Weird things in your suitcase

When going back from Sweden I had quite a few strange things in my suitcase. I bought some licorice root extracts (because who doesn't want to make food that tastes of licorice?) and some salmiak salt (chemical stuff that tastes like licorice), since that is not available in Japan. I also keep buying fun props that may or may not be useful for magic tricks. This time I found a shop that sold huge CocaCola bottles for 10 dollars. So I bought two. This meant I could not fit anything else into my suitcase, so I had to fill the bottles with all my clothes and other luggage...

I flew from Stockholm to Helsinki, and then from Helsinki to Nagoya. And from Nagoya I was going to fly to Sapporo. Upon arriving in Nagoya I had a small delay. I was politely dragged into a small room far away, where they frisked me, took out everything from my pockets, and unpacked everything from my bags.

We talked for 30 minutes or so about how wonderful it must be to work at Sapporo's most prestigious university, and whether or not my bags contained drugs (they do not). They kept showing me photos of different types of drugs and asking if I was sure I did not have any of these in my bags. They also explained that "even marijuana" is considered an illegal drug in Japan, so even having that would qualify. I told them that I did not have any drugs and they kept asking and unpacking my bags.

Since I had a kilo or two of magic props, once they reached those parts of the bags, there were many many suspicious looking items. There were many: "And what in the world is this?!" After a while they asked if I do magic. But by the time all the weird props started appearing out of the bags, they seemed pretty relaxed and they thought it was funny that I did magic.

But apparently I look like a drug smuggler. And they also thought it was suspicious to have "only two" heavy bags when visiting Europe. I had plenty of time between my flights, and the flight to Nagoya arrived early so I still made my connecting flight to Sapporo. Once they let me go from the customs, I hurried to the domestic terminal where I again received special treatment at the security check and had to be frisked, and remove lots more things than most people. So I guess I also look like a terrorist, haha. But the customs people told me that it was one of the drug sniffing dogs that had indicated that it thought my carry on bag contained drugs (which of course it did not). They also said that sometimes the dogs indicate for other reasons than drugs, but since they are dogs you cannot really ask them about why they do what they do.

Funny props

These coasters that also become face masks when you hang them on your nose are also available in Japan.

During my stay in Sweden, I saw some funny props that I bought in the vague hope that I can use them in some magic trick in the future. I saw even more items that I did not even buy. But many of them seemed like nice products if you had a larger baggage allowance on the flight.

These were some magic props on sale, and the famous "hard to open plastic box". There was also a LEGO set with a female magician.

Okinawa omiyage

A friend of mine went to Okinawa with his wife and brought back a wallet that looks like a Japanese bill as a souvenir for me.

Korean omiyage

Our French exchange student went to Korea and brought back a cell phone stand as a present. It can be used in several different ways and is pretty cool.

Broken sunglasses

I broke two pairs of sunglasses while practicing a new magic trick. Luckily they were only 100 yen (1 dollar) each.

Special Star Wars exhibit and chance meetings

In September there was a special Star Wars related art exhibit in our Art Forest. All staff at our university got 70% off on the entrance fee for some unknown reason (and all students got in for free), so I went to see the exhibit. It was very nice.

There were some costumes and props used in the old star wars movies, but most of the things on display were items inspired by Star Wars. There were lots of paintings by various artists inspired by Star Wars. There were also model dioramas. And technical descriptions and detailed drawings of Star Wars machines. There were some videos of George Lucas talking about his relationship with Japan too.

You could not take photos inside, but there was a storm trooper you could pose in front of and a light saber you could borrow. There was also a big Darth Vader outside where you could take photos.

Since I was there alone I had to ask random strangers to take photos for me, or take selfies. But when I was about to leave and go home, a young girl said: "Jonas?" She is a friend of the wife of one of my friends and we have met many times in our magic bar. I also keep running in to her in random places, especially on Halloweens. In fact, I run into her so often that she probably thinks I am a stalker. I sure think she is a stalker... But she seemed happy to see me, because she said she has zero sense of direction and was not sure she could find her way back to Sapporo alone...

Selfie with Darth Vader

There were some people visiting the exhibit in Star Wars costumes. Some of them were really good.

There was also a shop were you could by lots of different Star Wars stuff. I bought huge amounts and ended up with a very large bag difficult to get into the bus on the ride home.

Star Wars hangers

Star Wars kokeshi dolls

Star Wars sushi plates

C3PO tea cup

Some of the stuff I bought

Darth Vader coins and storm trooper coins

Darth Vader sandwich maker

Storm trooper sandwich maker

Someone I know

Waiting for the bus home

I also found a vending machine selling small wooden puzzles, and bought lots of that too

The Art Park has a surprisingly beautiful bus stop.

Signing up for the costume competition and going shopping

The day before the Bon-Odori costume competition, I went to the city office to register. You have to enter some data, like the number of team members, the average age, where you are from, etc. And of course you have to give a team name. My team was called "Team Jonas" last year, so I entered my team under the same name again. My friends tell me that it sounds like a sad and lonely team if you call yourself "Team Jonas" but keep showing up with only one team member every year.

I also passed by a store selling Moomin playing cards, so I bought a deck. They were pretty, but hard to use.

Tiny playing cards and free ice cream

A friend of mine had mentioned that there was a shop very close to my home that sells really tiny decks of cards. I finally managed to go there when they were open. I bought six decks of cards, which probably made me the highest paying customer in months, since all the stuff they sell (except the cards) go for like 10 yen or so, and I ended up shopping for 6500 yen.

So the owner gave me an ice cream for free. Yeay!

When I entered the shop, there was an old grandmother and a six year old boy there shopping already. The owner looked at me and then asked me: "Are you together?" pointing at them. Perhaps he though I was a relative, haha?

More plungers

Yesterday another shipment of small plungers arrived, from another Amazon shop. This time, they were all red. And the softness of the rubber seems to be just right, so I guess I am set for a few years with the current rate people keep breaking my plungers at.

Buying large amounts of small plungers

I do a few magic tricks with a cell phone plunger. You can do it with other cell phone stands, other suctions cups, or with a piece of tape too, but the plunger is cute and it looks funny if you stick it to your forehead. People keep breaking my plungers, though. I have so far had three or four of them broken. I bought lots of plungers from Amazon to replace the ones that broke, but some of the ones I got where to hard, so if you stick them to playing cards (which is what I most often do), they end up ruining (crumpling) the card.

I tried another maker (also on Amazon) this time. They would not let you pick the color yourself. I prefer a red one, because it looks more like normal plunger turned small (who owns a purple plunger, for instance?) which is nice, but any color works, of course. This time I ordered 9 plungers, and they managed to give me 9 different colors. One plunger is slightly bent out of shape (the wooden shaft is attached at an angle), and that turned out to be the red one.

Doing strange things to sushi

I buy a lot of strange toys in the vain hope that I can come up with some funny magic trick to use them for. Recently I found a series of figures with a girl sleeping under sushi or bathing in sushi. These figures look nice and funny, so now I just have to come up with something to do with them. My whole apartment is full of this kind of stuff, and so far I have come up with good ideas for maybe three out the hundreds of things I have collected...

Shopping for small funny things

The "too much liberty" statues

I bought a bunch of small things that I thought may be useful as magic trick props.

Masochist French maid chopstick stands etc.

A tiny flipper game, a tine chair, a tiny kendama, and a pair of rubber panties for iPhones

Shopping, small props that may be useful

A very small show, and a screaming chicken. Making things small is a funny magic theme, but I have no shoes that look like this one.

 I often go to the 100-yen stores or places like Don Quixote or Village Vanguard that sell "weird" things. Then I buy lots of small weird things that make me go: "This might be useful for some magic trick". I end up using way less than 10% of the stuff I buy but from time to time I have some genius idea of what to do with things I bought years ago.

A trash can (actually an ash tray) and a bucket. Could be used for some coin magic, perhaps?

Two cases, one for pens and one for coins.

This is an optical illusion. You spin the disk and watch the spinning disk for 20 seconds. Then you look at the bunny, which will look like it is shrinking (or growing, depending on the direction you spin the disk). Could be used as a lead in to tricks where thing become smaller.