w00kie's ramblings

Category: Me, myself and I

  • My new camera for snowboard sessions

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    w00kie
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    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,…

  • New look for the blog

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    w00kie
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    I’ve updated the design of the blog to a totally different look. I’ve had the previous one forever, and though I was refining it and adding little details all the time, I wanted a radical change. Here’s a screenshot for archival purpose. Goodbye green, hello black…

  • Driving in Tokyo

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    A friend of mine received his new car last weekend and we went driving around town all saturday night and sunday afternoon. Fun thing to do with a car in Tokyo: drive to Yokohama’s 中華街 to eat chinese food for lunch a Sunday afternoon after partying. It really got me into thinking I need to…

  • JLPT Fail

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    w00kie
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    For all the hundreds of people waiting for their JLPT results to arrive and coming to my blog via google searches, know that this year’s score slip has arrived yesterday in Japan. As I was expecting, I failed level 2 again for lack of studying… JLPT 2008 score: 217/400 Vocabulary/Kanji: 58/100 Listening: 81/100 Grammar/Reading: 78/200…

  • What is your job?

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    w00kie
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    I have a private mailing-list with my closest childhood friends which we use to keep in touch now that we’re spread all around the world. One of them, who recently finished an MBA at Waseda and has yet to jump into the business world, started a thread asking all of us to describe our jobs…

  • Daddy’s gift

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    Yesterday we received a Christmas present / New Year’s gift from 愛子’s father. Around a Kg of 和牛 – Japanese beef from Yamanashi prefecture. If you’re thinking “meh, it’s just meat…”, stop right there, retail price must be over ¥30.000 (almost 300€). Straight in the frying pan with some delicious garlic. Look at those beautiful…

  • Christmas dinner

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    Christmas dinner at home after a horrible day at work.

  • Alone at work for Christmas

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    It’s christmas day and I’m at the office, working… Actually, it’s nothing unusual for Japan where the 25th is a day like any other day. But this year is special: you should know that I work for a big French automotive parts manufacturer, and this is not a very fun time for us. Car production…

  • JLPT Level 2

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    I took the test last Sunday at Surugadai University in Hanno, way out at the feet of the mountains west of Tokyo. Usually I’m assigned to Saitama Daigaku which is 10min of taxi from my new place, but I guess this year they thought I was too close and needed to suffer a bit more…

  • Bought a new camera

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    w00kie
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    I bought a Nikon D60 this weekend for ¥37,000 with a cashback I’ve got to fill out that’ll get me a further ¥5,000 off. As you can see I’m having a lot of fun with the DSLR, shooting RAW and messing around with Aperture. I’m hoping I’ll have tons of cool photos coming to my…

  • iPhone will be mine on July 11th

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    I missed the Keynote because I’m sick like a dog (went rafting/canyoning this weekend in a 7ºC mountain river) and couldn’t bear to stay up until 3 A.M., but today I’m telling my boss I’m taking a day off on July 11th. Update: link to the official Softbank press release.

  • Hiroshima-ben senbei

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    2 weeks ago I went to Hiroshima for the weekend with my girlfriend. We had dinner (and innumerable drinks) with a friend of hers on Saturday night in the 本通 area at what must be the restaurant with the most perfect レバー焼き鳥 I’ve ever tasted. Anyways, I received as omiyage the following which made me…

  • JLPT Results craze

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    The results for the 日本語能力試験, more commonly known as JLPT 2008, should be getting in everyone’s mailbox in the imminently and it shows: Visits to my blog post of receiving the results last year have been spiking in the past week. Good news: a colleague of mine got it in the mail this morning before…

  • Kick the demons out

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    Today, February 3rd, is the day of Setsubun in Japan. As we live in a new place, my girlfriends mother told her we had to start on the right foot and follow the good old traditions to bring us luck. On this day, which marks the turning point between winter and spring, you have to…

  • Home for Christmas

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    w00kie
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    I’m back home, in Paris, for Christmas week. It’s the 1st time I come home since I left for Japan 2 years ago (I had an 18 hour stopover once in early 2006 on my way to a business trip in Czech Republic but it doesn’t really count). It really feels strange to be back…