Half Moon again

Our last stop in Tokyo was the magic bar Half Moon. We had a great time there, of course. While we were sitting there talking and drinking before the show, two Japanese girls sitting next to us asked where we were from. One of them then said that she has a friend in Tokyo who is also from Sweden. I jokingly asked "What is his name? Maybe I know him." and she said his name is Kaj. I actually know one Swedish guy in Tokyo, and his name is Kaj! The guy I know works at the Swedish embassy, and this girl thought her friend also does something like that. But after some further questions back and forth, we came to the conclusion that it was probably two different Kajs.

The Korean magician who has recently joined Half Moon remembered me from one week before. That time I had a shirt that says "I am not Japanese" in Japanese. When I wear it, people think it is a joke (and I usually tell them that "No, it's not a joke. I really am not Japanese."), but for him it might be useful, since many people mistake him for Japanese, which sometimes can lead to problems. He said he had not had time to visit the t-shirt shop in Tokyo where I had bought my shirt.

He also said he liked my shirt of the day, which has the Facebook "Like" button in Japanese on it. I said I also had the same design on my underwear, with a slight change to the next to make it funnier in Japanese, after having had such underwear recommended to my by a Japanese friend who thinks the Facebook t-shirt is funny. He said that "as far as everyone else knows, you could just be making that up; unless we get to see those underwear we might not believe this story". I  said "fine" and started unbuttoning my belt, but he stopped me and said: "I regret saying that...", haha.

Right before the show started, a group of four other foreigners also came into the bar. Tokyo is full of foreigners, compared to Sapporo. Tokyo has very few foreigners by Swedish standards, though. One of these foreigners spoke both Japanese and English very well, and he translated furiously for the others during the whole show.

Half Moon

The sign in the lobby does not have the name of the bar, only a picture of a half moon.

There was another building one block away that also had a picture of a half moon on the sign outside.

During my trip to Tokyo I had one evening with nothing to do, so I again tried to book a seat at the fantastic magic bar Half Moon. This time I was told that they had had some cancellations, so they had seats available for the 23:00 show. I was happy to be back since it had been several years since I last visited.

This time, I talked quite a bit to a young guy who did not work there the last time I visited. He liked my shirt, which said "I am not Japanese" in Japanese, and said he might go buy one for himself. He spoke Japanese much better than I do, so I first thought he was Japanese but he told me he was Korean. He had come there to see the fantastic show that many people had told him about, and found it to be so great that he asked the magician of Half Moon to take him on as his apprentice.

While we passed time waiting for the show time, we talked a bit about army training. In Korea it is mandatory, and it used to be in Sweden too. So we both had army training and talked about all the strange things that happen to you then.

There were only two other guests for the late show that evening. The rest of the seats had been booked by a large group, but they had cancelled at the last minute. The show was great, of course. The Korean guy also did a quite impressive card trick before the regular magician Hide started his show. Half Moon has a magic show that has lots of impressive magic, but the most interesting part is the presentation style. It is very different from any other magician I have ever seen. I think Hide once said that he used to work with some other form of entertainment and moved into magic much later, so he comes from a very different direction than most magicians. This style is very unique and very good. The girls sitting next to me was so moved that she cried after the show.