Magic bar Surprise

After doing some work in Kawasaki, I also had time to stop by the Magic Bar Surprise in Akasaka (Tokyo). There were four magicians there, three that I had seen there before, and a girl who I had never seen before. They all showed me magic.

川崎の研究の打ち合わせの後、東京に泊まることになったからマジックバーサプライズにも行けた。マジシャンが4人もいた。3人は前にも見たことがあったが見たことのない女の子もいた。4人ともマジックを見せてくれた。

First, the magician Izumi showed me her deck of cards that was hand drawn by kids with crayons, which then turned into a normal deck of cards. The hand drawn cards were cuter, though, haha. She did some more card magic, and then she did some magic with a ring and a rope.

最初にマジックを見せてくれたマジシャンがマジシャンイズミだった。子供がクレヨンで描いたトランプを出して、本物（普通）のトランプに変わった。子供が描いたトランプの方が可愛かったけど、笑。他のカードマジックも色々やったし、ロープと輪っかのマジックも見せてくれたし。

Next, the magician Akimoto, who I have met several times and who is also one of the few people connected to me on Google+ that actually updates anything there (actually, he is one of the few people connected to me on Google+ period, haha), showed me more magic. He did magic with different coins, with three green balls, and with cards. He has a very good second deal.

次は秋本というマジシャンが色々見せてくれた。前にも何回か会っている。Google+で繋がっているし。Google+で友達になっている人の中の一番アップしている人かも。まぁ、繋がっている人があまりいないし、誰もアップしないし…今回コインマジックも小さなボールを使ったマジックもカードマジックも見せてくれた。毎回思うんだけど、セカンドディールがきれいなんだよね。

Then the magician Suzumu came and showed me magic. He did a cup and balls routine, the traditional coins and ring trick where the coins travel, some magic with a string and the ring, and then various card tricks.

3人目のマジシャンがマジシャン進夢が来た。カップ＆ボール・コインと指輪・指輪とロープ・カードのマジックを見せてくれた。

Finally, Ryusei Kamiguchi also did some magic requested by the other guests sitting next to me at the counter. He is always funny, and this time he was crazier or in a higher gear than normal, haha. He did a funny card to forehead routine, and had a "marked card" where the marking (drawn with a sharpie) moved around on the card. He did many other card tricks too.

最後に上口龍生も、カウンタの隣のお客さんのリクエストで、マジックを披露した。いつも面白いが普段よりもテンションが高かった。カード・トゥー・額とか、マッキーで書いたマークがカードの裏で動いたとか、色々なカードマジックを見せてくれた。

Toto's Bar

I had to go on a quick trip to Kawasaki, which is close to Tokyo, and I found an hour or so to stop by Toto's bar and see some magic. There are two very cute owls there now. I also noticed that they had changed the color of the Toto's bar playing cards they have in the bar. Their logo is green, so they have started printing their playing cards in green now. Toto's bar is always great, and this time was no exception.

仕事で川崎に行くことがあって、東京で1泊した。ちょっとだけ「都々's Bar」に顔を出す時間もとれた。最近、フクロウ2羽いる。可愛い。他に、都々's Barトランプが今緑色のなっている。都々's Barのロゴが緑色なので、トランプも緑色にしたそうだ。都々's Barがいつも凄く楽しい。今回もそうだった。

Magic Bar Review: Osmand

The sign outside Osmand

I went to Tokyo for some university work really really early in the morning of Sunday August 10, 2014. I was going to be busy from early in the morning until around 22:00 or so, but would stay the night in Tokyo. When I am in Tokyo I try to find time to visit magic bars or something similar. I looked around but most such places are closed on Sundays. I did find one magic bar/restaurant open on Sundays, though.

2014年8月10日（日）にめちゃくちゃ早起きして、大学の仕事の出張で東京に行った。朝から22時まで仕事で忙しそうだったが夜は特に予定がなかった。東京に行くとだいたいどこかのマジックバーや似た様な店に行ってみる。色々検索してみたがやっぱり日曜日もやっている店が少ない。１つがあったけど。

View of the stage from the back seats

Magic Bar Osmand in Roppongi, Tokyo, is open from 16:00 to 22:00 on Sundays. They have a stage show at 18:00. As luck would have it, the higher ups decided that we should have a break in the meetings from around 16:30 to 19:00. I navigated the Tokyo subway net as fast as I could and spent the time from 17:00 to 18:30 in magic bar Osmand.

六本木にあるOsmandというマジックバー（レストラン？）が16時～22時、日曜日にも営業している。運が良くて、16時半～19時、仕事の休憩になった。必死に六本木まで地下鉄に乗った。17時～18時半、Osmandで色々なマジックを見せて貰った。

Since there was a typhoon passing near Tokyo, the weather was pretty bad. Very strong winds and from time to time it rained. When it rained, it rained extremely hard. This may have been the reason why the place was empty. In fact, I was the only customer there.

台風がまあまあ近くに通っていたから台風の影響で天気が酷かった。そのせいで、お客さんが僕しかいなかった。

They asked me if I would prefer them to speak to me (and do magic) in English, but I said that Japanese would be fine. They asked if I also wanted to see the stage show, and I said that if they were up for doing a stage show even if I was the only one watching, I would indeed be very happy.

英語でやったほうが良いかって聞かれたが日本語でも大丈夫だと言った。ステージショーも見ますか？って聞かれて、僕しかいないのにやってくれれば、是非観たいと言って、ステージショーも見せて貰った。

Butler's business card, with all the important information

First the butler Kenzie produced his business card from a flaming wallet. He also later plucked lights from the walls and threw them in his mouth. He said he was not really a magician and only did small things like this, though. A girl who introduced herself as Aileen the maid served me drinks and food and talked to me for a while. She is also from the northern parts of Japan, though not as far north as where I live.

最初はバトラーのKenzieさんが燃えている財布から名刺を出してくれて、システムの説明してくれた。後で壁の光っているところから光を取って口に投げたりしたし。でも、マジシャンではないと言っていた。メイドのAileenさんが飲み物や食べ物を持ってきた。色々話してくれたし。東北出身で僕みたいに東北や北海道からお客さんがくると嬉しいって。

Me, a previously very animated drawing, and the magician Al

The magician Al came to my table and did some tale magic for me. There was a series of travelling the world related predictions where he had a card key from a hotel selected from me in an envelope locked with a code lock that happened to unlock only with the room number I had picked etc. He also did a card trick where he drew what he thought was my selected card in a small sketchbook. When this turned out to be wrong, he filled in the drawing to look like a whole deck of cards, and then the drawing became animated and one card (my card) rose out of the deck, and then he gave me the resulting drawing (no longer animated).

マジシャンのAlさんがテーブルに来て、色々なクローズアップマジックを見せてくれた。旅行のテーマの予言のマジックで、僕が選んだホテルのカードキーが南京錠で閉まっていた封筒に入っていた。南京錠の開く番号が僕が選んだ部屋番号だったし。他にカード当てのマジックも見せられた。僕の選んだカードを小さなスケッチブックで描いて当てるって言ったが絵のカードが違った。絵を描き直して、トランプの束の絵になった。その絵がマジックで動き出して、選んだカードが絵の束から浮き上がった。絵が落ち着いてから、スケッチブックから取り出して、お土産みたいにくれた。勿論、普通の絵になっていた。

He then also did a stage show for me. It started with a lot of fire and some heavy music, and then a torch turned into a magician's stick, a dove came out of a book and was put in a cage that then disappeared (including the dove), etc. There were some interactive moments, he for instance turned my 10,000 yen bill into two 1000 yen bills, which he later turned into lots and lots of 10,000 yen bills (and he gave me one of them back). He had me up on stage to do a floating table thing, and he did some rope tricks too.

その後、Alさんがステージマジックショーもやってくれた。最初は火を沢山使ったりしていた。ステッキが出てきたし、本から鳩が出てきたし。鳩が籠に入れられて、鳩も籠も消えた。お客さん（僕）とのやり取りのマジックもあった。僕の１万円札が1000円札2枚になった。その2枚が大量の１万円札なったから結果良かったけど（笑）。1枚返して貰った。フローティングテーブルも一緒にやった。ロープマジックもあった。

The butler, me, the maid, and the magician

When I was leaving, a guy came out from the kitchen and told me "Tack så mycket!" ("Thank you very much", in Swedish), which was also quite surprising. One guy who was the boss of the place also helped in taking a photo of me together with the performers, and then commented that he owned an older model of the same camera and had been thinking of buying the model I have, so we talked a little bit about the camera too.

僕が帰る時に、キッチンからスタッフ1人が出て来て、スウェーデン語で「有難う御座いました」と言った。スウェーデン語で言われることにもびっくり、ｗ。別の人（店長？）にパフォーマーと一緒の写真を撮って貰った時に、同じカメラの古いモデルを持っているがこの新しいモデル買おうかなって考えていると言われたから、カメラの話もちょっとした。

The place had an interesting decor, and the big menu book also had several pages of "back story" explaining what the place was meant to be. They also have a very extensive menu of drinks, and a large selection of food that you can order. Since I was going to have lots of food with the work related people, I only ordered some snacks, though. They were all very nice and talked a lot to me, and they also gave me an umbrella when I left, since it was raining very heavily. I also got a printed photo of myself that they took between the table magic and the stage show, to keep as a souvenir.

インテリアも結構不思議な感じだった。魔法の国のイメージで作ってあるとか、色々な設定のストーリーがメニューの本に書かれてた。飲み物の種類が沢山あって、食べ物も結構本格的なメニューだった。僕は仕事の付き合いで食べに行かないと行けない予定だったから、おつまみしか頼まなかったが美味しそうだった。スタッフ全員優しくて色々話してくれた。帰る時に大雨になっていたから、傘もくれたし。テーブルマジックとステージショーの間に撮られた写真もお土産として貰った。

Snacks

There was a 2000 yen charge to watch the stage show, and I think there is a 1000 yen charge if you want to see only the table magic. Then drinks were between 500 yen and 1500 yen, and the food was not that much more expensive than normal restaurants in Tokyo. I ended up paying slightly less than 5000 yen, which is cheap for a magic bar in Tokyo.

ステージショーを見ると2000円のチャージがある。テーブルマジックだけなら、1000円のチャージだったと思う。飲み物は500～1500円で、食べ物の値段が東京の普通なレストランと変わらない感じだった。僕が5000円くらい払った。東京のマジックバーにしたら、安い。

Souvenir photo

Summary:
Location: Very close to the Roppongi station
Type of magic: Close up and stage magic (fixed show times for the stage shows)
Quality of magic: Good
Cost: Variable, but fairly cheap
Interior: Nice
Staff: Very nice
Food & drinks: Large variety of drinks, good selection of food.
Overall impression: Nice staff. Did a full stage show despite there only being one guy in the audience (me)!
Of special note: Open on Sundays. Serve meals. Stage show.

まとめ：

場所：六本木駅のすぐ近く

マジックの種類：クローズアップもステージもある（ステージショーは決まった時間のショータイムのみ）

マジックの質：良かった

値段：頼むものによるが割と安い

インテリア：きれい・不思議

スタッフ：優しい

特典：日曜日もやっている。ステージショーあり。フードあり。

全体的な印象：お客さんが僕1人しかなくてもステージショーもやってくれたから優しい！

Visiting Toto's Bar in Tokyo

When in Tokyo, I almost always visit Toto's Bar, a magic bar in Ginza. Toto is very very entertaining, and the other magicians there are good too. This time too, I found some time to stop by (which resulted in me getting a severe lack of sleep, since I had to get up early for work every day, but it was worth it).

東京に行く時にほぼ毎回銀座にある都々's Barに行く。都々さんが大変盛り上げ上手だ。めちゃくちゃ楽しい店なんだ。他のマジシャンも上手だし。今回もちょっと時間作っていった（そのせいで仕事中で寝不足で大変だったけどね）。

Toto did a parlor magic show and there were doves and bowling balls produced, fascinating cigarette magic, rope tricks, and much much more. I also saw Toto do a colored sand in a bowl of water type of magic trick for the first time, which was nice. Toto also did some very nice close up magic. Apart from doves and canaries that I have seen before, Toto's bar now also has an owl that helps out with the magic show.

都々さんがサロンマジックのショーを見せてくれた。鳩やボーリングボールが出現した。タバコの不思議なマジックがあった。笑えるロープマジックも良かった。色々あった。初めて都々さんの水に色々な色の砂を入れるマジックを観れた。きれいだった。最近、フクロウも都々's Barにいるし。可愛い。

I also saw the magician Yamato, who showed off a very impressive bottom deal and some mental magic.

他に大都（やまと）さんがきれいなボトムディールを見せてくれたし。メンタルのネタも色々やった。

One thing that surprised me a lot was that another guest there started speaking Swedish to me (he was Japanese)! It turned out that one of his relatives had married a Swede and now lives in Sweden, so this guy had also lived one year in Stockholm. I also ended up talking to an older and very drunk Japanese businessman who had been to Sweden several times for work.

一番驚いたのが、他のお客さん（日本人のお兄さん）が急にスウェーデン語で喋ってくれた！家族の誰かがスウェーデン人と結婚し、スウェーデンに住んでいるそうだ。お兄さんも1年間ストックホルムに住んでいたからちょっと話せる様になった。他に日本人の酔っ払っていたおじさんとスウェーデンの話もした。おじさんが何回も仕事でスウェーデンに行ったそうだ。

There was also a woman there who I have talked to at other times in Toto's bar. She remembered me (and I her), and she gave me a slice of apple pie that she had brought because of someone's birthday. It was a very good apple pie. Ginza is one of the expensive high class districts of Tokyo, and this pie had that kind of feel to it.

前に都々's Barで何回か会ったことがあるお姉さんにもまた会えた。僕のことを覚えてくれた。誰かの誕生日の為にアップルパイを持ってきていたから、僕も高級なアップルパイをいただいた。美味しかった。さすが銀座、レベル高いなと思った（笑）。

I also met a young Russian girl, who originally came from a place where my brother spent 6 months. She seemed nice, but had to leave fairly quickly.

他にロシア人のお姉さんにもあった。うちの弟が半年くらい住んでいたところから来たそうだ。面白い人だったが割りとすぐ帰ることになった。

Visiting Magic Bar Issey in Tokyo

The huge fish tank of magic bar Issei

During my Tokyo trip I also had time to stop by the magic bar Issey in Roppongi. They do a stage show three times per night, and they show you close up magic at your table or at the counter too. There are not that many places with stage shows, so I like visiting Issey for this reason.

東京の出張の夜にマジックバーイッセイにも行けた。毎晩ステージショー3回もやる店なので、テーブルマジック以外のマジックも観れて、結構好きな店だ。

I had to work much later than I had expected and I had to run from the subway station to the bar (which is a very short run, but still) to make it in time for the 21:00 stage show. As it turned out, I did not actually need to run. When I entered, I was the only customer there. The weather was really bad, which may be why the place was empty (the previous times I have been there it was packed).

仕事が思ったより遅くまで続いていたから、21時のステージショーに間に合う為に地下鉄から店まで走ることになった。大した距離ではないけど。店に着いたら、結局走らなくても大丈夫って感じだった。他にお客さんがいなかったから貸切状態になった。他の人がいないから、ステージショーは今やらないと言われた。その代わりに、カウンターで普段より長くやって貰ったし、普段やらないクローズアップも見せて貰ったし。行った日は大雨だったせいで人がいなかったかな？前に行った時に毎回混んでいた。

Since it was only me, they explained that they would not do the stage show. Instead, they did a "counter show", where they did more close up magic than they normally do, and different magic than the standard close up things.

There were two magicians there, Shun and K-suke. There was also two non-magicians working, and one of them remembered me from my last visit. The first time I visited magic bar Issey, Shun performed both stage magic and table magic for me and my friend. I had never met K-suke before.

マジシャン2人がいた、シュンとケイスケ。初めてマジックバーイッセイに行った時にもシュンのマジックを観た（ステージもクローズアップも）。ケイスケは初めてだった。

First K-suke showed me some magic. He did some nice card tricks and quite a bit of coin magic. He also made a crushed can of CocaCola return to its unopened and uncrushed state full of soda, and he made a signed card appear inside an unopened PET-bottle. The things I liked the best was when his booklet thingy that had a cover text saying "K-Suke" changed into a booklet saying "magic show" instead, and a trick where a cocktail shaker (that had a signed card appear out of it before) suddenly stopped being empty and instead contained a cocktail of the color I had selected from a menu earlier.

最初はK-SUKEさんのマジックだった。カードマジックもコインマジックも見せてくれた。他にコーラの復活もしたし、サインカードが新品のペットボトルに入ったし。僕の一番好きなマジックはメニュー表みたいなものに「K-SUKE」と書いてあって、「Magic Show」に変わったマジックとシェーカーから僕が選んだ色のカクテルが出てきたマジック。その前にシェーカーが空だったし、サインカードなども前にシェーカーから出てきたし。

Shun, with a nail in his nose

The Shun did a counter show for me, including some Tom Mullica style cigarette magic. He also did some card magic, including a signed card appearing inside a kiwi, a chop cup routine (where the kiwi appeared), fork bending, and some levitations with one of my credit cards. I was also quite happy to see him produce three big nails from his nose. I have never seen anyone do the nail in nose stuff live (apart from seeing myself do it). The first nail seemed to have been there more or less the whole time he did the rest of the magic, but I do not think I could pull out three nails that size from my nose (and his nose was smaller than mine), so that was nice.

SHUNさんも長くカウンターショーをやってくれた。トム・マリカ風なタバコのマジックが凄い。他にカードマジック（キウイからサインカードが出た）やチョップカップ（カップからキウイが出てきた）やフォーク曲げとかも見せてくれた。僕のクレジットカードが浮いてきたし。一番面白いと思ったのは鼻からでかい釘を3本も出した。鼻からの釘は初めて生で観た（僕がやっている以外ｗ）。最初の釘は他のマジックをやっている時から入れっぱなしっぽくて、ウケると思った。僕の鼻に3本が入らないと思う（僕の鼻の方が大きいと思うし）から3本も出るのが不思議だね、笑。

Presents for me

After the magic was finished, we sat around talking about Swedish magicians and other things for a long time, and the owner (?) who did not do magic also joined in. They also gave me two business card size magic tricks as a gift, and both tricks are pretty cute. Last time I was in Tokyo I considered buying one of them (in a magic shop in Ikebukuro), but in the end I did not.

マジックが終わってからも長く皆でスウェーデン人のマジシャンの話とかしていた。マジシャンではない店長（？）も面白い話色々してくれた。名刺サイズのマジック２つをプレゼントで貰ったし。前回東京に行った時に池袋のマジックショップで買おうかなって悩んでいたネタだった。

Visiting magic bar Surprise in Tokyo

Kamiguchi Ryusei folding cards

I went on a business trip to Tokyo for my non-magic related work. I managed to sneak away at around 21:00 in the evening and decided to visit the magic bar "Surprise". I have been there four or five times.

北大の仕事の出張で東京に行ってきた。夜にちょっと逃げれて、東京のマジックバーもいけた。最初は赤坂にあるマジックバーサプライズに行った。4回目か5回目だった。

When I got there, Kamiguchi Ryusei (magician and the owner of the place) was sitting next to a customer and they were talking magic. The other customer was also a magician (though perhaps not a pro-magician). There was also a young girl standing behind the counter, and she later introduced herself as the magician Ko-ume (which would translate as "small plum").

店に入ったら、上口龍生さん（マジシャン・オーナー）がお客さん1人とカウンターに座ってマジックの話をしていた。お客さんもマジックをやっている人だった。カウンターの中に若い女の子のマジシャン小梅さんもいた。

I had never met Ko-ume before, but I have met Kamiguchi several times and he always remembers me. We talked about various magic related things for awhile, and later the magician Sacchi also showed up. Even later, Kamiguchi Ryusei said: "Maybe someone should show Jonas some magic". The girls said that since I was a magician, maybe I already know all the tricks they do, or perhaps it should even be me showing other them magic. He said that even so, it would be strange if you come to a magic bar and no one shows you magic.

上口龍生さんに何回かも会っているが小梅さんに会うのが初めてだった。上口龍生さんにいつも「あ、北海道からのスウェーデン人」と覚えて貰える。皆でマジックの話をした。サッチーというマジシャンも後で入ってきた。もうちょっと後、「そろそろ誰かがヨーナスにマジックを見せないのか？」って上口龍生さんが言った。女の子たちが「マジシャンなら、全部知っているから何もしなくてもいいかな？と思って。逆に見せて欲しい」と言ったが「マジックバーに来て、マジック見せて貰わないとおかしいでしょう」って。

Ko-ume and a Rubik's Cube

So Ko-ume showed me magic. She did a nice routine with three ropes that changed lengths and also used a ring that kept going on or off the ropes in mysterious ways. I also saw a card trick where she used lie detector skills to determine which card was my card. Finally she did a set of Rubik's Cube tricks. A cube I mixed up turned up to be mixed up exactly like a cube she had in a bag. She put the big cube back in the bag and then solved my mixed up cube. When I opened the bag that I had been holding the whole time, the cube inside the bag was also solved.

小梅さんがマジックを見せ始めた。ロープ3本を使って、ロープの長さが変わるマジックや輪っかが不思議な様にロープと繋がったり外れたりした。カードマジックで、嘘発見器みたいなやり方で僕の引いたカードを当てた。最後にルービックキューブを使ったマジックも色々見せてくれた。僕がグチャグチャにしたキューブが元々予言みたに袋に入っていたキューブと同じになった。袋のキューブを袋に戻してから、小梅さんが僕のキューブを解いた。僕が袋を持っていたのに、僕が袋を開けてみると袋の中のキューブも揃っていた。

Sacchi then showed me one card trick. She said that since I had seen her perform twice before, she did not have any new tricks to show, but this one was a bit special. I picked a card, and she shuffled the cards perfectly, to "unshuffle" them. There was something written on the side of the deck and as she shuffled the text became clearer. It said the name of the card I picked. The cards were also in new deck order. After that I picked another card, this time from a face up deck. She then showed that not only were there letters on the side of the deck, there were drawings on the backs too. These were an animated cartoon, and when she riffled through the deck it showed an animation of a guy picking a card and holding it up. The cartoon guy held up the same card that I had picked. She said: "The really surprising thing about this is that I actually drew all the pictures myself. This is only impressive to magicians." I was impressed, haha.

サッチーさんが「前にも2回も私のマジックを見ているから、新ネタがない」と言ったがカードマジック１つ見せてくれた。僕が1枚を引いて、戻した。サッチーさんがパーフェクトの切り方でトランプを混ぜたというか、トランプがどんどん揃っていった。トランプの束の横に文字が書いてあった。パーフェクトな切り方でやっていけば、どんどん読み易くなった。僕の選んだカードは何のカードだったから、書いてあった。その後、表向きのカードから、また1枚を選んだ。今回、トランプの横だけではなく、裏面にも何かが書いてあるって見せられた。ぱらぱら漫画みたいなもんだった。そのぱらぱら漫画をみたら、小さなおじさんがトランプから1枚を出す漫画だった。出したカードが僕の選んだカードと同じだった。「これの一番凄いことは、横の文字もぱらぱら漫画も自分で描いたんだよね」と言われた。「その凄さはマジックをやっている人にしか伝わらない」って。僕が凄いと思った（笑）。

Sacchi also told me that recently another guy from Sapporo had been to magic bar Surprise. He was a student at my university, doing magic. I said that then there was a high likelihood that I know him, and it turned out he was one of the guys in the magic club I was also a member of. Small world.

ちょっと前に北海道からの別のマジックをやっている人も店に来たとサッチーさんが言った。学生だって。学生なら、知っているかもしれないと僕が言ったら、名前を思い出してもらった。北大のサークルの後輩だった。狭いね。

A tiny origami book

Another magician looking guy also showed up. He showed us how to take a single sheet of paper and fold it into a book. The book was tiny, but was a perfectly book-like object with pages you could browse through etc. Impressive.

後でマジックをやっているお客さんもう1人も来た。紙1枚で折り紙で本を作ってきれた。ちっちゃな本になったが本当に本だった。凄かった。

We kept talking magic for awhile more, and Kamiguchi Ryusei kept folding playing cards with a one handed card fold that I have also practiced. When he was pretty much through his whole deck, it was time for me to go back to my hotel, and I left.

もうちょっとマジックの話を皆でした。上口龍生さんが片手のカードの折り方をずっと練習していた。僕も同じやり方の練習したことがある。ちょうど52枚折り終わったら、僕がホテルに帰らないと行けない時間になった。

Rabbit magic in Saitama

Here is a clip of me doing some magic with Tenyo sponge rabbits at New Years. I was visiting my brother and his wife who were in Saitama at her parents' place. One evening some friends of hers also showed up, and I was asked to do "the trick with the rabbits", haha. I also did some other magic, but this is the trick people like the most.

お正月に弟と弟の嫁が日本に来たので、皆で嫁さんの埼玉にある実家でお正月を過ごした。ある日、友達も何人か来たので、「マジックをやって」って言われた。「うさぎのやつ見たい！」って言われたから、テンヨーのスポンジのウサギを使ったマジックを見せた。他のマジックも色々やったが一番人気なのがこれだ。

Other than the rabbits, I also hammered a nail into my nose to psychically detect what card had been picked, used a small iPhone accessory to find other cards, did a "perfect match" magic trick for one of the girls, and had a signed card end up inside an unopened PET-bottle.

うさぎのマジックの他に、鼻に釘を刺して選んだカードをエスパ的に読み取ったし、アイフォーンのアクセサリを使ってカード当てをしたし、相性占いのマジックもやったし、サインカードが新品のペットボトルに入るマジックもやったし、色々見せた。

Magic bar Toto's bar

During my trip to Tokyo I also spent two nights in Toto's Bar. My hotel was quite close to Toto's Bar, and it is one of Tokyo's best magic bars. Magician Toto is extremely good at entertaining people. There are a bunch of other magicians working in Toto's Bar too, and they are nice too.

東京の出張の時に、2回も都々’s Barに行った。泊っていたホテルが近かったのもあるが東京のトップレベルのマジックバーなので、何回も行きたくなるのもあるね。都々さんが凄く盛り上げ上手。他のマジシャンも都々’s Barにいる。皆面白い人だ。

A live goldfish that appeared from nowhere

I first met the female magician Minto in the hallway outside, where she was seeing off some other guests. She commented on my t-shirt and then did some magic for another group. I was at the same time being entertained by the magician Yamato (who I had met once before in Sapporo), so I could not see much of what Minto was doing. She then left. Yamato stuck around for a long time, and he did a lot of magic for me. He produced a real live goldfish out of thin air, for example.

最初、廊下でマジシャンミント（眠都）に会った。他のお客さんの見送りをしていた。僕のティシャツ、突っ込んでくれた。その後、他のお客さんにマジックを見せていたが僕がその時にマジシャンヤマト（大都、札幌で1回会った）にマジックを見せて貰ったからミントさんが何をしたか観えなかった。ミントさんがその後帰った。ヤマトさんが沢山のマジックを見せてくれた。空中から金魚を出した。

Very good karaage chicken

I also met the magician Yuto, who I had not seen before. He turned out to have watched a lot of my YouTube clips so we talked about that for awhile. He had even learned a card move from one of my clips and asked me if he was doing it right. We seem to have similar taste in magic, and he did a lot of magic similar to tricks I do.

他にマジシャンユウト（遊都）もいた。会ったことがなかったがちょっと話したら、僕のユーチューブをよく観ているって。僕がアップしたカードの技法１つを練習したから、僕に見せた。合っているかどうか、教えて欲しかった。他にもマジックの趣味が似ているみたい。他のお客さんに見せていたマジックは僕がやるマジックと結構似ていた。

Raisins in butter, stuffed into bread

At around 1 a.m. the bar become completely full again, and they decided to do one more stage show, with Toto, Yamato, and Yuto all performing. After all the "normal" guests had left they had a "magic study circle", and I was invited to join them too. I joined for an hour or so but had to get some sleep before next day's work too, so I left "early".

午前1時にまた満席になったからもう１回ステージショーをやることになった。都々さんも、ヤマトさんもユウトさんもマジックを披露した。普通なお客さんが帰ってから、マジックの勉強会もやるからって誘われて、勉強会にもちょっと参加した。次の日に仕事があるからちょっと寝ないとって思って早く帰ったけど。

A late night meal for the staff

I dropped by the next night too, and saw two more stage shows. I also spoke to a magician from southern Japan who was visiting, and saw a lot more close up magic. I also showed one trick to Yamato that he liked a lot, so he asked me to show it to the others too, and he asked me if it was OK if he copied my trick. I said fine :-)

次の夜も都々’s Barに行った。ステージショーを２回も観れた。日本の南のほうのマジックバーからの若いマジシャンも隣にいたからちょっと話した。ヤマトさんに僕が考えたマジック１つ見せて、凄い気に入ったみたいなので、他の人にも見せてと言われた。そして、私もやっていい？って聞かれた。勿論、どうぞって答えた。

The new edition of the Toto's Bar cards

During these two nights, they also kept giving me food. They came over with some fried chicken or some raisin/butter sweets and said: "Try this, it is really good". Indeed, the food was really good! I had eaten before coming there so I guess I gained a few kilos during this trip... They also refused to let me pay for the food, so I got two super great visits very VERY cheap there... So cheap I felt bad about it. They also gave me a deck of cards with the new Toto's Bar card design (I have two decks of the old design since before).

この２回で、何回も食べ物を出して貰ったんだ。「この唐揚げが凄く美味しいから食べてみて」とか、バターレーズンのお菓子とか、色々貰った。本当に美味しかった！バーに来る前に普通に食べ放題とか（仕事の懇親会）を食べたから、東京で太ったなぁ。帰る時に食べ物の分を払うとか、基本的に払うのが駄目だと言われたから激安って感じで終わった。申し訳ないほど払っていないから…都々’s Barの新しいデザインのトランプも貰ったし（前のデザインのトランプも２個持っている）。

So I had a great time, got to see huge amounts of very good magic, got quite a lot of food, and got to see them feed all the doves and parakeets they use in their show, etc. Toto's Bar is always great, so I highly recommend it to anyone in Tokyo.

凄く楽しい時間過ごせたし、素晴らしいマジックを沢山見せて貰ったし、美味しい食べ物も沢山貰ったし、ハトやインコに餌をやる時も見れたし、色々楽しかった。都々’s Barはいつ行っても楽しいから、かなりおすすめだね！

A fake candle (actually a very realistically looking electric light)

The lit and fluttering fake flame looked less realistic from the side

Magic bar Surprise

During my short trip to Tokyo I also managed to get away early (around 22:00) from work on Friday and went to the magic bar Surprise in Akasaka. I have been there twice before. This time there were three magicians there, Susumu (who I had not seen before), Alice, and Akimoto.

東京の出張で、仕事から割と早く（22時頃）逃げれた。赤坂にあるマジックバーサプライズに行った。サプライズは3回目になった。今回、マジシャン3人がいた：進夢（初めてみた）・アリス・秋元。

If you, like me, do not drink a lot, Surprise is a very cheap magic bar, especially by Tokyo standards. The bar is quite small, in a very nice and cosy way. Every time I have been there they have always been very nice and spent lots of time talking to me about all kinds of things after the magic has finished. This time too, we talked about Sweden, about a magician that Akimoto used to work with who now lives in Hokkaido (where I live) and who I happen to know (we were on TV together, for instance), and about Alice having trouble convincing a magic shop dealer in the US that she was not a kid (he apparently kept showing her only kids magic props despite her telling him she works in a bar; the curse of looking very young I guess, haha).

僕みたいにあまり飲まないとマジックバーサプライズがかなり安い。東京にしたら、大変安い。割と小さな店で、いい雰囲気だ。毎回皆優しくて、マジックが終わってからも色々話してくれる。今回も、スウェーデンの話とか、秋元さんと一緒に働いていたマジシャンが（僕が住んでいる）北海道に行った人の話（僕も知っている人だった）とか、アリスのアメリカに行った時に子供ではないのがなかなか信じて貰えなかった話（マジックショップの人に子供用のマジック道具しか見せて貰えなった。バーで働いていると説明したのに。若く見える日本人の面倒なところなんだろうね、ｗ）とか、面白い話が色々あった。

The magic was also nice. First Susumu showed me card tricks, coin tricks, cups and balls, and more. Then Alice came over and did more card tricks, coin tricks, etc. She was very funny, with lots of ironic stories regarding the magic she did, that she told with a completely serious face. She had me take out a 100 yen coin from my wallet and sign it. She had me check that I had indeed never signed any 100 yen coins from 1997 before, and in general made the coin seem very important. Then she put it in a paper envelope, set it on fire, and made the coin disappear. And that was that. Seemed like there was not that much need for signing the coin. A very similar coin did appear much later in a different magic trick, though. And then she proceeded to tell me how special this occasion was, and that she was going to give me a present which she said was very rare in their bar. It was also a very very rare present. She gave me a 100 yen coin that was signed, so there was probably only one of these in the whole world. A very rare present indeed. Lots of things like that. When I mentioned we had met once before she did recall that it was more or less exactly two years since I was there last time.

マジックも勿論見せて貰った。最初は進夢さんが来て、カード・コイン・カップ＆ボール、色々見せてくれた。その次はアリスがきた。真顔でのふざけた喋りが面白かった。僕が財布から100円を出して、サインした。その後も、平成15年の100円にサインしたことないことも確認された。この100円が凄く大事だって印象になった。その後、紙で包んで、燃やして、消した。それで終わった。サインとか、必要なさそうだなぁと思った。だいぶ後で、似たコインがマジックで出たけど。そして、滅多にしないことになるがお客さんにプレゼントを差し上げますって言われた。凄く珍しいプレゼントだし。かなり凄い話になった。結局、（僕の）サイン入りの100円を貰った。世界に1個しかないから珍しいんだろうね。うける。前に一回会ったことあるって僕が言ったら、ちょうど2年前だったのを覚えてくれた。

Finally, the magician Akimoto cam and did some magic tricks that I had not seen before, and some that he showed me last time I was there too. He has a very good second deal.

最後に秋元さんがきた。見たことないマジックも見せてくれたし、前回も観たマジックもあったし。セカンドディールうまい。

Magic bar Issey

About six weeks ago I went on a business trip to Tokyo. (I have been travelling too much and not had time to catch up with the blogging.) I arrived late at night on the day before our meeting, so I had some time to visit some magic bars in Tokyo. First I went to Magic Bar Issey. I have been there once before, and it is a nice place. They do both table magic and a stage magic show on a small stage. They even do illusions.

6週間前に出張で東京に行ってきた。最近出張が多すぎて、ブログ追いついていない。夜に東京について、次の朝からの仕事が始まる前にマジックバーに行ける時間があった。六本木にあるマジックバーISSEYに行った。前にも行ったことがある。テーブルマジックもステージマジックも見せてくれるんだ。イリュージョンまでもやる。

This time I saw the magicians Shingo (who I had not seen before) and Seiju (who was working last time I was there too). First they each came to my table where I was sitting alone, and they did table magic for me. Then it was time for the stage show. After that I watched some more table magic being performed for a group of young girls at the table next to mine.

今回、マジシャンシンゴ（初めて見た）とセイジュ（前にもいた）がいた。最初1人1人で僕のテーブルに来てクローズアップマジックを見せてくれた。その後ステージショーもあった。最後は、隣のテーブルの若い女の子たちにマジックを見せることも横から見た。

After the stage show they had lots of doves, and three parrots.

The stage show was as expected a lot of fun. I got to see Shingo swallow a two meters long balloon and then later produce the same balloon from his mouth. There was a small illusion, magic with face masks, lots of goldfish appearing, some audience interaction with a peanut butter sandwich magic trick, and much more.

ステージショーが思った通り面白かった。シンゴが風船を飲んで、後で口から2メートルくらいの風船を出した。初めて生でみた。イリュージョンもあったし、マスクのマジックも金魚が沢山出たマジックも、お客さんと喋ってパンとジャムを使ったマジックも、色々あった。

A deck of cards turned into a small lunch box.

The close up magic was also nice. Seiju is very good with coins, and he did some traditional magic tricks using non-standard methods. He also used a lot of joke props. Shingo did some interesting card tricks, and a lot of other things too. Seiju did sort of remember the first time we met after I mentioned that he had not come to our table at that time, haha.

クローズアップも良かった。セイジュはコインのマジックがうまい。有名なマジックをちょっとマニアックなやり方で見せてくれた。ギャグネタも沢山あった。シンゴが面白いカードマジックもやったし、他のマジックも色々やったし。前にISSEYに来た時にセイジュがいたがうちのテーブルに来なかった話をしたら、セイジュさんがその時を覚えてくれた。

They have a live shark swimming around behind the counter.

Magic bar review: Toto's Bar

Toto doing some rope escape magic with two spectators (my friend on the right)

I have been to Toto's bar three times. The first time, Toto himself was not there (he was in America, performing at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, which he does regularly twice per year). There were other magicians there instead, of course, so it was still nice. Toto is extremely good at entertaining people, though, so missing him means missing a lot.

都々's Barに3回も行ったことがある。最初の時、都々さんがいなかった。アメリカのマジックキャッセルでマジックをやっていた。毎年行っているそうだ。代わりに他のマジシャンが勿論いたから楽しかった。都々さんが凄い盛り上げ上手だから、都々さんがいないとちょっと損するけどね。

Me and Toto

Toto's bar is located in the Ginza district in Tokyo. There are many magic bars in that area. The bar is fairly small, but looks very nice. There is a small stage area, a few sofa and table sets, and a counter. Toto does magic shows in front of everyone on the small stage, and he also does close up magic shows at the counter and in the sofas. If you book in advance, you can have a dinner and magic set with food that looks good (we never tried the food), or you can go there just for magic and drinks.

都々's Barが銀座にある。周りにマジックバーがいっぱいある。店がまあまあ狭いがきれいだ。小さなステージがあって、ボックス席もあって、カウンターがある。ステージで皆の前で都々さんがマジックショーをやる。カウンターやボックスでもクローズアップも見せて貰える。早い時間に行けば、ディナーコースも出来る。ご飯が普通に美味しそうだったがうちらはご飯試していない。

Toto's brother who makes food and handles sound, and the very nice bartender

Apart from Toto himself, there is a very nice bartender working there, making any drink you can imagine. Toto's brother works in the kitchen, and also does sound/music stuff for Toto during his shows. There are also other magicians working there, and they show you magic too.

都々さん以外も、優しいバーテンダーさんもいる。何の飲み物出すそうだ。都々さんの弟さんもキッチンで働いている。音楽の色々もやっている。他のマジシャンもだいたいいる。マジック見せてくれる。

On our first visit we saw Raito (apprentice to Toto, I think; all his apprentices have names ending with "to" by the way) and a guest magician called Mocchi. The second time I went there, Raito was there and Toto himself was back. The third time we showed up late and only Toto did magic. There was also a woman working there, but I do not know her name (or what her job actually was).

初めて行った時に都々さんの「来都」という弟子（弟子だったと思う。弟子たちが皆「都」が付く芸名にしているみたい）と「もっち」というマジシャンがいた。2回目の時に来都さんと都々さんがいた。3回目の時に都々さん以外は誰もマジックしていなかったが女の人のスタッフ1人もいた。どういう仕事の人だったかちょっと分からなかった。

The very skilled magician Raito

Raito was very technically skilled, and performed very slowly in a gentleman style. His version of the professor's nightmare (3 ropes that change length) trick is the most technically beautiful version I have seen so far. Very slow but with care taken on angles to stop precisely where you have to stop etc. He also did a very nice version of a trick with a playing card turning inside out while folded inside another card. He was very good.

来都さんが凄く上手だった。ゆっくりの見せ方で、紳士的なマジシャンの印象になった。色々なマジックを、全部凄い綺麗に見せてくれた。3本ロープのマジックが今まで観た見せ方の中で来都さんの見せ方が一番綺麗だったなぁ。他にカードの中に折りたたんだカードが裏返してくるマジックもきれいな見せ方で披露してくれたし。うまいって感じだった。タイミングとか、角度とか、きれいに見せるのを気にしているマジシャンだった。

Toto is also very good, but more than his technical skills you become impressed with his entertainment skills. He is very good at getting the crowd going. He does some very advanced magic, but the main focus is on entertaining presentation ideas. He makes very good use of music and other sound effects during his show. In a similar vein, when he does spoon bending or similar effects, suddenly his necktie is bent out of shape and when you look around, so is his brother's necktie as well as the bartender's necktie. Funny details like that help a lot.

都々さんも上手だがマジックのレベルより盛り上げ方に感動する。盛り上げ上手！難しいマジックもやっているがそれはどうでもよくなって、見せ方というか、テンポというか、観ると凄く面白いんだ。見せ方が面白いし、格好いいし。音楽や音の使い方もうまい。他にも、例えばスプーン曲げをする時に突然都々さんのネクタイも曲がっている。周りを見たら、バーテンダーさんのネクタイも、都々さんの弟さんのネクタイも曲がっている。そういう細かいポイントもちゃんとやってて、結構面白い。

Toto does a parlor magic show on the small stage, including things like a floating table routine that is very good, rope escapes, producing bowling balls from a sketch pad, flying handkerchiefs, and things like that. Very high tempo, very entertaining.

都々さんがステージでサロンマジックのショーをやる。フローティングテーブルとか、脱出のマジックとか、スケッチブックからボーリングボールが出てくるとか、飛んで行くハンカチとか、色々なマジックをやる。テンポが良くて、超楽しい。

He also does close up magic at the counter, including some very interesting coin magic, his signature effect where five spectators point their fingers at a deck of cards and go "bang" and for each bang that spectators selected card shoots out of the deck (he once mentioned that he sells this trick for 1 million yen but too many people kept buying it at that price so he upped the price to 1.5 million so he would not have to spend too much time teaching people that trick...), strange electric toy tricks, other fascinating card tricks, and more. Toto is one of the most entertaining magicians I have seen perform. Highly recommended.

カウンターやボックスでクローズアップもやる。不思議なコインマジックもやるし、都々さんの有名なわざのカード当て（5人の人が指を指して「バン」と言ったら、自分の選んだカードがトランプの把から飛び出る。100万円で売っているマジックだそうだが買う人が多すぎて、そのマジックを教えることに時間が掛けたくないから150万円に値上げしたって、笑）、不思議な電気系のおもちゃのマジックとか、他の不思議なカードマジックとか、色々見せてくれる。都々さんが今まで観たマジシャンの中でトップ3位に入っているから、かなりお勧めだ。

The entrance to Toto's bar is a mirror

Since Toto performs one or two weeks in L.A. every year, presumable he also performs in English. He said he just spouts random words that sound like English and hope people understand him through body language, but I think he may have exaggerated, haha. He probably speaks English fairly well, but we only spoke Japanese. The owner of the magic bar where I perform is also friends with Toto, so we talked about common acquaintances and things like that too.

毎年2回アメリカに行ってマジックキャッセルでマジックショーをやっているから、英語でもマジック出来ると思う。本人に、適当な英語っぽい音を出して気持ちでやりたいことが通じるように頑張っているだけくらいな話されたけど、笑。でも、ちゃんと英語が出来ると思う。僕とはずっと日本語で話していた。うちのマジックバーのオーナーと都々さんが仲良いから、お互い知っている人の話とかもした。

Summary:
Location: Good location very close to the Ginza subway station, in a district full of magic bars.
Type of magic: Parlor and close up.
Quality of magic: Very very high
Cost: 5000 yen for me, depends on what you order.
Interior: nice
Staff: very nice and funny people
Of special note: Very good use of sound/music. Shows pictures of spectators taken during the magic show on monitors afterwards. Serves food during the early hours.
Overall impression: One of the best magic bars I have been to. Toto is VERY good at performing entertainingly. Highly recommended.

まとめ：
場所：銀座の地下鉄駅のすぐ近く。他のマジックバーも近くに沢山ある。
マジックの種類：サロンもクローズアップもある。
マジックの質：かなり高い
値段：僕は5000円くらい払ったが沢山飲む人なら高いらしい
インテリア：きれい
スタッフ：面白いし、優しいし
特典：早い時間なら、ご飯もある。サロンのショーの間にお客さんの反応の写真とかを撮って後で店にあるモニターで見せる。音楽や音の使い方がうまい
全体的な印象：今まで行ったマジックバーの中のトップ1か2だと思う。都々が大変盛り上げ上手だ。かなりお勧め。

Magic Bar Review: Cuore (Calvados) ・ クオーレ（カルバドス）

When I was on a business trip to Tokyo a long time ago, I visited several magic bars during the evenings. In Tokyo, one of the most famous entertainment districts is the Kakukicho of the Shinjuku area. There are surprisingly few magic bars there (but apparently a lot of sex industry aimed at English speaking foreigners, judging by the number of annoyingly persistent people trying to get me to go to such places while searching for the place I was going). After some wandering around, I found the magic bar that used to be called Calvados, but that had recently changed name to "Cuore".

東京に出張で行った時に夜に色々なマジックバーにも行った。新宿の歌舞伎町が有名だが歌舞伎町にマジックバーがあまりないみたい。外国人向きの風俗が多そうだけど（英語で寄って来るしつこい客引きの人が多かった）。ちょっと迷子になってから、探していたマジックバーに到着！前にカルバドスという名前だったが今「クオーレ」に変わったみたいだ。

I got there fairly late (after midnight) and there was a stage show going on when I entered. I got to see the last parts of that show, and then some table magic at the counter. First, the owner called Kokoro was doing some parlor magic on a small stage. Then a magician called Mikto did magic at the counter, followed by Kokoro also doing a show at the counter. Then all the other customers left. Mikto then showed me some more magic one-on-one, and we talked about magic for awhile. Later, Kokoro also came back to the counter and talked to me for awhile.

僕が24時過ぎ入った。その時に、ステージマジックというかサロンのマジックショー途中だった。僕がそのショーの後半観れた。その後、カウンターでクローズアップマジックもあった。サロンはオーナーさんの「心」がやっていた。その後、「未来大」というマジシャンがカウンターでマジックを見せたし、心さんも後でカウンターに来てクローズアップのショーもやったし、他のお客さんが帰ってから未来大が僕に他のマジックも見せてくれたし、色々なマジック観れた。未来大さんも心さんも後で話してくれたし。

The interior of Cuore is rather cramped, to make room for the stage area. The counter looks very nice in a kind of S shape. The S shape did however make everything going on behind and below the counter very visible to me at the seat I got, which ruined a lot of the surprises during the close up magic shows since you could see exactly what was going to show up on the counter next, and often you could see exactly when the magician was secretly taking things from below the counter too. The stage also had some angle problems from where I was sitting, and from time to time it was very obvious were for instance a selected and signed card that was supposedly lost in the deck actually was, because it was right in front of my eyes. While we sometimes have even worse angle problems when doing magic at the sofa seats in the magic bar where I perform (completely surrounded in some cases), it is not a problem if you know of it and choose magic that is angle proof, at Cuore it happened quite a bit that the magic performed had some serious problems with the angles the spectators were looking from.

クオーレがまあまあ狭い感じだったが多分ステージがあるから、お客さん席のほうがちょっと狭くなっているね。カウンターがSの形をして、お洒落なんだ。そのSの形のせいで、僕が座ったところから色々なマジックが丸見えで、そこまでマジックにならないこともあった。カウンターの下から次何を出すか、かなり見えるし、たまにサプライズで出てくるものが前からカウンターの中で見えている（取る時にも見えるし）から、サプライズにならない時もあった。真正面のお客さんなら、いいマジックだったんだろけどね。ステージもある時に角度きつかった。サインカードがどこにあるか、トランプの中に入っているはずなのに、僕の目の前にサインカードが見えている時とかがあったね。うちのマジックバーでもっと酷い角度がたまにある（ボックス席なら、100％囲まれている時もある）がそれに合わせて囲まれても大丈夫なマジックを選べば大丈夫だ。クオーレで見せて貰ったマジックでは、たまにそういう角度で見せて欲しくないマジックがあった。

The stage magic that I saw was nice. There was some card going to impossible locations, floating table, a birthday cake produced from a dove pan (very popular at Tokyo magic bars it seems), a paper snow storm, and other effects. I liked a routine where a raw egg was poured into a hat, which as then places on the head of a spectator. And out came a plastic fried egg (and no sign of the raw egg). The rest of the effects were nice, but very common effects. But since most customers probably never saw magic before, showing them common (popular) effects is probably a good choice.

ステージで行われたサロンマジックが全体的に良かった。カードツー不思議なところ・フローティングテーブル・タブパンからケーキ（東京で流行っているみたいね）・紙吹雪、色々なマジックがあった。僕の一番好きだったのが、生卵を帽子に入れて、その帽子をお客さんに被らせて、帽子を取ったら偽物の目玉焼きになっていた。生卵はどこに消えたか、不思議だった、笑。他のマジックも良かったが結構スタンダードなマジックだった（やっている人が多いマジック）。普通のお客さんは多分マジックほとんど見たことがないから、そういうマジックをやったら（皆がやっているマジック＝うけがいいマジック）良いと思うね。

Next, magician Mikto did some magic at the counter. He was very good at doing magic with cigarettes. He also did some tricks with Japanese bills (1000 yen and 10000 yen change places in the spectators hand), solved a Rubick's cube blindfolded. Though he did not look that blindfolded, he was still very fast, haha. He was pretty funny, but he also did quite a lot of mistakes (thread got caught somewhere, etc.).

次、未来大さんがカウンターでクローズアップマジックを見せてくれた。タバコのマジックがかなりうまかった。お札のマジック（1000円札と10000円札がお客さんの手の中で入れ替わる）とか、目隠しでルービックキューブとか、色々やった。目隠しで、まだ結構見えるんじゃないかという目隠しだったがそれでも普通に早かった、笑。面白かった。喋りも結構面白かった。ミスがまあまあ多かったけど。

Kokoro then came back and did magic at the counter too. Again, he did a lot of common/popular effects and did them in a pretty standard way. Apart from the angle problems from where I was sitting making some of the effects less magical, the performance was fine though I have seen other people do the same effects funnier/better. For people who have never seen magic before, I would guess it was a very good selection of effects. There was fork bending, a light bulb that started glowing in the hand of the spectator, the "size surprise" card trick that I love (but never performed myself since a colleague does it), some rubber band effects, a hamburger showed up out of a deck of cards, a sticker depicting the selected card of a spectator was stuck under the shirt (on the arm) of a spectator, etc. There were also a lot of wordplay gags in Japanese, not all of which I could catch. Things like saying "shaku ni sawaru" (meaning something annoying you, so "[being fooled again] annoying, isn't it?") and pulling out a ladle (also "shaku" in Japanese, though a different word pronounced the same).

心さんがまたカウンターに来て、心さんもクローズアップを見せてくれた。今回も、人気マジックというか、皆がやっているマジックがほとんどだった。見せ方も、だいたいスタンダードの見せ方だった。角度の問題で前から丸見えだったからマジックにならなかったネタ以外は、良いマジックだと思うが他の人がもっとうまい見せ方やもっと笑える見せ方で同じマジックを見せてくれた。マジックの観たことない人に、ネタの選択が良いと思うけど。フォーク曲げ・お客さんの手の中の電球が光る・サイズサプライズ（僕の大好きなカードマジック、一回もやったことないけど）・輪ゴム・ハンバーグがトランプから出てくる・お客さんの選んだカードのシールがお客さんの腕についている、色々なマジックがあった。オヤジギャグも多かった。「癪に障るね！」って、杓を出すとか。

Finally, after everyone else left, Mikto came and spoke to me for a long while and showed me some more magic. He talked about how he hitchhiked all the way from Tokyo to Sapporo and made a living by doing magic in the streets and other things. He showed me some more cigarette magic and a card trick he used to do in the streets.

その後、他のお客さんが皆帰った。未来大さんが来て、僕と色々な話をした。東京から北海道までヒッチハイクで行った話とか。その時にストリートマジックで食べたそうだ。その時によくやったアンビシャスカードのマジックも見せてくれた。タバコのマジックももっと見せてくれた。タバコ一番感動した。

Finally, something that impressed me was that there were a lot of autographs and photos of famous people visiting Cuore stuck to the walls. I guess in Tokyo there are many famous people!

他に感動したのは、壁に有名人のサインや写真がいっぱい張ってあった。さすが東京だなと思った。有名人多そうだ！

Summary:
Location: Conveniently located in the huge Shinjuku entertainment district Kabukicho, which is worth visiting anyway.
Type of magic: Parlor and close up
Quality of magic: OK
Cost: Around 4500 yen for me, depends on how long you stay
Interior: Beautiful, but causing some angle problems for some of the magic performed.
Staff: Nice, spoke to me about all kinds of things
Overall impression: Nice with parlor magic and close up magic. Lots of popular standard effects.

まとめ：
場所：歌舞伎町だから、他に面白い店も近くにいっぱいありそうだね。
マジックの種類；サロンもクローズアップも
マジックの質：普通
値段：4500円になったと思う。滞在時間による
インテリア：お洒落だがたまに角度がちょっと無理
スタッフ：優しかった。色々な話をした。
全体的な印象：サロンもクローズアップもあるのが良いよね。皆がやるネタがうけが良いネタが多い

Tokyo magic bar trip

Tokyo

On Monday I went to Tokyo with a friend. The goal was to visit some magic bars and to shop for funny things at the new Tokyo Sky Tree.

月曜日に東京に行ってきた。友達とマジックバーに行くためと東京スカイツリーで面白いものを探すために行った。

First we went to Harajuku to look for some funny t-shirts for me. I wanted a few more of the t-shirt with a salmon eating salmon sushi that I use for magic tricks. It turned out that the whole shop was gone, and no one else sold such t-shirts... which was a big shock and disappointment. I bought a t-shirt with bears eating bear paws, and two t-shirts with funny writings in Japanese instead.

最初原宿に行って、サーモン寿司を食べているサーモンのティシャツを探していた。僕がそういうティシャツをマジックに使っているので、後2～3枚くらい欲しい。だけど、前に行った店がもうなかった！ショック。同じものを売っている店がなかったし。別の店で熊の手を食べている熊の家族のティシャツと「ドM」と書いてあるティシャツを買って帰った。

Usagi-ya

The hard to find Usagi-ya

Then we went looking for the restaurant Usagi-ya in Akasaka. We had a small map, but it did not show anything to use as a landmark when looking except for a small temple (no subway stations or anything like that) and we could not find the temple either so it took as much longer than we thought to find this place... Once we actually managed to home in on the general area (Japanese addresses are not very easy to use, so even my Japanese friend, who has lived one year in this same district (!) could not figure out where to go), it was still a bit tricky to find the restaurant. It turned out you had to go into the temple yard, more or less, and turn around down some small streets with temple affiliated buildings and private homes. Then, around three more corners we found the restaurant.

The bartenders of Usagi-ya

その後、赤坂にある「うさぎや」というレストランを探しに行った。思ったより時間掛かった。道全然分からなかった。地図があったが地図に目印になるもの（地下鉄駅とか）が載っていなかった。お寺くらいしか載っていなかった。何となく近くに来たと思っても、どの道に入ったらいいか分からなかった。結局お寺に入って、小道に入って、高そうな一軒家しかない小道で角3回くらい曲がったら、レストランもあった。

The starters at Usagi-ya

Once inside, everything was great, though. The restaurant served a full course meal, and all the food was great. Every day there are two magicians working in the restaurant too. There are many magicians working different days in the restaurant they told us. Both magicians came to our table and did magic for us, and in total we saw about 35 minutes of magic. The bartenders were also very funny to talk to.

The soup

店に入ってから全部良かったけど。フルコースを食べて、凄く美味しい料理だった。毎日マジシャン2人がいるそうだ。沢山のマジシャンが働いているが 同じ日に2人しかいない。2人ともうちのところに来て、マジック見せてくれた。トータルで35分くらいのマジックを見たかな？バーテンダーたちの話も面白かった。

The fish

The pasta

The desserts

Some strange things that showed up during the magic performances at Usagi-ya

I got a fan from Usagi-ya because it was some anniversary of the restaurant.

Surprise

Magician Ryusei Kamiguchi, at Magic Bar Surprise

Then we walked for two minutes to the Magic Bar Surprise, also located in Akasaka. I had been there once before, 15 months ago, but for my friend it was his first visit. The owner of the bar recognized me immediately, and even remembered where I was from, that my name is impossible to pronounce for Japanese people, and where I do magic. There were three magicians working in the bar on Monday, and all three showed us magic. We saw magic more or less non-stop for two and a half hours, I think. And it is quite cheap too! It was a lot of fun this time too.

ウサギやで食べ終わったら、歩いて2分くらいの「マジックバーサプライズ」に行った。僕は15カ月前に1回行ったが友達は行ったことがなかった。サプライズのオーナーさんがすぐ僕のことを分かって、どこから来ているとか、どこでマジックをやっているとか、名前の発音が日本人にとっ手無理だとか、色々覚えてくれた。マジシャン3人がいた。皆が1人づつマジックを見せてくれたから全部で2時間半くらいのマジックを見た！サプライズの値段が安いし！今回も勿論面白かった。

I bought a book with simple magic tricks at magic bar Surprise, and Ryusei Kamiguchi signed it form me.

Half Moon

My cup of cranberry juice at magic bar Half Moon

Then we rushed to catch the last show at the magic bar Half Moon, which is possibly the greatest magic bar in Tokyo (I also like Toto's Bar a lot), which is located in Ginza/Sinbashi. We tried to get a taxi (it is not that far even walking, but we were running late) but the first taxi just said: "That is not the direction my car is pointing, go get a cab on the other side of the street". Apparently in Tokyo the taxis are like trains and can only go in one direction? We found another taxi, but he did not know exactly how to get to the address where Half Moon is located, even using his GPS navigation system. We told him to just go to Shinbashi station and we would walk from there.

サプライズを出て、急いで新橋にあるマジックバー「ハーフムーン」を向かった。赤坂から歩いて行っても大丈夫だが遅れていたからタクシーに乗ろうとした。「私のタクシーは銀座方面を向かっていないから道路の向こう側ですよ」と言われたけど。東京のタクシーは列車みたいなもんで、曲がることが出来ないのかな？別のタクシーに乗って、ハーフムーンの住所を教えても、運転手さんが行き方分からなかった。カーナビを使っても分からなかった！新橋駅でいいよって言って、そこから歩いて行った。

The interior of Half Moon

Half Moon was great, of course. The presentation style is fantastic. They do a lot of very high level magic during the show, which would be impressive in itself, but the thing that is most impressive is the performance style. Half Moon is a bit expensive by Sapporo standards (almost three times the charge we take in my magic bar, for a shorter drinking plan), but worth every yen. Highly recommended.

ハーフムーンが勿論凄かった。見せ方が素晴らしい。色々なレベル高いマジックもやっている。そのマジックは下手に見せても凄いかもしれないがハーフムーンの感動するところはやっぱり見せ方だね。簡単なマジック（あまりやらないがそういうマジックの時も）の見せ方も素晴らしいので、他のマジシャンがやっている凄いマジックより印象がある。勿論、凄いマジックをやっている時にその見せ方でさらに凄いね。ハーフムーンは札幌と比べたらちょっと高い（うちのマジックバーの料金より3倍くらい）がその値段で全然いい。かなりのおすすめだ。

The Next Day

The next day we went to the Tokyo Sky Tree. It is a new 634 meters high tower, but you cannot go up unless you book in advance. It is fully booked for 6 months or so! We took some pictures of the tower from below and went on a shopping spree in the department complex in and around the tower.

次の日に東京スカイツリーに行った。634メートルのムサシ、かなり前から予約しないと登れないから、下からの写真を撮って買い物しただけだけど。

Then we went to the airport and took the four o'clock flight back to Sapporo. This was right before the latest typhoon hit Tokyo, so we had nice timing. There were lots of canceled flights during the day and during Wednesday.

その後、羽田に行って16時の便で札幌に帰った。台風が東京に来るチョイ前だったから、タイミング良かったね。