Anthony’s Eighth Birthday, Sponsored by LEGO™ Toys
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Having been engulfed with a big project, I'm sort of surprised to see the week has evaporated and that it's been so long since my previous post. I'm back to reality because Anthony turned 8 yesterday....

Present from Fumie's Folks LEGO™ -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 450 — full exif
Present from Fumie's Folks
LEGO™
Present from Us LEGO™ -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 640 — full exif
Present from Us
LEGO™

Adding it to the present (LEGO™) from his Aunt Namiko and Uncle Shogo (who got married three weeks ago), the result was a triple-crown of LEGO™ birthday joy...

Best. Birthday. Ever. -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 27 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 500 — full exif
Best. Birthday. Ever.

Before eating I took a snapshot of the group...

H A P P Y -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm — 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 1800 — full exif
H A P P Y

Namiko and Shogo brought the “HAPPY” used at their wedding reception to add to the festive décor.

Oddly, Anthony wasn't particularly hungry and so soon excused himself to actually start playing with the presents....

Lots of Pieces this is his real “H A P P Y” -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — 1/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1100 — full exif
Lots of Pieces
this is his real “H A P P Y”

Eventually it was time for cake, which Fumie had decorated with a running Star Wars® clone trooper...

Cake fit for a boy -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/400 sec, f/5.6, ISO 3200 — full exif
Cake
fit for a boy

He'd been complaining that he was full (and so shouldn't bother with the cake, but instead keep playing with his presents), but we insisted, and as we were preparing it, he commented mostly to himself “wow, just looking at it makes me feel hungry”. Duh!

The Quintessential Cake-n-Candlelight Shot -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm — 1/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — full exif
The Quintessential Cake-n-Candlelight Shot

I usually try to get a shot like this, though there's less emphasis as he gets older, and for the last couple of years I've not put much thought or preparation into it, preferring to enjoy the moment rather than photograph it. Here are the comparable shots from when he turned 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

“Happy Birthday To You...   &#9834♫  ♪ ♬ . . . ” -- Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 — 1/125 sec, f/2.5, ISO 2500 — full exif
“Happy Birthday To You...   ♪♫ ♬ . . . ”

Then it was back to the LEGO, in a scene we've seen quite often in our house:

Kyoto, Japan -- Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Friedl, https://regex.info/blog/
Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 45 mm — 1/125 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1800 — full exif

He kept saying that it was the best birthday ever, without even knowing that my folks had sent a present that we were holding back to give him something to open the next day....


All 6 comments so far, oldest first...

Otanjobi omedeto gozaimasu, 🙂

— comment by Matthew on October 24th, 2010 at 9:07pm JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

Happy Birthday Anthony!!!

Best wishes and I hope that this next year is a joyous one for you.

Monet’s Dad

— comment by Arthur Brigham on October 25th, 2010 at 10:39am JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

Happy Birthday from Switzerland 🙂

Greats Michi

— comment by Michi on October 25th, 2010 at 2:50pm JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

Hi Jeffrey,
Loving your blog as always… great photos. Especially loved the first birthday cake photo with Anthony… nice light and just the right exposure.

I normally run a visiting Japan site Japanese Ties, but I’m starting another site which is more about our life living in Adelaide, Australia (as an Aussie/Japanese family). Please pop on over – though I’m just starting out – at Raising Adelaide. Not sure how I’ll go running two blogs, but I’m pretty sure I will want to diversify from my current blog (which was largely tracing our family trips back to Japan)… and I like the idea of talking about our lives here. Your blog was a bit of an inspiration for that.

— comment by AdelaideBen on October 25th, 2010 at 3:54pm JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

Happy Birthday to Anthony from all the way over in Sydney, Australia 🙂

— comment by Chris Belyea on October 25th, 2010 at 5:31pm JST (14 years ago) comment permalink

Seems like the best birthday ever for an 8 year old!!
Very Happy birthday to Anthony!

— comment by Sonal, USA on October 25th, 2010 at 11:12pm JST (14 years ago) comment permalink
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