Arriving in Sweden: cold, bread, plants, dogs

I arrived in Sweden in early October. It was already cold enough for there to be frost on the ground. In Japan, you could still walk around in just a t-shirt.

My parents seemed fairly happy to see me, but they recently bought a dog. He was even happier to see me. My brother also stopped by, and had his dog with him. I became friends with his dog the last time I was in Sweden, since people figured that I probably had nothing better to do than babysit the dog while everyone else had to work or hang out with their friends or whatnot. He was also very happy to see me. I was told that my parents' new dog was actually related to my brother's dog. A younger half sister of my brother's dog is the mother of my parents' dog.

I always end up eating way too much when I am in Sweden. One thing I like is the bread. The first thing that happened after reaching my parents' place was that they served me lots of bread.

My parents grow all kinds of things nowadays. They have an apple tree, a plum tree, a cherry tree, and much more. They had endless boxes of apples, and they were making plum wine in what used to be my hobby room. They also grow strong peppers, and had some peppers out to dry.

I found some Japanese mangas, one in Japanese and one in Swedish, from the very funny series "Yotsuba to".

Raëlism in comics form

I found a flyer from the Raëlians in my post box. It is a Raëlism manga in Japanese. They explain how humans were made by aliens and so on using comics.

Someone really likes Hatsune Miku

I saw (what looked like) a private car which was fully decorated with Hatsune Miku.

Manga Cafe in Paris

I found a manga cafe in Paris. Manga cafes are very common in Japan, but I have not seen many outside of Japan.

Huge Gundam models and Gundam chocolate

During the Golden Week, there was a Gundam extravaganza in the Sapporo Factory shopping mall. They had huge Gundam models, and a special bazaar where they sold Gundam shirts, Gundam cookies, Gundam chocolate, Gundam plastic models, etc.

Gundam chocolate and cookies

Free Red Bull

Not whisky

After eating a hamburger in a place with no bondage clothing, I dropped by the bar where one of my friends work. He was quite busy, but we got to talk quite a bit since I had time to be there a very long time. He also told three other customers (all there by themselves) that I was a magician and they predictably asked me to show them something. The only man in the company said he would buy me whisky as thanks, but someone said I do not like whisky (which is true) so he bought me Red Bull instead.

When I started doing some magic, one girl said that she had in fact seen me before. She had been to our magic bar about a year ago. She also turned out to be into "cosplay" (dressing up as game/manga/anime characters for fun), and her next cosplay project is a character from Macross, she said. I told her that we have a magician who is a huge anime nerd (even by Japanese standards) and that one of his favorite animes is Macross. Had she spoken to him about that when she visited our magic bar? No, she had not talked about anime at all, she said. So I recommended visiting the magic bar where my anime nerd friend is now working.

Anime Taxis

Recently in Sapporo I have noticed an increasing number of taxis with anime like things all over them. This is one such taxi.

Phantom of the Opera and Ropossa

One pair of strange glasses

An even stranger pair of glasses, and another slightly strange customer

Yesterday I went to the magic "snack bar" Ropossa and had a lot of food. I also met a woman who stars in (or at least is connected to) the Phantom of the Opera that will open here in Sapporo in December. She gave me a bunch of Phantom of the Opera free stuff.

Ropo-mama in manga form!

Reportedly this is a manga for girls

I was also asked to wear strange glasses and do other strange things. I also lost at some German educational games for children, and read a manga where the Ropossa "mama" appears! This was pretty cool. I have never been featured in a professional manga (as far as I know, at least).

Some Phantom of the Opera stuff I got

Some of the food they gave me

Bondage, and anime

I was given a flyer for a (past) bondage event

I have been asked to do a magic show dressed up like a zombie at a big BDSM event in the end of November. The organizer and I met on Monday, and she took me to an BDSM bar to give me an idea of what other things will be happening at the event. On Mondays they do not have a show, but she will try to get me to a show somewhere too, so I can adapt my magic show to the general theme.

We spent an hour or so in a bar with people wearing interesting clothes. There was a snake crawling around on the bar counter, but they said it was shy and "never" bit people (it was also a non-poisonous snake, so getting bitten would "just" hurt, not be dangerous). Seemed like an interesting place, with lots of interesting people working there.

I still have no idea what kind of things would be appreciated at a BDSM event, though I do plan to hammer a nail into my nose. Any type of escaping after being tied up style magic would probably have a very high risk of failure, so I will not do that...

We also went to an anime-nerd-bar, where the staff were dressed in anime character costumes, and the whole place was filled with plastic figures. It turns out to be the very bar that I met people from at the plastic model competition I went to in August (the people who sold me the "eat me" cookies). The two girls working on Monday were not at the event, but they had heard stories about a "weird foreigner in a crazy t-shirt", which sounds like me...

Ah, the kind of things I do for work.