Coin magic in Stockholm

On one of the days I was in Stockholm, another magician I had not seen was performing at Magic Bar Stockholm, so I went there to have dinner and to see his magic. The magician is called Tommy Sköld, and I was told his specialty was coin magic.

Magic Bar Stockholm is more like a restaurant than a bar, and they usually have good food. I decided to try their hamburger. They used to have a rabbit hamburger on the menu, but now it was no longer rabbit meat. The hamburger was good. The soup I ordered as a starter was even better!

When I was waiting for my food, Tommy Sköld came to my table and showed me some coin magic. Later, he also had a magic show for 10 or 15 people in a small room they have for close up magic shows. I got to see that show too, which was nice.

Me and Tommy Sköld

Some other guests

Japanese business cards in Magic Bar Stockholm

When I visit Sweden, I try to find time to go see some magic. I learned magic after moving to Japan, so I have no idea what kind of magic is popular in Sweden and I don't really know any Swedish magicians. Since I have now been watching magic in Sweden quite a few times, I guess I do know a few magicians and have some idea of what magic they usually perform.

In Stockholm there is a place called Magic Bar Stockholm where you can see magic. They also serve food. The food is usually very good. This time it was great. On weekdays someone will come to your table and do some magic for you. On weekends they also have a stage show.

When I visited Sweden in October I got to see Isidor Olsbjörk and Martin Hansson. Isidor was presented as the Swedish champion of magic, if I remember correctly. He did some very impressive coin magic on stage. He also did some funny card and blood magic.

Me and Isidor Olsbjörk

The magician Martin Hansson had been mentioned to me before, since apparently he often comes to Japan to do magic. He was very funny on stage. He showed a fork up his nose and then licked the fork after he pulled it out, which was pretty gross. He did the Gypsy thread mystery with a balloon to the music "Let me entertain you" by Robbie Williams, which was hilarious, haha.

Me and Martin Hansson

He had his name in Japanese on his business cards, which I guess is not very common in Sweden. After the show he sat down and talked to me for quite some time. He was very nice. Turns out we grew up in the same area and went to the same high school. He also trains/teaches aikido, and said he has a standing invitation to come to Sapporo to some aikido dojo here. I also spoke quite a lot to one of his aikido friends who was there because she did a short skit in his magic show on stage.

Me and Michael Halvarson

I also spotted the magician and pick-pocket expert Michael Halvarson who was in the restaurant with his family. I asked if it was OK to take photo with him and he kindly agreed. He worked as a pick-pocket with Circue du Soleil and has been on Swedish TV quite a bit.

One magical night in Nagoya

After having worked the whole Silver Week holiday, I asked my boss if it was OK to use some vacation days and go back to Sweden for two weeks. He first thought I said one week and was a bit skeptical but relented. After I understood that he though I would be back in five days (which is a bit short since the just the travel to and from my parents' place takes three days) I pointed out that I would actually be gone for two whole weeks. He then said that that was pretty much impossible, but I argued that since I had just lost four public holidays to work and then had my salary deducted too, I did not feel that motivated to work. And since I did not have anything in particular that needed to be done in October, it was also a good time to use up the vacation days, and I was finally allowed to go on vacation.

In Nagoya they had 肉まん風パン, "bread that is similar to steamed buns with meat". I like nikuman (the steamed buns) and tried this bread. It was pretty good, but not as good as the steamed buns.

They also had chocolate that said "blueberry ice cream flavor". Why not "blueberry flavor"? Does blueberry ice cream not taste like blueberries? The chocolate tasted mainly like "chocolate", though.

I bought some surprisingly cheap tickets to Sweden (only 60% of what I paid the last time). I had a very early flight from Nagoya to Europe, so I had to fly from Sapporo to Nagoya the night before. I found a magic bar in Nagoya (there are many) and spent an hour and a half there. It was fun.

On the way to magic bar "Move"

The magician in magic bar Move

Amazing things from Canada

While I was in Germany working, the owner of our magic bar was in Canada with his mother. When I met him after we both came back to Sapporo, he had several amazing things that he had bought in Canada. One was a stuffed tiger toy that turns into an elephant! Now I want to make something similar myself.

He also had some maple fudge that he gave me. That was pretty good too.

A Japanese wedding again

I was invited to another summer wedding, this time one of my magician friends. I also knew the bride from her coming to our magic bar quite often before they started dating.

The wedding was held up in the mountains on the outskirts of the city, so there was a free bus service provided. While waiting around for the bus, I ran into some other people that looked suspiciously like they were also going to the same wedding. They thought my t-shirt was weird for going to a wedding. It says 「ある意味神」 which translates roughly as "In some sense, a God". Since I planned to button my shirt and put on a jacket when we arrived at the wedding, I figured any t-shirt would be fine, but they still took photos of me and put them on Facebook.

At the wedding I met lots of people I had not seen in a long time, which was fun. There was lots of really good food too.

A friend who just barely fit into the suit he wore at his own wedding one year ago was teased by the master of ceremonies throughout the whole party for having "very tight pants".

Parts of the party were outside, so people sprayed themselves with bug spray in huge amounts.

When it was time for the main dinner, I went looking for my assigned seat. I first looked around where everyone else from our magic bar was sitting, but my name was not there. Not at the table for staff from the bar nor from customers of the bar. Since I know the bride too, I checked at the table for friends of the bride and the table for friends of the groom too, but no luck. Finally I found my name on the table for "Family of the groom"... So I ended up sitting with the father, mother, uncle, and brother of the groom. I had met the mother once in an elevator, but the rest of them were new to me. They looked at me with some suspicion (them being fairly sure I am not one of their relatives), but I pointed to the card on the table with my name. My friends keep springing weird surprises on me at their weddings...

My seating arrangements were a bit surprising

The people I sat with

The cake was decorated by the guests

The bride

The groom

People I know

Groom and me

At Japanese weddings, some people send video messages if they cannot attend. This time there was a message from a guy who came to our magic bar quite a lot when he lived in Sapporo. He had also managed to get the famous (on TV in Japan) magician Akira Fujii to participate in the message, which was pretty surprising.

Cake cutting and giving your significant other a piece of cake is always important at Japanese weddings. This time they also got to "feed" one friend of their choice.

Cutting the cake

The "first bite"

The "really big bite"

Feeding a guest of your choice

"Feeding" one more guest

There was a large selection of meats grilled before your eyes

These tomatoes were excellent

Cheese was melted on the spot for you

One of our regulars from the magic bar recently ate a lot of tomatoes on a trip to Hong Kong, so people kept bringing him tomatoes at the wedding too.

After the first big dinner was over, everyone relocated to our magic bar and there were a few more hours of partying. I ended up mainly working; making drinks, washing the dishes, doing magic, etc. It was still pretty nice, since the old team that I used to work with were all there and we worked together again/

No rest for the wicked