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?

Yukata no. 12

I bought a new yukata again. This one has no embroidery and looks more like a yukata normal people would wear and less like a yakuza yukata. I liked the flower design, and though it might be nice to have one yukata that looks more normal too, for such times when my friends have time to meet me. They often say that they do not want to be seen together with me or walk on the same side of the street as me if I dress the way I normally dress.

Sapporo Urasando Festival 2015

Me, a friend who works at my university, and her friend who  does bodybuilding. 

Yesterday I went to the Urasando (a place in Sapporo) Festival. It was hot, and a lot of fun. I met several people that I know, and one of them asked me to do some magic for some people that she knows. Luckily, I had an enormous banner saying funny things in Japanese hidden inside my yukata.

Diabolo juggling 

Spinning a ball on top of an umbrella

Plate spinning relay with extremely young participants

There were several types of performances going on at the festival. I saw some jugglers, one of whom I know. I also saw a magician I know. This was the first time I saw him perform.

Floating on a broomstick, Harry Potter style

A very clever and surreal Japanese word play trick

The magic was pretty funny. I found many of the jokes interesting. There was one thing with pictures of cranes and tortoises involving dots on the pictures and the word "game" which was a very clever word play thing that I found great but since the main audience had an average age of around 6 years old, no one else seemed to get it, haha.

I got to see the "ride a broomstick" illusion live for the first time, which was funny. Everyone laughed at this trick. There were many other things going on too, like being tied up and escaping or having coins mysteriously end up inside cola cans.

Cold cucumber and miso, very nice.

Japanese festivals are mainly about food, so I had some food too. And the people I did magic for gave me some wine in return.

 I also did some shopping. I keep buying small toys thinking that "this could probably be used for some magic trick, I had better buy it just in case I later have some great idea".

Two toys from the "all items in the box are 10 yen each" super sale.

A clever wooden puzzle

Buying more weird clothes

I was bored during the weekend and did the Japanese thing to do when not having to work: I went shopping. I ended up buying a pair of shorts with dragon embroidery, that if a Japanese person where to wear them everyone would assume he was a member of the yakuza. Since I am blond, my friends tell me no one would assume I am a yakuza no matter how I dress. But then again, our last secretary at the university assumed I was a criminal based solely on the clothes I wear...

I also ended up buying two new obis.

I found a pair of shoes that looked like Hokusai ukiyoe prints.

I am thinking of giving this fan away as a present.

I also bought a jinbei (Japanese summer pajamas) that looks very much like the yukata I bought earlier this year.

Buying more clothes

I bought a new yukata this year. I like yukatas, and this year's model looked pretty nice too. I also bought a new pair of sandals that look nice with my white trousers, and an "under belt" for yukatas that had frogs and hares fighting.

I also spent some money on more Western clothes. I found a jacket that is super thin and lets the smallest breeze through, which will help in the summer, that also had lots of pockets. And it was not black. I also bought a t-shirt that says: "Now accepting applications for the position of girlfriend" in Japanese. I think people will laugh if you wear this (and that no one will apply if you wear a shirt like that).

Bored again, more shopping

Since today was a public holiday, I did not have to work. No one I know wanted to hang out, so after taking a few hundred photos of cherry trees, I got kind of bored. So I went shopping again. I bought a backpack that can also be unfolded to be carried in your hand easily and that looks kind of nice. I also bought a new wallet. I wanted a brown one, but they did not have any brown ones anymore.

Recently I have worn white trousers quite often. I often swear over this, because they get incredibly dirty within a few seconds from putting them on... So I ended up buying one more pair of white trousers. They were cheap and had a nice dragon design made by carving in the cloth.

Star Wars t-shirts at Uniqlo

On my "shopping because I am bored" round, I also found a bunch of Star Wars t-shirts at Uniqlo. Some of them were very nice, so I bought five.

This is Yoda. Playing UFO-catcher (crane games)!

R2D2 with graffiti. The graffiti is quite clever, actually.

The back of the Darth Maul shirt had the emperor.

The back of the Darth Vader was also pretty nice.

The shirt with the land speeder also had the intro text to the first Star Wars movie.

Land speeder on the front...

... Han Solo and Chewbacca on the back.

Japanese t-shirts at Uniqlo

In my spree of "shopping because I am bored and this is Japan where we shop to kill time", I bought five t-shirts at Uniqlo in their new series of Japanese themed shirts. Two of them show kabuki mask designs, and are pretty cool. One has geisha, which is always nice, one has bamboo, and one is purple (I like purple).

Becoming Japanese: shopping because you are bored

Yesterday I got bored and ended up buying clothes for 50,000 yen out of boredom. So I guess I am turning more and more Japanese! I bought a leather jacket that was on sale (from 80,000 yen to 30,000 yen) since they had had a shipping mistake and ended up getting the jackets when the jacket season was over.

When I bought the jacket at this very cheap price, they also gave me a set of champagne glasses for free. Why a store that only sells clothes also has a stockpile of champagne glasses remains a mystery. They look pretty nice, one is golden and says "King" and the other is silver and says "Queen". And they were free. My friends took this chance to tell me: "Too bad you do not have a queen to share drinks with, though". They are nice that way.

When I paid for my jacket, one of the guys working there said: "You are a magician, right? Famous, right?" I wonder where he learned that? Because I am not actually famous.

Magic shops in Las Vegas

In Las Vegas I saw a lot of magic shops. They all demoed more or less the same tricks. The levitating credit card seemed to be their number one go-to effect. They sold a lot of small joke props that are more or less the same things we have in Japan, and many of the world famous magic tricks. They also had some things that I have not seen in Japan, so I bought a bunch of things and ended up with more than I could fit in my (admittedly small) luggage.

Shopping mall of the gods

In Caesar's Palace there is a huge shopping mall and my friends wanted to go there. The interior is very nice. There are skies painted on the ceilings and huge Roman style statues and ruins throughout.

The Swedish chain H&M had a very nice looking store in the mall.

I passed a huge aquarium with various fish swimming around in it.

Woman riding a bomb

Curved escalators are rare (there is one in Yokohama that I have seen before).