Utsunomiya. It was six years ago when last time I bought a digital camera, Fujifilm FinePix 2800z. The time to buy a new one has come. I had been wondering if I should buy a SLR digital camera, Canon S3 IS or Canon PowerShot A710 IS for months.
The biggest disadvantage of A710 comparing to SLR digicam is that the shutter time lag of A710 is longer than that of SLR digicam.
The disadvantage of A710 comparing to S3 is that A710 has just 6x optical zoom on the contrary S3 has 12x optical zoom. I thought that all the other important features of A710 exceed competitors' for my photography style. Then I decided to buy the A710. The A710 has been working beautifully so far, though since only a day ago.

Basic Features of Canon PowerShot A710 IS
7.1-megapixel CCD 3,072 x 2,304 pixels
2.5-inch color LCD monitor
Real-image optical viewfinder
Glass, 6x 5.8-34.8mm lens (equivalent to 35-210mm zoom on a 35mm camera)
4.0x digital zoom
AiAF autofocus and a manual focus mode
AF Assist light for low-light focusing
Automatic, Program AE, Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual exposure modes, as well as 10 preset Scene modes plus Stitch Assist
Manually adjustable aperture setting ranging from f/2.8 to f/8.0, depending on lens zoom position and shutter speed
Shutter speed range from 1/2,000 to 15 seconds, depending on aperture (Shutter times longer than 1 second only available in shutter-priority and manual exposure modes and some scene modes.)
Built-in flash with three operating modes plus red-eye reduction
SD/MMC memory storage

Left, long used film camera LEITZ minolta CL. Right, I bought it yesterday, Canon PowerShot A710 IS

I took the above picture using the A710; two daughters walked our rabbit Nobi at the park near my house.