Welcome Home, Casio

I'm so excited! I bought a new digital camera tonight!! My good ole' Vivitar - the one with the black rubber band holding the batteries in - finally gave up in March after a long and protracted battle with functionality. Some highlights of the experience:

• I had planned to only look at models, jot down notes and then look them up online, but a very helpful salesman spoke English! Thus negating the need for any legwork on my part.

• He spoke enough English to give commentary and help me compare. Like, 'this one has a wider lens, but this one has a better zoom. If you want a wider picture you can step back.' Or, 'this one has a hand-shake function, but you can only take 200 pictures on the battery. With the other model (without the hand-shake function) you can take over 300.' Very helpful.

• I was very surprised that a Casio was one of the best models in the store. I told him, I've heard of Panasonic, Sony and Nikon, but I didn't know Casio made cameras! He said they were the best and very popular in Japan.

• The camera was on sale, plus he gave me a 5% discount (for being foreign?) so I saved about 7,000 yen. PLUS he gave me a carrying case for free.

• And another employee gave me a red carnation.

I'm so psyched! I can take pictures again!!!

ps - I just checked online, and I got the camera for waaaaay less than it costs in the U.S. Go Japan!!!

... oh man! the carnation is fake! (>_<)