Trick bar Twister and me in the newspaper

There was a newspaper article about our magic bar here in Sapporo in the Hokkaido Shinbun. I wrote about it on my other blog.

先週うちのマジックバーの話が新聞に載っていた。僕の写真も載っていた。英語で僕の別のブログで色々説明を書いたが日本語の分かる方なら、上の写真をクリックして自分で読めば一番良いよね。

Coin into glass with a big surprise ・ コイン・ツー・グラスの動画

This is Hiroshi Kato, the owner of our magic bar, doing a "coin to glass" magic trick with a twist (at the appropriately named magic bar "Twister"). A big surprise variation on a classic trick. He put it up on Facebook himself in his "Today' magic" series, but he asked me to put it on YouTube too, so here it is.

うちのマジックバーのオーナーの加藤寛氏がコインマジックをやっている動画だ。コインがグラスに入るが最後のオチが不思議だよね。札幌のマジックバー「トリックバーツイスター」で。加藤氏がやっている「今日のマジック」シリーズで自分でFacebookにアップしたがYouTubeにもアップして欲しいって僕に言った。

Visiting American magician

William Rader the mentalist, and me

A few weeks ago, I got a Facebook friend request from someone I did not know. Quickly checking his profile, I learned that he was a magician so I figured that was why he wanted to connect. He then sent me a message saying: "I am going to Japan! Can we meet up?" Since I live in Sapporo and most people that come to "Japan" go to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, or some of the famous places in the south, I was a bit surprised. A few messages later, I learned that he was going to stay in Sapporo for three weeks or so, because his wife is from Sapporo and they would be here to visit relatives over the New Year.

何週間前に、フェイスブックでメッセージが来た。知らない人から「友達になって下さい」。プロフィールを見たら、マジシャンだったからそういう話とかしたいかなと思った。その後もメッセージで「日本に行くから会おう！」って。大体、日本の来る人が東京や京都に行くから、札幌に来ないんじゃないと思っていたが何回かメッセージをしたら、実は札幌に3週間くらい泊まると言っていた。奥さんが札幌出身なので、年越しは札幌の家族と。

Me, doing a Christmas magic show at Bottom Cafe

He said that he had been in Sapporo before, but that he had not managed to find any magic to watch at that time. This time, they had found my blog. When I told him there are at least six magic bars in Sapporo (and many many more in Tokyo etc.) he was very surprised.

前にも札幌に来たことがあるがその時にマジックの関係のことが何も見つからなかったそうだ。今回、僕のブログを見つけたから連絡とってくれた。札幌にマジックバー6つもあるよと言ったら、かなり驚かれた。

The university magic club performers of this years Christmas show

This time, his timing was very good and there were many other things related to magic to see too. He came to our magic bar (Magic Bar Twister) when I was working, and we went to the other magic bar in our chain (Trick Bar Twister) together too. He also came to see my Christmas Magic Show at Bottom Cafe, and he came to see the Hokudai Kijutsu Kenkyuukai (the university magic club) at the Christmas show. We also went together to the magic bar Hey Pola and to Cocktail Bar Harada and saw lots of magic there too.

今回のタイミングも良かった。マジックバー以外のマジックのイベントも色々あった。僕が出ていた日に彼がうちのマジックバー（マジックバーツイスター）にきてくれたし、一緒にもう一店舗（トリックバーツイスター）にも行ったし、僕がボトムカフェでやったクリスマスマジックショーも見に来てくれたし、北大の奇術研究会（部活のサークル）のクリスマスショーも見に来てくれたし、一緒にマジックバーヘイ・ポーラに行ったし、一緒にカクテルバー原田でマジックを見せて貰ったし、今回マジック沢山見れたね。

Hey Pola (magician Nihei)

Once we went out for soup curry (a Sapporo specialty) and discussed magic for a few hours too. He showed me a lot of things that he does when he performs, and I showed some things that I had not done when he saw me in the magic bar.

2人でスープカレー（札幌の名物）を食べに行って、マジックの話を何時間したこともあった。彼がアメリカでやるマジックを色々見せてくれたし、僕がマジックバーでやらなかったネタ何個かを見せたし。

The fluent in English magician Harada in Cocktail Bar Harada

He was very nice, and it was interesting to talk to someone from abroad about magic. I learned magic in Sapporo, and though I talk to my Sapporo friends about magic it was very interesting to hear what is "hot" in the U.S. now etc. I also got some gifts; American playing cards of different types. So blogging does pay off sometimes.

面白い人だった。海外の人とマジックの話をするのも面白かった。僕が札幌に来てからマジックを勉強し始めたので、海外ではやっているマジックとか、知らない。札幌のマジシャン友達とマジックの話をするが、海外の人とそういう話をするのがほとんどない（1回スウェーデンに帰っていた時にマジックバーストックホルムで会ったマジシャンと話したことがある）。プレゼントでアメリカのトランプを貰ったし。やっぱりブログをしたら、いいこともあるんだね。

Presents (and a heating pack the post office gave me for buying stamps)

Movies shot with cell phones

My boss in our magic bars has recently begun putting up short clips of magic on his Facebook feed, calling them "Today's magic". This is a fun idea, and I have been asked to participate from time to time. I figure I might as well reuse the movies and put them on YouTube too. The first to clips starring me show me doing the baguette production and the Tenyo Ghost Cards. Two tricks that work extra well for the camera :-)

Since these are shot with someone's cell phone, the image quality is not that great, and it is very much not widescreen... But the magic is still pretty nice.

最近、マジックバーのボスがFacebookに「今日のマジック」という動画シリーズで短いマジックの動画を沢山載せている。僕も参加した。動画があれば、ユーチューブでも再利用しようと思ったから、僕の最初の２本をアップした。また手からフランスパンを出すマジックとテンヨーの新作の「ゴーストカード」になった。動画に良いマジックだよね。

誰かの携帯で撮ったので、画像質がそんなに良くないし、立てになっているし…でも、面白いマジックだと思うなぁ、笑。

Recording a few new magic tricks ・ 新ネタの動画

Recently we have not had any "magic mania" meetings. I have been busy at work (and sick) so I have not practiced much new stuff. The most "mania" of the staff in our magic bar quit a few months ago and now works in a "normal" bar, so we do not meet as much anymore. My most "mania" friend found himself a girlfriend, so now we see each other only once every two months or so. So everyone coming together at the same time for magic mania meetings do not happen very much anymore.

最近、マジックのマニア会が全然ない。僕は仕事で忙しい（風邪とかも何回も引いたし）。一番マニアの同僚がやめて、普通のバーで働いているからそんなに会わない。一番マニアの友達が彼女できたから最近2ヶ月に１回くらい程度でしか会わない。マニア会の他の人も、皆で同じ日に集まることがなかなかない。

People sometimes tell me they liked our magic clips on YouTube and want me to upload new stuff. These complaints have increased lately, so I went over to one of our magic bars at a time when they did not have anything to do, and asked a friend to record me doing some new silly tricks that I recently have become fond of. These are not of the "mania" type, but more of a "joke" type. Still, I felt I should upload something, so here they are.

たまに、「ユーチューブにある動画を観たよ」とかと言われる。もっとアップして欲しいって。最近そういう文句が多い、ｗ。うちのマジックバーの暇そうな時に行って、マジシャン同僚に動画を撮って貰った。ギャグネタばかりだ。マニア会とだいぶ違うが何かアップしなきゃと思ってきたから、個人的にギャグネタが好きな僕の感じのマジック動画になった。

The first clip here is a trick I practiced quite a long time ago and like very much. I have not been performing it very much (not at all, more or less), though. Recently I have started performing it in our magic bar. After we relocated, we now have a very low counter, so people can actually see my legs. I like the trick, but it is very short, so I usually play it off as a joke about optical illusions, and how a trick of your eyes makes the pen look rubbery and in a less known trick of your eyes also makes the pen look like a coin.

最初は昔練習して、僕の好きなマジックだ。好きなマジックだが、見せることが今までほとんどなかった。最近マジックバーでちょっとやることになっているけど。うちのマジックバーが移転してから、カウンターが低いから足とかも見える。短いマジックなので、だいたい「目の錯覚、色々あるよね。こうしたら、ペンが曲がっている様に見える。こうしたら、コインに見える。色々な錯覚あるよね」みたいな話をして、ギャグみたいに見せる。

The next clip is my version of spoon bending. When I showed it to the "mama" at the "magic snack bar" Ropossa, who is very very good at "normal" spoon bending (she has bent tens of thousands of spoons), she thought it was very funny. She even gave me some spoons to play with. It is a very very quick trick. I tried to go for a heart shape of the bent spoon, but that turned out to be more difficult than I had imagined, so in the end I gave up and the spoon is not really that heart shaped.

次は僕のスプーン曲げだ。マジックのスナック「ロポッサ」のママはスプーン曲げがうまい。数万本も曲げてきた。ママに僕のやり方のスプーン曲げを見せた時、かなりうけた、ｗ。ママはギャグネタも好きみたい。その後、スプーン何本かもくれた。僕はハート形にしたかったが思ったより大変だったから、諦めて、そこまでハートの形になっていない。

Another optical illusion type of magic trick is showing a pen (or cigarette, or anything, really, but pens and cigarettes are the most common) and covering it with your hand so it looks shorter. Using this as a setup, I made a joke trick where a pen (and a spoon) "looks smaller". I think it is pretty funny, but I have not really used it other than as a joke for other magicians.

また目の錯覚のマジックの動画だ。有名な錯覚で、ペンやタバコ（他のものでも出来るがペンやタバコが多い）を手で隠して、小さく見える錯覚がある。その錯覚を見せてから、ペンもスプーンも結構小さく見える錯覚のマジックをやる。個人的にこういうのが好きだが他のマジシャンにギャグみたいにしか見せたことがない。

Finally, the "mama" of Ropossa also gave me a magic prop that makes a pen shrink. The normal (intended) way of using it is completely different. If I understand correctly you use a handkerchief and make a pen small. I use the prop to illustrate the same optical illusion as above, where a pen looks shorter. Then I explain that I actually used a trick pen, and how you can make it long again. I only got the pen, no instructions and no handkerchief (and possibly there was one more tool included that I also did not get).

最後の動画は、ロポッサのママがくれたマジック道具を使ったマジックだ。またペンが小さく見える。普通の使い方はハンカチを使って割りと真面目にペンを小さくするマジックだそうだが僕はペンしか貰っていない。ハンカチ・解説書・何か付いていた道具、見たこともない。僕は前の動画と同じ目の錯覚の話をして、小さく見える錯覚だよって言う。そして、実は仕掛けのあるペンなんだと説明して、こうしたらペンが伸びて元に戻るんだよねってあまり納得行かない説明をする。

Magic Bar Twister in Sapporo renewal open ・ 札幌のマジックバーツイスターのリニューアルオープン

The magic bar here in Sapporo where I usually perform magic has moved one block closer to the subway station, and it has been a few fairly busy weeks since the renewal open. The new place is smaller than the old one, but the location is better. There is now also a guy making spicy food, if you want something to eat.

僕がマジックを披露マジックバー、札幌のマジックバーツイスター、移転した。ススキの駅が近くなった。リニューアルオープンから割りと忙しい3週間経った。前より狭くなったが場所がよくなった。今スパイシーフードを作る人もいるから何か食べたくなったら色々ある。

If you come from the south elevator, you pass corridors with rusty metal and a dark inner yard with a small suspicious looking house

If you come from the north elevator, you are greeted by a door with a sledgehammer instead of handle, and lots of cluttered writings on the wall.

The surroundings are a bit weird. The first time I went there to take a look, it felt like entering "Resident Evil". The ground floor looks fine, but the fifth floor is not that well kept... The interior of the magic bar is nice, but the outside is ... strange.

ビル内の周りがちょっと変なんだ。初めて入った時に、バイオハザードに入ったみたいな印象になった。１階が凄くきれいだが５階がそうでもない。マジックバーの中がきれいだが廊下がちょっと変だ。

Balloons, and some bicycle cards if you look closely

Flowers

Lots of our regular customers have showed up with flowers and balloons. The spicy food is pretty good, and the people working in the magic bar are very nice. The magic is very good, and very funny. I am there most Fridays and Saturdays. The bar is open from 20:00 to 05:00, Monday to Saturday. Sapporo South 5 West 3, N-Grande Biru, 5F. 1 minute of walking from the Susukino subway station.

常連さんが沢山きて、お花や風船を持ってきた。スパイシーフードが結構美味しいと思う。激辛のチキンが好き。スパイシーおにぎりも食べてみた（美味しい）。ザンギも好きだ。マジック、うまいし、笑えるし。スタッフが優しいし、面白いし。

僕は基本的に金・土曜日にいる。マジックバーは２０時から５時までやってて、日曜日が休みだ。札幌の南５西３、N-Grandeビル（元第４グリーンビル）５Fにある。ラーメン横丁とラマダホテルの間。ススキの駅から歩いて１分。

Who walks around with a lemon?

The magic bar I work in is relocating, so only one of our two magic bars is open. The staff of two magic bars are all in that magic bar, so there is little need for me to help out there (though since also the customers of both magic bars end up in only one place, it is more busy than normal) and also almost no space for me to stand, haha. I take this opportunity to take some time off and do other things. Yesterday I went to our big fireworks festival.

僕が出ているマジックバーが今移転中なので、うちのマジックバーで1店舗しか開いていない。ということは、2店舗分のスタッフがそこにいるので、僕が手伝いに行かなくても大丈夫だ。まぁ、2店舗分のお客さんも同じ店に来るから普段より忙しいけどね。でも、狭くて僕の立つところもほぼないから僕が最近週末に休んでいる。昨日、花火大会に行った。

On my way home, I stopped by our open magic bar to see what is happening. They turned out to be quite busy, and there was no free seat for me, so my boss asked me to come stand inside the bar counter (and work) instead.

帰りにうちのやっているマジックバーにちょっと顔を出しに寄った。忙しかった。座れるところがなかったから、カウンターに入ってねって言われた。色々働くことになった。

While I was away watching fireworks, a pair of customers I have performed for in our other magic bar showed up, and one of them had found my explanation of my name very funny. "Jonas" is not a name that Japanese people can relate to as a name. Japanese names are completely different, and the Western names they are familiar with here ("John", "Mike", etc.) do not include Jonas. So I usually explain it like "Younasu [what my name sounds like in Japanese], with the 'you' from Hokuyou Ginko [North Pacific Bank, a bank here in Japan] and the 'nasu' from the vegetable 'nasu' [eggplant]". Japanese people often explain what kanji they write their names with in this way, since there are several ways to "spell" the same name in Japanese.

僕が花火を観ていた間、僕のマジックを前に観たお客さん2人が入った。その時に僕の名前の説明が凄くウケたみたい。日本人は「ヨーナス」という名前になじみがないから、「ヨーナスです」と言っても「え？よーな？」とかになる。だいたい「ヨーナスです。北洋銀行の『洋』になすびの『茄子』」と説明する。漢字を使うのもおかしいし、例えがおかしいし、覚えやすい。

It is of course strange to spell out a Western name with kanji, and my choice of examples is also strange; you would not normally exemplify with the name of bank but with some mundane word. The customer that came yesterday, after hearing my explanation, now says "Ah, this reminds me of that weird magician" every time she walks past a North Pacific Bank office. They had been talking about this quite a lot with the other magicians before I showed up, and they went nuts when I entered the bar. It turned out that she even had a present for me!

昨日のお客さんはそれが凄い気に入ったみたいで、北洋銀行を通ったらいつも「あ！ヨーナスを思い出す！」とかと言っているそうだ。その2人が他のスタッフとそういう話をしていた。僕が入った時に、凄く盛り上がった、笑。お客さんにプレゼントも貰うことになった！

I very very rarely get presents from our customers (or anyone else, for that matter), so I was quite happy. I received a lemon. Why would someone walk around with a lemon in their purse? I do not know. But I ended up walking home with a lemon in my yukata sleeve on my way home.

お客さんにプレゼントを貰うことがめったにない。（他の人からプレゼントを貰うこともそうだ。）嬉しかった。レモンを1個貰った。なぜ、生のレモンを持ち歩いていたか分からない。僕も一応レモン1個持ち歩いて帰ったけどね。

Death Sauce pizza

On Tuesday I was one of the presenters in our lab's seminar series at the university. Our seminars are held from 18:00 to whenever they finish (usually around eight, but sometimes they go on until eleven). Since my working hours are only until 17:00 I often do not attend the seminars (I do not get paid for overtime, and am generally not allowed to take time off some other time instead either), but when it is my turn to present I do of course attend.

火曜日に大学のゼミがあった。僕の発表のゼミだった。うちのゼミは18時からなんだ。終わる時間はだいたい20時だがたまに23時までにも続く。僕の仕事の契約は17時までなので、ゼミに行かない日が多い（残業代が出ないし、代わりに別に日に休むのも基本的に出来ないし）。でも、僕の発表のゼミには勿論行く。

When I got back home at around 20:15, I got an e-mail from my boss in the magic bar who said: "So, you are very busy today?" I e-mailed him back and said that I was kind of thinking of going out and having dinner, but that perhaps bringing my bag of magic props to the magic bar would be more fun. He replied that "Indeed, if you come here I am sure something fun is waiting for you!"

20時15分頃家に帰って来たら、マジックバーの店長からメールが来た。「お忙しいですよね？」って。「晩御飯を食べに行こうかなと考えていたが道具を持ってマジックバーに行ったほうが楽しいかもしれないね」とメールしたら、「マジックバーに来たら、きっと楽しいこと待っている！」って、笑。

So I skipped dinner and went to our magic bar where it turned out my boss was working alone. There were three groups of guests, 4 persons, 5 persons, 3 persons, all showing up at the same time which is difficult to handle alone. All guests were very funny guests to do magic for, so it was very nice when there were two of us.

晩御飯を諦めて、マジックバーに行った。お客さんは3組もいた。店長が1人で働いていたし。4名・5名・3名、マジシャン1人で手が足りないね。マジックのリアクションの面白い人ばかりだったから、マジシャン2人で結構楽しかった。

After the guests left, my boss ordered some pizza for us from a very cheap place (one pizza for 500 yen instead of say 3500 yen which is common in Japan). It is so cheap so it does not come with Tabasco (which for some reason Japanese people think is a must on pizza). My boss did remember that a customer had left a bottle of Death Sauce for us a few weeks ago, though. So we ended up eating pizza with lots and lots of Death Sauce. My mouth hurt for 20 minutes or so after that, but not as much as when I tried Death Sauce the first time.

お客さんが帰ってから、店長がピザを注文した。安い店（ピザ500円）のピザだったからタバスコついていなかった。でも、ちょっと前にデスソースをくれたお客さんが来ていたって店長が思いだした。結局デスソース沢山掛けてあるピザを食べることになった。辛かった。20分くらい口が痛かった。デスソース初体験の時より平気だったけど。

Synchronicity

After attending the Hokkaido Magic Convention I went to our magic bar and did magic. I did a magic trick where the spectators draw pictures and I later try to guess who drew which picture. This time, it turned out that all three men (out of four people) drew stars! This made it a bit difficult even for them to tell if they got their own drawing back or if it was just a very similar drawing, haha. The girl drew a tiny heart, not a start, though.

北海道マジックコンベンションが終わってから、僕がマジックバーでマジックをやっていた。お客さんに絵を描いて貰って、後で誰がどの絵を描いたかを当てるマジックをやった時に、女性1人と男性3人の人にやったら、男性3人とも星を描いた！びっくり。本人たちも本当に自分の絵を返して貰ったかただ似ている絵だったか、よく分からなかったみたい（笑）。女の子が星ではなく、ハートマークを描いたけど。

Huge cream puff

One of our regular customers came by to watch some magic and brought enormous cream puffs. He brought one for each of the staff, but one to share between the three of us would have been enough, haha.

常連さんがマジックを見に来た時に、デカいシュークリームを持って来た。スタッフ3人にシュークリーム3つもくれたが3人で1個でちょうどいいくらい大きさだった（笑）。

A letter from Osaka

When I went to our magic bar a few days ago, there was a letter addressed to me waiting there. It was from Monsieur Pierre in Osaka. It was kind of a newsletter about the bar Magic Time. Very cute hand drawn illustrations.

この間うちのマジックバーに行ったら、僕に手紙が届いていた。大阪のムッシュピエールさんからだった。バーマジックタイムのメールマガみたいなものだった。手で描いた絵が可愛い。

Two man magic show at Art Hotel start of the new year party

Last year me and my boss went to a shinnenkai ("start of the new year"-party) for a company where one of our regular customers in the magic bar works. We did table hopping, walking around each table doing magic, during their dinner party. They seemed to like it, and they invited us again this year.

去年、マジックバーの店長と2人で常連さんの会社の新年会でマジックをやっていた。テーブルを回って、マジック見せた。皆喜んでくれたみたいで、今年も呼ばれた。

This time, we did some salon magic too, and table hopping. They had requested that we "not do the same tricks as last year", which made it more difficult to do really entertaining things. There was no place to reset any trick that might require any kind of set-up, and my most powerful effects I had already used up last year of course. I did some mental effects and a trick where a walnut pops out of a picture of a walnut.

今回、サロンマジックもテーブルマジックもした。去年と同じマジックは駄目だと言われたからテーブルマジックは何をしようか、悩んでいた。パフォーマンスとパフォーマンスの間に準備が必要なマジックは出来ないし、去年勿論一番うけるマジック全部使ったし…最近よくやっているメンタルマジックとクルミがカードから出てくるマジックを選んだ。

First I did a trick for everyone at once, where I had a card selected from a jumbo deck of cards and then tried to mind read what card that might have been. The mind reading signal was a bit weak, so in the end I had to hammer a nail (working as a mind reading antenna) into my nose to get a better signal and then I could correctly determine the selected card. Then we did some table hopping and finally my boss did some salon magic.

テーブルを回る前皆の前でマジックをした。僕がジャンボサイズのトランプから1枚選んで貰って、エスパみたいに脳から直接読み取るというマジックをした。ちょっとエスパの電波が悪かったので、エスパ用のアンテナみたいに鼻に釘を刺した。釘を刺したら、選んだカードは何のカードだったか、読み取れた。

My boss had a card signed and shuffled into a deck of cards and then tried to catch the signed card from the swarm of cards flying towards him when the spectator threw the deck at him, by hitting the cards with a PET-bottle wrapped in tape (sticky side out). That failed a bit but in the end the signed card was found inside the unopened (still sealed) PET-bottle. His t-shirt also changed from a black t-shirt to a t-shirt with the company name of the company we did magic for in an instant. For his table hopping, he started out by running to our changing room to fetch his deck of cards, which he in typical fashion had forgotten there...

テーブルを回ってから、店長が皆の前でサロンマジックをした。カードを選んで貰って、サインして貰った。サインしたカードをトランプの把に戻して、トランプをきってもらった。その後、お客さんがトランプを店長に投げて、空中で選んだカードだけペットボトルで（テープがべたべたな方を外にして巻いてあったボトル）取ろうとした。お客さんが投げたのに、一枚も取れなかったが結局最後にお客さんがサインしたカードがその新品（シール開けていない）のペットボトルの中に入っていた。最後に店長の無地な黒のティシャツが新年会の会社の会社名が書いてあるティシャツに変わった。店長がテーブルを回る前に一回控室に戻って、あそこで忘れたトランプを取りに行って来た。さすが忘れ物が多い店長！笑

Headless and stolen rabbits

A beheaded rabbit

On Friday night we had lots of nice customers in our magic bar. We also had some customers that I would not describe as nice. After performing for a group of around 20 or so, no less than three sponge rabbits that I had used ended up missing. Sometimes they get dropped on the floor and I find them after the guests have left, sometimes people hide them but most people return them when I say "Some rabbits seem to have gone missing... please return them to me before you leave if you see them." On Friday, three rabbits never came back. One more rabbit also lost its head.

金曜日にマジックバーに良いお客さんが沢山来た。そうでもないお客さんも来た。20名くらいの団体にマジックを見せてから、道具を片づけるとウサギ3羽減っていた。1羽は頭と体が離れていたし。たまにウサギがテーブルのした落とされる。たまにお客さんがウサギを隠す。だいたい「ウサギ3羽くらい逃げたみたい。後で見たら、返して下さいね」って言ったら、お客さんが帰る前に返してくれるんだ。たまにウサギが持って帰られるけど。金曜日に3羽も持って帰られた。1羽が死んだし。一日に4羽も減るのが初めてだ。

People being fascinated enough by some magic trick that they take some of your stuff with them when they leave is quite rare (unless stuff that you explicitly give away of course) but it sometimes happens. Losing three rabbits in one performance (four if you count the one that lost its head) is a new record for me.

印象が強すぎて、マジック道具を勝手に持って帰るお客さんがたまにいるがかなり珍しい（お土産みたいにあげるもの以外ね）。パフォーマンス１つでウサギ3羽もなくなるのが今まで一番だね。

Luckily enough, on Saturday one guy gave me a 1000 yen tip (we have a magic charge in our bar, so people are not expected to tip, though sometimes people who are especially impressed or who want to impress the people they came with by showing that they spend lots of money do) which is almost exactly what it will cost to replace the four lost rabbits. So it all evens out in the end.

次の日に1000円のチップをくれたお兄さんがいた。マジックチャージがある店なので、チップのシステムがない。たまに凄く感動してどうしてもチップ渡したいお客さんがいるけど。たまに、連れて来た女の子の前でお金沢山使いたいお客さんもチップくれるし。1000円でちょうどウサギ4羽が入っているセットが買えるから、結局大丈夫な週末だったね。

Constructing a sponge dove and doing magic dressed up as a zombie

After 9 hours of work, the face paint has degraded but still looks pretty OK.

This year there were a lot of Halloween parties on the 27th here in Sapporo. The 27th was a Saturday so I was scheduled to work in our magic bar and did not have time to go any parties. I figured that if we were not busy, I might sneak out early and go to the last part of some party, though. So I dressed up as a zombie magician and went to work like that.


今年２７日にハロウィンパーティーが多かった。土曜日だったから、僕がうちのマジックバーでマジックを披露する予定があった。パーティーに行く暇ないと思ったが忙しくなかったら、早くあがって、パーティーにも行けるかもと思って、仮装して行った。ゾンビのマジシャンの仮装した。


I also built a sponge dove to use as a zombie magician's sponge dove. I have a sponge dove but did not want to ruin it so I made a home made one instead. It turns out that if you smear a sponge dove in fake blood (I make my fake blood from syrup and food coloring) it does not get back into dove shape after being hidden in your hand... the fake blood is too sticky. Also, your hands get really sticky... So I am rethinking that part and think maybe using red paint could work instead.

ゾンビの鳩もスポンジで作ってみた。ゾンビマジシャンがゾンビの鳩を出すと面白いかもしれない。スポンジの鳩は持っているがゾンビにしたくなかったから自作の鳩を作り始めた。血まみれにしたら、手で握ってからふくらまないって分かった。僕が作った血がシロップで作るから、鳩が大変なことになった、笑。触ったら、手がべたべたするし…赤のペンキで作り直したほうがいいと思う。

Zombie transformation:

Paint white, draw lines.

Cover lines in blood.

Drool blood on shirt, add jacket and dove.

After a few hours of working, the paint starts to degrade but some parts look better (the blood on the shirt, for instance).

Making a sponge dove:

Me and my dove, having dinner in an Italian restaurant

Visiting magicians, and gifts!

A present I received!

This weekend several magicians visited our magic bar. On Friday guy who does mentalism who I have met a few times before showed up at a very late hour. At more or less that same time, a guy who does mostly card magic (I think, but come to think of it I have never seen him perform magic) also showed up.

今週末、うちのマジックバーにマジシャンが沢山来た。金曜日の遅い時間に僕も何回か会っているメンタリズムが好きなマジシャンが来た。カードをやっている（かな？考えたら、彼のマジックを観たことない）マジシャンもほぼ同じ時間に入ってきた。

I did some mental magic that I have been practicing recently, and we had a nice mentalism chat until 6 in the morning or so... I also showed the mentalist a billet switch I have been practicing but never actually used for anything and he was impressed enough to give me a special deck of cards as a present! The cards were quite impressive, actually. I performed that magic trick three times during the weekend.

最近練習しているメンタルのネタを見せて、楽しいメンタリズムマニアの話を6時過ぎまでしていた。最近練習しているが一回も使ったことないビレットスイッチを見せたら、メンタリストが感動したみたいで、メンタルに使える仕掛けのトランプをくれた！週末に3回もそのマジックを披露した。

On Saturday, Spencer Tricks, a magician from Kushiro (eastern Hokkaido) showed up. He is every nice and speaks English very fluently (which is not so common in Japan). He wanted to see me hammer a nail into my nose, so I did my trick which contains that sort of stuff. He showed me a trick he invented where he can guess in which hand you are hiding a wine cork (which recently is sold in one of the bigger magic shops in Japan).

土曜日に釧路からのマジシャンのSpencer Tricksさんも来た。英語がうまいんだ。前に何回か会っている。今回、釘を鼻に入れるマジックを観たいと言われたからそれを使ったマジックも披露した。彼が逆に彼が自分で考えたネタ（最近日本のマジックショップで売っている）を見せてくれた。お客さんがどの手でワインのコルクを持っているかを当てるマジックで不思議だった。

On Monday, which was a holiday here in Japan, another magician from Kushiro also showed up.

月曜日（祝日）に釧路からの別のマジシャンも来た。

Kids in a bar

Last week children kept coming to our magic bar. On Friday a guest brought his daughter and his nephew at an early hour. The nephew was around 11 years old I guess, and he does magic himself. He did some quite impressive card stuff. He even did a trick that I used to do sometimes in our magic bar (Paul Harris's "Wizard's twist"), so I taught him two other variations on that trick.

先週子供がうちのマジックバーに来た。金曜日に前に来たことがあるお客さんが自分の娘と甥っ子を連れてきた。甥っ子が小学生で自分でもマジックをやっている。上手だった。結構レベル高いカードマジックを披露してくれた。僕がたまにマジックバーでやっていたネタ（Paul Harrisのウィザードツイスト）も綺麗にやってくれた。それの他のオチを２つ教えてあげた。

On Saturday, another man came with his son, also about 11 years old I would guess. This kid also does magic and has come to our bar before. This time he was practicing the Chinese rings.

It has been a while since I did magic for children, so it was quite fun. They seemed to be very nice kids.

土曜日に別のお客さんが息子さんと来た。その子も小学生だと思う。マジックもやっている。前にも来ている。今回、ずっとマジックバーでチャイナリングを練習していた。

子供にマジックを見せるのが久しぶりで楽しかった。いい子供だったし。

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。

Bitten by a customer. And by another customer!

One night in our magic bar, a drunk woman in her mid thirties said she liked to bite people when drunk. She asked the customer sitting next to her (who she had never met before) if she could bite him. He said yes, so she did. In the end, I ended up getting bitten too. I figured maybe this was fairly normal in Japan. Later, my Japanese friends have told me that it is not, it is weird.

ある夜、マジックバーにかなり酔っていた30代の女の人が入ってきた。酔っ払っている時に人を噛むのが好きだと言った。隣に座っていた知らないお客さんに「噛んでも大丈夫ですか？」と聞いた。彼が結局大丈夫だと答えた…その後、僕も噛まれた。日本で、こういう時に人を噛むのが普通なのかなぁと思って、合わせたから。後で日本人の友達に聞いたら、普通ではないそうだ、笑。おかしいよって。

Another night, I was talking to another customer about this biting incident, going for a "Look what weird things happen to me"-story. The customer shone up and said: "I can bite you too!"

I tried to inject a: "That is not really what I meant", but she continued on with: "If I bite you, it will hurt a lot!" I am not sure if that is actually a positive point, but it sounded like she meant it in a very positive way... After some discussions, I ended up getting bitten again. And just like she had said, it hurt. A lot. I had a bruise for many days afterwards... Strange country.

別の日にその噛まれた時の話をしたら、お客さんに「私も噛んであげますよ！」と言われた。そういう意味ではなく、こういうおかしなことがあったという話だよって説明し始めたら、「私が噛んだら、凄く痛いよ！」って言われた。それ、いいことなのかな？結局、また噛まれた。言われた通り、痛かった。かなり痛かった。痕が１週間以上残っていた。日本、不思議な国だね。

Magician's birthday

My boss in the magic bar has his birthday in August, so right after midnight the rest of the staff produced a birthday cake for him. There were only four of us in the bar at the time (3 staff and one of our regulars) and the cake delivery service had ran late so they had upgraded the cake to a larger size for free. There seemed to be so much cake that there were doubts as to whether we could finish all of it...

8月にうちの店長の誕生日がある。日にちが変わった時に、他のスタッフがケーキを出した。男4人（スタッフ3人と常連さん1人）しかいなかったけど。そして、ケーキ屋の人が遅れたから、無料でケーキをもっと大きいサイズにしてくれた。4人で食べきれるか、ちょっと心配だった。

Magic at the Susukino Festival

The first weekend of August saw the Susukino festival. The Susukino festival consists of lots of food stalls that sell Japanese festival food and alcohol in the streets. The hostess clubs and other places like that put up tables in the streets (that are closed for traffic from 16:30 to midnight or so). This year, Magic Bar Twister also had a yakitori place at the Susukino festival.

8月にすすきの祭があった。ニュークラやキャバクラとかが出店を出して、道路にテーブルを置く。16時半から24時まですすきの中心は車が通れなくなる。今年、マジックバーツイスターが初めて出店をやった。

Me in my playing card yukata

I helped out after work, and showed up in a yukata with playing card designs the first day. Doing magic in a yukata is not that great, but what is even worse is when you have only one hour to remove all the heavy stuff (tables, beer kegs, etc.) and all the dirty stuff (the oil drenched barbecue equipment) from the street and put it somewhere else. From day two, I worked in a t-shirt instead.

僕も本職の後毎日手伝いに行った。初日はトランプ柄の浴衣で行った。浴衣でマジックをやるのが面倒だがそれより、後の片付けが浴衣で大変だった。重いもの（テーブルやビールサーバーとか）を運んだり、汚いもの（焼き台とか）も運んだりして、下駄や浴衣はちょっと駄目だなと思った。次の日からティシャツでやった。

The yakitori place of Magic Bar Twister

We had a lot of fun, but not so many customers. The clean up after each day was very very tiring. My boss even screamed out in pain so badly when doing some of the heavy lifting that random people passing by stopped to ask us if everything was OK.

A lot of heavy lifting

楽しいことがいっぱいあったがお客さんがそんなに来なかった。毎晩片付けが大変だったし。ある日、店長が重い荷物を持ち上げた時にかなりの悲鳴を出して、全然知らない人も何人か「大丈夫ですか？」って聞いてきた。

A religious thingy passing through the festival area.