Dash Camera: Test Video

After installing the dashboard video camera last week, we thought we should try recording some video and see how easy it is to transfer it onto the computer. Today we ran some errands and were thinking about which piece of our boring around-the-town video we would look at.

Then this happened:



Note the stale yellow light at the start. The red truck goes through very late, but the old guy in the white wagon just was not paying attention.

We have replaced the original audio (imagine a lot of honking, if you can) with a track from the Youtube library called "Sound Of Silence" by Orlando Jopling.

Transferring the video from the camera's SD card was as simple as getting files off any digital camera. Nice that Youtube offers the tools to trim the video down to just the exciting bit.

So there's a sample of the dashboard video camera.

JAL, Personal Ad, Eclipse Follow-Up Video

Japan Airlines (JAL) is really cool, and not just their new tail logo design.

The arm-rest on our Narita-Kansai flight had a somewhat old-school channel/volume controller.

But it got interesting.

Those four coloured buttons mean the same thing in any language.

Your bumpy flight is going to pass much quicker.
There were about 15 different games, in glorious 8-bit colour.

This little package had nothing to do with JAL, but we fell in love with its triple-entendre. Is it a snack? Or the best personal ad we have ever read?

Here is a follow-up on our last post: some video of the pin-hole cameras in the courtyard, waving their images of the eclipse in the morning breeze.

Hankai Tramway from Abeno to Myokokuji-mae, Osaka

One of Japan's three remaining tramways (light rail, street car, etc) is the Hankai. Its Uemachi Line runs south from Tennoji in Osaka and passes within a few blocks of Aya's house in Sakai.


Traveling at street-level gives such a different view of the city and we often go into Osaka this way instead of on the much faster subway line.


These three videos were all shot on an October evening. They are slow and rhythmic and not exactly action-packed, but they offer glimpses of life that seem to float in pools of light, and can be fascinating if you're in the right mood.


We know it's crazy to expect anyone to watch these videos in their entirety, but we love this trip and we wanted to share it.

Part 1 (10 min):

Notes:
0:01 pedestrian proximity
0:30 departure 
2:10 big turn away from road, into residential area
3:09 two platforms float in the darkness 
3:31 level crossing 
4:25 pass opposite train (one of many) 
7:17 cars on the tracks due to narrow road


A search on Youtube turns up many more videos by people who really take this kind of thing seriously.


We have outlined the three parts of the route we captured on this Google Map:

View Hankai Tramway, Uemachi Line, Osaka in a larger map

Here is a link to the real one on Google Maps , where you can activate the amazing Street View.

Part 2 (10 min):

   

Notes:
0:07 depart

1:40 big turn
6:50 crossing the Yamato River
9:00 big turn

Part 3 (3 min):

Notes:
0:20 depart
0:27 Pachinko Enjoy!
0:30 big turn