Air Jump ???

 

A long time ago, at the office in Perth, I was thinking of getting a few papers together.

So, I asked, "Hey, anyone got a Hotchkiss?

　
And then, out of the blue, someone goes, "What? Hotchkiss? What's that?"

I was like, "Wait, seriously? A Hotchkiss is, well, a Hotchkiss. How else can I put it?"

I figured, okay, maybe I can use gestures to get my point across.

So, I grabbed a few sheets of paper and clicked them together with my fingers, like a snap.

And then, someone goes, "Oh! Stapler!"

And we're all like, "Yeah, that's it! It's a stapler!" And we burst out laughing.

<< In Japan, the stapler imported in the late 19th century was from the USA, manufactured by E.H.Hotchkiss Co. Ltd. Ever since, it's been called "Hotchkiss" rather than the real name "stapler".>>


There were other times too, you know, when we had a good laugh about the names of everyday items I used back in Japan.


This time, it brought back some pretty embarrassing memories from deep down in my subconscious.

So, someone recommended trying jump rope for us older folks to stay healthy, you know, to prevent obesity and get some exercise, and all that.

So, I heard there's this health gadget you can use indoors for jump rope at the 100-yen store, and I decided to check it out.


<Back in the day, even I could do multi double jump.>


I thought asking the store clerk would be the best bet, so I approached one of the female employees in the store and asked her, but I couldn't call the name of the thing.


I was like, "Um, I'm looking for something for jump rope, you know, jump rope without the rope?"
　
And guess what?

She just smiled and handed me this:

English name: Cordless Jump Rope

Japanese name: Air Jump Rope

Cordless, huh?

Well, yeah, there's this ball-like thing attached to it, but the rope part of the jump rope isn't continuous.

It's more like an extremely short cordless thing, you know?





Air Jump Rope.

Now that's a pretty cool term, isn't it?

It's not just some half-baked imitation of jump rope; it's got a real sense of reality to it, you can even imagine the whole sequence of movements.

And guess what? I looked it up on YouTube, and there are exercise videos for Air Jump Rope!

For example, this one below seems like something even us old folks could manage:

But when I actually tried to coordinate the jumping motion with my body movement, it turned out to be harder than I thought.

I figured it might help when my legs were cramping after a jog, but I realized it's not something you'd want to do in public.