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。

Magic show for a yosakoi team

The stage was pretty far away from the audience

I spent Sunday afternoon with the owner of our magic bar at a fancy hotel in the northern part of Sapporo. We did a magic show for a yosakoi team. There were 10 tables with about 10 persons per table. We did a stage show first, with my boss producing a bowling ball from a sketchbook and me hammering a nail into my nose and then doing my "perfect match" magic trick. Finally we did a funny two man ESP card routine.

日曜日の午後によさこいチームの宴会でマジックショーをやってきた。うちのマジックバーのオーナーと2人で札幌の北区のホテルでやっていた。10人くらい座れるテーブルが10テーブルあった。最初ステージで、うちのボスがスケッチブックからボーリングボールを出した。僕が鼻に釘を刺してから女の人の相性占いのマジックを披露した。最後のESPカードを使って2人でやるマジックも見せた。

A bunch of props to use on stage

After the stage show, we walked around doing table magic too. I covered three tables, though a lot of people kept following me from table to table. My boss said he only did one table because more and more people kept congregating on that one table so he just stayed there.

ステージマジックの後、テーブルを回ってクローズアップもやった。僕が3テーブルを回ったがボスが最初のテーブルで止まったみたい。僕が必死に動いていても、同じお客さんが結構一緒に次のテーブルにも行ったから、結局同じネタは1回しかやらなかった。ボスはあるテーブルでやり始めたら、人がそこにどんどん集まってきたからそのまんまそこでやり続けたって。

Two magicians concentrating hard before going on stage

Everyone seemed to have a good time, and people were screaming a lot, in a good way. We had lots of fun ourselves too. The team, 新琴似天舞龍神 (Shin-Kotoni Tenbu Ryuujin) is one of my favorite teams to watch during the Sapporo Yosakoi festival too, so I hope they do well this year too (they usually do very well).

皆喜んでくれたみたい。悲鳴（いい意味の）が結構あったりした。うちらも結構楽しめた。札幌のよさこい騒乱祭りでこの「新琴似天舞龍神」というチームのパフォーマンスも結構好きなんだ。今年もうまくいくといいね。だいたいうまくいくチームだけど、ｗ。

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。

Yearly magic duel

Every year at the university staff "new year party", a professor who is learning magic finds me and asks me to show him some magic. This is a lot of fun, and it happened in 2013 and in 2012, as reported on this blog. It happened this year too, and I wrote about it on my other blog.

毎年、北大の情報科学研究科のスタッフの新年会で、マジックを勉強している先生とマジックのやり合いになる。結構楽しい、ｗ。2013年の新年会でも、2012年の新年会でもやった。今年の新年会の話は僕の別のブログで書いた。

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)

Cocktail Bar Harada again ・ 2回目のカクテルバー原田

An incredible number of cards signed by different people covered the walls and ceilings.

Yesterday I went to Cocktail Bar Harada again. I was there two years ago with a Japanese friend, and this time I was there with an American magician who was visiting Sapporo. Cocktail Bar Harada is a regular bar, but if you ask, Mr. Harada is happy to show you magic. That this is a normal bar means that the selection of drinks is much much more varied than any magic bar I have ever been to. There are also many customers there who are not interested in magic.

昨日またカクテルバー原田に行った。二年前に日本人の友達と行った。今回は札幌に遊びに来ていたアメリカ人のマジシャンと行った。カクテルバー原田は普通のバー（マジックバーではない）が「マジック観たい」と言ったら原田さんがマジックを見せてくれる。普通のバーなので、マジックバーよりお酒の種類が凄いんだ。マジックに全く興味のないお客さんも沢山来るみたい。

More magic looking things

Mr. Harada speaks English were well. He started learning English when he was very young because his father thought that would be good, and he lived for a while in Canada. Since my American friend does not speak that much Japanese, it was nice to have someone show us magic (and talk about other things) in English for a change, so I did not have to translate.

原田さんの英語が凄いきれいだ。英語が大事だとお父さんが思っているから、小さい頃から英語を勉強していたそうだ。カナダにも住んだことがある。アメリカ人の友達は日本語あまり話せないので、今回英語でマジックを見せて貰って（英語で話をしてもらって）、通訳しなくても大丈夫だったから結構楽だった。

The very nice looking bar counter

We got to see quite a lot of magic, and some examples include: a puzzle where you add more and more pieces but the size of the complete puzzle somehow stays the same, a trick that started out as coin bending but in the end a cigarette lighter was bent, some mystifying card sandwich effects, a card trick where a burnt joker was restored to prime condition but the signed card that my friend was holding in his hands became burnt instead, and a surprising card reveal where the selected card was named by the coffee patterns in the bottom of the cup which Mr. Harada had been drinking coffee from throughout the performance.

色々なマジックを見せて貰った。例えば：ジグソーパズルにピースを何回か足しても、パズルの大きさが変わらない・コイン曲げに見えると思ったら、ライターが曲がった・カードのサンドイッチ・炙ったジョーカーが元に戻ったが友達がずっと持っていたサインカードが炙られた・選んだカードのマークと数字が原田さんがずっとコーヒーを飲んでいたマグカップの中の余ったコーヒーに不思議に書いてあった。

Mr Harada with his close up mat

We also talked a lot about magic, magic clubs, living in America or Canada, and much more. We had a great time, and the drinks were very good. The bar is also very cheap compared to magic bars, since the charge is much less.

マジックが終わってから長くマジックの話とかもしていた。アメリカに住む話とかカナダに住む話とか、有名なマジシャンの話とか、色々面白い話があった。飲み物も美味しかったし、マジックバーではないから、チャージが安いし、今回も良かった。

Me and Mr Harada

On a side note, Mr Harada also teaches magic to people. One of his students is a professor at the university where I work, and we sometimes meet in the cafeteria or the secretaries' office etc. We also meet at the computer science department's New Year party every year, and every year he asks me to show him some magic, and he shows me some things he has learned since last year. The same day we went to Cocktail Bar Harada we also had the staff New Year party, so I had to do some magic there and we talked a bit about Mr Harada there too.

ちょっとだけ関係ある話もある。原田さんはマジック教室もやっている。習っている人の中では、北大の先生もいる。たまに学食や事務でその先生に会う。毎年のスタッフの新年会で会うし。新年会で、毎年「何か見せて」と言われるし、その先生にマジック見せて貰うし。今年もそうだった。今年の新年会はカクテルバー原田に行く日だったので、行く1時間前にも原田さんの話もしていた。