Chance meetings when working at a hospital

I was asked to do a magic show at a hospital. They have events where they have various sorts of entertainments for their patients and for the people living nearby. They had rolled out patients on stretchers down to the lobby area (and patients that could walk or who were in wheelchairs were also there), and the place was open to the public.

My resting space was huge

It had snacks

I got a huge room to set up my magic stuff and to change clothes if necessary. They had asked me to perform in a yukata, so I showed up already dressed like that and only had to unpack my magic props to get ready.

Lobby where the performances were held

Apart from me, there was also some food stands outside where they sold barbecue chicken and shaved ice. There were also fresh vegetables from nearby farmers (if I understood correctly). There was also a group of female musicians called "Amuse" that had a "mini concert" after my magic show.

The musicians shared the backstage room with me. When they showed up the asked me if I remembered them, which I actually did when I saw them. They also performed at a Valentine's event where I did a magic show. Strange coincidence. They had performed at this hospital several times before, but for me it was the first time. I had been recommended by a magician friend who lives near the hospital (and whose ex-girlfriend works there and gave me a ride to the subway afterwards).

After the shows were over, we took some photos together. I also had an old man walk up to me and ask me if I like corn. He gave me some very fresh corn that turned out to be great.

I found mentions of this show on a few Japanese blogs. One is the blog of the hospital, one is on the news page of the hospital, one is from someone visiting the event.

My friend on stage at Cream Soda Night 2015

My rock-n-roll friend was playing with his band again at this years Cream Soda Night, so again I went to see him. Last year he ended up going up on stage at around 2 a.m. on a weekday, which meant not many of his friends with normal jobs were there to see him. This year, his band was on stage at 19:00, which is also problematic for people with normal jobs in Japan (you can rarely leave work that early). The performance was quite nice, though.

The event was held in two different live houses, so you got a stamp on your hand to show that you were allowed back in when you ran back and forth between them.

Apart from my friend's band, I saw about 10 other bands too. They were all good. I also ran into a girl who knew me from having seen me perform magic somewhere. I also met a guy I know from the bar Ropossa, and some friends I have in common with my friend who was on stage. I was most surprised by having a fairly old Japanese man come up to me and ask: "Where you dressed as a zombie in the park four years ago?" I said I was, and he said that he had also participated in the Sapporo Zombie Walk in 2011 (the only year we had a zombie walk) and he remembered me from there. I was impressed that he even recognized me without zombie makeup.

My friend and his band

My friend plays the guitar and sings pretty well, but he is not so good at English. He had placed papers with the English lyrics all over the floor, but still managed to lose his way in the lyrics at a few times, haha.

I liked this band

This band had a female lead guitar player who was good

My friend with his eyes closed (and some girls he knows)

My friend with his eyes open

This saxophone player is famous, I was told.

My friend and one of his friends with similarly colorful hair

This band, the Apollos, was probably the best band I saw.

This guy and I were zombies together in 2011, apparently.

This band managed to get people to stage dive.

This band played rock on violin, accordion, and bagpipe!

I remembered this band from last year, and they were good this year too.

My friend with his rock-n-roll leather jacket.

And with his rock-n-roll sunglasses.

When I left (since I had to get up early the next morning for work), people were fighting outside. Probably play-fighting.

Judas Priest in Sapporo

The heavy metal band Judas Priest came to Sapporo and did a concert just across the parking lot in front of my house. I went there with a friend, and ran into some other people I know once we were inside too.

The place they played in, Zepp Sapporo, is not that big, but it was pretty full. 2000 or 2500 people, maybe? We had bought tickets a few weeks in advance. At first we did not understand what the system for where to line up was, and people kept telling us to go to different places. It turned out that you were supposed to line up exactly in the ticket number order, so when asking the guy holding a sign saying "1600 and above" if we were in the right line, he said no (because we had 1452) and the guy with the sign "1300 and above" also said no, etc. Finally we got it that you were supposed to ask the other people standing in line for their numbers and sort yourself into the correct spot.

The concert was nice. They explained that they have been playing metal for 41 years, so they were a bit tired from time to time. They did play well, and the selection of songs was good too. They played some new songs from their latest album, but mostly they played old classics. More or less one famous song from each album. No matter what period of Judas Priest you like, you were thus likely to hear a few songs from your favorite albums.

One guy had been headbanging so hard that he was drenched in sweat, so he changed into a fresh set of clothes near the exit after the concert.

Judas Priest will play in my back yard!

Several of my friends independently noticed that Judas Priest is coming to Sapporo. They will in fact hold a concert on the other side of the parking lot in front of the house I live in! I bought a ticket and will go see them on Friday the 13th.

Piano concert

Playing songs from the movie "Frozen"

I have a friend who works as a piano teacher. She told me that she would be playing at a piano concert where lots of piano teachers from the same company were to perform. Since I missed her last concert, I got up ridiculously early (a few hours after our magic bar closed) and went to the other side of town and then got to listen to lots of great music.

People were playing piano by themselves (like my friend), playing two people on one piano, two people on on piano each, or two people on using a piano and one using an electronic organ. They were all wearing impressive dresses too.

My friend turned out to be on stage in the middle of the third (last) section of performances, almost three hours after the whole thing started. By then I was a bit tired, but not tired enough to fall asleep.

After everything finished, I had time to say hello to my friend, but not much more.