w00kie's ramblings » Videos

Sagami Original condom ad

w00kie — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:34:33 +0000

Love needs distance, an interestingly touching ad for Sagami Original condoms airing on Japanese TV recently.

A man from Fukuoka and a woman from Tokyo (1.200km apart) run towards each other and meet in front of the Osaka castle. This commercial proves you can sell condoms without stupid childish sexual innuendo...

Japan is supposed to have the most advanced condom makers – as this claims to be the world's thinnest condom. But with the staggering amount of できちゃった結婚 (literally "oops I got married", meaning getting married because you got your girlfriend pregnant, a shotgun wedding) I hear about – a colleague of mine says 50% of all marriage in Japan are thus, he's exaggerating but he speaks from experience... – it seems all this technology is going to waste.

Karting in Tokyo

w00kie — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 06:46:40 +0000

Last Tuesday I went karting with some friends in Tokyo, around 北千住. The place is called City Kart, you can rent the course for ¥36.000/hour on weekdays with 5 200cc karts which I think is a pretty awesome pricetag considering the location.

It is right next to the 京成関屋 train station or 10min walk from 北千住. More photos in the flickr set.

On my way to work

w00kie — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:35:28 +0000

Japan is not only Tokyo with its crowded street crossings and neon lights. It's also the old countryside, small traditional (and not so traditional) houses with rice paddies or vegetable farm in the backyard.

I live in Tokyo (technically not but almost in the city limit) but I work in a factory way out in the countryside of Saitama prefecture, 50km north of Tokyo. This is what I see every morning from the window of my train.

My new camera for snowboard sessions

w00kie — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:59:48 +0000

I bought last week the new Sanyo Xacti DMX-CA9 which is one of the first waterproof HD video camera on the market. Got it as soon as it came out to capture the last snowboard sessions of the season.

The form factor is not bad. The grip could be better as with the screen opened, the handle part becomes pretty thin with sharp edges. A finger shaped handle would be nice, it would probably make the unit butt ugly but who cares? It's a sports camera. When the screen is closed, the grip is perfect, but you cannot shoot with the screen closed.

Menu is horrible, looks cheap and aliased like it was adapted to a better resolution screen without creating higher resolution icons. Navigation in the menu with the buttons is a pain because of the waterproofing which makes those buttons less responsive (but I guess it can't really be helped).

So yeah, for my hands and eyes used to the beauty and luxury of Nikon DSLRs and Ricoh GR Digital, the camera has a slight after-taste of cheap consumer electronics. But then, it enables me to take videos like this without any fear of falling down and ending up with a wet bricked camera:

So all in all, I'm pretty happy with my new toy. I'm going back for one last snowboard trip next monday and I will probably spend the whole day (or as long as the battery holds) taping jumps and tricks at the snowpark.