Unlucky guest from Hakodate

Guarana

Two months ago when I was in France on a business trip (or possibly when I was in Sweden because of my brother getting married), a girl who lives in Hakodate had flown to Sapporo to see me do magic. She and a friend had come to our magic bar, asking to see me. Since I was not even in the country, they were out of luck but still got to see three other magicians. But the girl coming by airplane to Sapporo was a bit sad anyway, I was told.

２ヶ月前、僕が出張でフランスに行っていた時かスウェーデンに弟の結婚の為に行っていた時か、僕が札幌にいない時に函館から飛行機で札幌に僕マジックを観に来たお客さんが友達１人とうちのマジックバーに来たんだ。僕が海外に行っていたので、残念ながら僕のマジック観れなかった。他のマジシャン３人がいたけど。それでもちょっとがっかりしたそうだ。

White "Black Sanda"

Apparently, the two of them came to our magic bar again during the O-Bon holidays (holidays mean even some Japanese people do not have to work, so they have time to fly to Sapporo to visit magic bars) but of course the magic bar where I perform was closed during the O-Bon holidays...

お盆の時にその２人がまたうちのマジックバーに来たみたいだが、お盆は店の休みだった。なかなか噛みあわないね。

They did a third try this weekend. They came to our magic bar on Saturday, and of course we are open on Saturdays. I am in the magic bar on Fridays and Saturdays unless I am out of the country or something exceptional like that happens, so I was there too. Unfortunately for these two girls, so were a LOT of other guests, so the bar was full when they showed up and they could not be let in...

３回目、今週また来たんだ。土曜日だったから、勿論マジックバー営業中だったし、僕が金土曜日にいるから僕もいたし、大丈夫そうだった。他のお客さんも土曜日にマジック観たかったみたいなので、函館からまた飛行機に乗って来たお客さんが来た時に、満席で入れなかった！運が悪すぎ、笑。

They did however come back later. Our bar becomes fairly empty after midnight (after the last subway), so when they came back at around 2 a.m. the bar was empty of guests. So she could finally meet me and see me do magic.

また遅い時間にもう一回来てくれた。うちのマジックバーは終電の後凄い暇になるから、お客さんが来た午前２時頃に、他のお客さんが１人もいなかった。やっと僕に会えて、僕のマジック観れた！

The girl from Hakodate even brought omiyage (souvenirs) from Hakodate for us! So we got something called "White 'Black Sanda'" ("Black Sanda" is a type of chocolate, and this was Black Sanda except made with white chocolate instead of the normal type of chocolate), which is a strange name. She also brought Guarana drinks from the Lucky Clown hamburger chain (a famous hamburger chain in Hakodate).

函館からのお客様がまさかお土産も持って来た！白いブラックサンダという矛盾なチョコレートも函館の有名なハンバーガーチェーンのLucky Pierrotのガラナもいただいた。美味しかった。

At around the time they came to our magic bar, it was time for the second wave of customers so 4 other groups of customers also dropped in and I had to go do magic for other guests too. So in the end, I forgot to ask why she wanted to see my magic or how she even knew about me before coming to our magic bar. This remains an interesting mystery, but maybe they will come back to our magic bar again :-)

その２人が入った時に、マジックバーの第２回のお客さんの入るタイミングだったから、ちょっとづつ人が入ってきて、結局他の４組も入った。僕が他のところも回ってマジックを見せないと行けないことになったから、そんなに長くは話せなかった。だから、何で僕のマジック観たかったとか、どうやってうちのマジックバーに来る前に僕のことを知っていたとか、色々気になっていたことを聞くの、忘れた！また来てくれるかな？また今度聞いてみよう。

They were funny to talk to and nice guests. One of the funnier stories of the evening was when they talked about how after last time the girl had gone through airport security with a PET-bottle of tea that also had a signed playing card stuck inside it. That also makes the tea turn black (the glue in the card is dissolved by the water in the tea, and the glue is black). And instead of putting it in her check-in luggage, she had it in her carry on bag. In Japan you can travel with liquids but you have to let the security personnel check your bottles. She got some very strange looks when handing over an unopened (sealed) PET-bottle of black liquid with a playing card floating around in it...

良いお客さんだった。面白い話もしてくれた。前回の函館に帰る時の話がうけた。マジックバーでお客さんがサインしてカードが新品のペットボトルに入った。そのペットボトルを函館に持って帰ったから、セキュリティの検査の時にかなり変なように見られた、笑。チェックインのスーツケースにペットボトルを入れれば良かったのに、持ち込みのバッグに入れた。検査の時にペットボトルを渡して何かの機械で危ないものが入っているかどうかチェックされるね。トランプの黒いノリがお茶と混ざってあって、新品のペットボトルに黒い液体が入ってて、変なトランプも中に浮いている…怪しいよね。

Magic Medicine

My boss in the magic bar has started taking pills that help with your magic. They are very funny. It says on the can that if you have problems with "Forgetting you routine", "Shaking hands", or other problems common to magicians, this will help. Effects include "making people laugh even when you make mistakes", "no problems dealing with children or drunkards", "fewer people saying 'I know that trick', 'I saw that!' or similar things", and other things.

マジックバーの店長が最近「テジナウケ～ルZ」という薬を飲み始めた。うける。手順を忘れるか手が震えるか、何かの問題があればこの薬を飲むと問題がなくなる。「失敗してもうける」「酔っ払い、子供相手でも安心」「『見えた、分かった』の減少」色々な効果があるそうだ。

The content list is also funny. It contains among other things "54 decks of Zarrow-shuffle-natrium", "Dai-Vernon-soda", and many other things (that are all puns in Japanese).

材料のリストも面白い。ダイバノン酸808デックとか、アレガミエナイヘキサン1964デックとか、色々入っているみたい。

Magic at DaiDonDen

Akkey, doing the "worlds coolest version of the linking rings"

In Sapporo we have a yearly street performance festival called DaiDonDen. Lots of street performers from Sapporo and some invited performers from other parts of the country do a lot of entertaining things for two days. Last year it rained and out of the normal 15 performance spots, only 3 were usable, so almost all performances were canceled. This year the weather was great, though maybe too hot for the performers.

Balance performer Lotto, making a cap enter into a PET-bottle through magic

札幌に毎年だいどんでんという大道芸イベントがある。札幌の人でも、遠くから来た人でも、色々なパフォーマンスをしてくれる。去年大雨でパフォーマンスの１５ヶ所の中の３ヶ所しか使えなかったので、沢山のパフォーマンスがキャンセルされてしまった。今年の天気が凄く良かったがパフォーマーにとって暑すぎたかもしれない。

"Sexy Davinci", doing the magic picture books with photos of himself

One guy I know was doing magic at the street performance festival, so I went to see his performance twice. I also saw a lot of other entertaining stuff. There were no other magicians at the festival, though a lot of people did do some magic during their juggling or balancing acts (or whatever their specialty might be).

Akkey making a voodoo doll rise

知り合い１人が大道芸のマジックをやっていたから、僕が２回も見に行った。他にも面白いパフォーマンスを色々見た。マジックは他にほとんどなかったがマジシャンではない人でもちょっとだけマジックもパフォーマンスの中にやっている人もいた。