A parcel arrived from Japan this morning and it in are two very cool items. First is a hand made leather half case specially made for me by my friend Michel (mijonju). It is funny that after he completed this, he told me that the end result looks kinda ‘raw’ compared to those factory made or those expensive professional made ones. Hahaha. He thought of trying to redo one but I stopped him and told him I really love the raw look.
Lovely isn’t it? I love the raw look of the leather case. Coupled with the leather strap I have … now my Klasse W looks real rugged and it’s all ready for the streets!
Michel also showed me some online videos of darn expensive equipments used by those professional leather case makers. They were really cool. What Michel probably doesn’t know is that there are people like me who love rough and raw looking cases instead of shiny smooth looking ones. Hahaha. Bet now he knows.
The other item in the package is a Kendama …
What is a Kendama? It is a Japanese wooden toy that looks like a hammer with a ball tied to it. Sounds funny eh? I was pretty amused when I first saw it but after checking out some videos … I knew it will be big fun. So I got him to help me buy one and ship it to me together with the leather case.
More info from Wiki here.
I had to hide it away from Fitzand because I wouldn’t want him to be swinging that hard wooden ball around and send my TV and stuffs to electronic heaven. So after he went to bed, I spent some time trying to learn how to play with it. Did I manage to learn how to play with it? Ermm …. ermmm … this old man seems to have problem getting the stick into the hole. Wait!!! That sounds wrong. Let me rephrase. If you have already checked out the Wiki page, you will know that the ball (tama) has a hole in it. The idea of this toy is to … ermm … get the spike (ken) into the hole on the ball. Argh! It’s hard explaining this without bursting into laughter. Go check out the Wiki page and this sample video and see what it’s all about.
Love the video? Crazy ain’t it? Hahaha. I’ve only managed to get the ball to sit on the 3 different cups (sometimes) after about 5 minutes of practice. Duh. I’ll try spend more time practicing.
If any of you in Singapore are interesting in buying this toy, do drop me a line. I might just do a mass order for you guys for this cute fun toy. It’s very affordable and fun. Hahaha.
That’s all for now. I’ve to get back to practicing playing with the Kendama.
Michel … thank you very much. 😀
dope men the case….. ask michel teach me how to do the case…… hahaha
i think here cant find leather so easily…. haizzz
btw the toy look real fun
@norya : Yeah. They have shops selling leather there, he told me. The rest is just cutting and using some fork-like thingie poke holes and sew. Seems easy. Hahaha. The material is the only headache. The toy is fun but need lots of practice.
haha really sorry, i will definitely make you a better one when i am more skilled, still learning
@mijonju : No … noooo …. why sorry? U misunderstood what I said. Haha. I love this raw looking one very much. It is now permanent on my klasse.
i understood. its just that i will try better 😀
ill make some tutorial videos on the kendama so you can learn neat tricks 😀
after this week
@mijonju : Oh. Okay. Hahaha. Looking forward to your videos. I have some dents all over my ball now. Oh wait. I mean the wooden ball. Hahaha. All the misses and knocks on the cups etc caused the dents. Hahaha. Hey are you online? Need to confirm the lens orders on MSN.
it’s sucha lovely case! Lucky u!
@mijonju- Great work!!
wow neat leather hand-made casing!! haha wacky jap toy 🙂
I love the instruction sheet of the Kendama….cute illustration.
Hahaha. Now mijonju will believe what I told him … that his work (the leather case) is very nicely done. He did make some nice ones for the Oly EP-1 for sale (great prices!) but too bad I already own the white Olympus case.
please come online there might be a little mistake
@mijonju : Hahaha. No worries. It is all ironed out by now. 😉
raw look ftw 🙂 love it too. and he fun ball game thing is way cooler than yoyo.
the case is raw but lovely!
@solace : Oh yeah. The kendama is fun but I don’t have much time to play with it. Sometimes I only get to play with it for 2 to 3 minutes before having to rush off to do something else. I managed to get the ‘stick’ into the hole once. Hahaha. Hmm. That sounds a bit wrong though. Hahaha.
@Reiz : It is definitely lovely!