Tag Archives: Japan

Sightseeing!

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It’s been a long time since I have been able to go sightseeing. Last week December 11, 2011 I went to Kurashiki which is located in Okayama Prefecture. I went to visit the old town in the Bikan district. What a wonderful place! The place is filled with 19th century buildings. There are a lot of great shops and good food! Japan has such great food! What I enjoyed was the relaxing and peaceful  atmosphere of this place. I could really imagine 19th century Japan. I was there for only a few hours but I could have spent a lot more time there looking through the various shops and enjoying the good food. It was such a refreshing day trip for me. I can’t wait until I can go visit another great place soon!

Aaron

Stupid Magic Stories #2 What Language Is this Suppose To Be In?

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AHHHHHHHHHH!

AHHHHHHHHHH!

Today I would like to share another stupid magic story of mine. I have shared parts of this story in a post from over a year ago but today it gets it’s own post. My story has to do with forgetting what language I have to perform in. When I went to Japan in the summer of 2001 I performed my regular show except for one effect that I worked on just for Japan and of course in Japanese. I put the effect together and rehearsed before going to Japan in Japanese so I had only ever performed this effect in Japanese. In Japan the effect went over well and I still perform this effect to this day. Well, after I came home from my 2 month trip to Japan I had a stage show the next evening in my hometown in Victoria. This show was at a restaurant near my home and seemed like an easy event to do while still jet lagged. So I arrived at the venue set my stage show and then started the show. Everything was going well until I got to my final effect and this was the effect that I had performed only in Japanese. Now of course I was in Victoria BC Canada now and performing in English not Japanese. It was at this moment that I realized I had never performed this effect in English. All the timing, jokes etc. were written in Japanese for a Japanese audience. Lucky I was able to pull the effect off in English but man did I sweat. Luckily I had rehearsed the technical parts and performed it enough that this part was automatic and I just had to quickly stumble creating an English script as I performed it. As far as I know the audience didn’t notice anything but I was sure happy when I finished that effect. Lesson I learned from this is be careful if you are a bilingual performer and performing in  different countries and in different language while suffering from jet lag.

Aaron

The Hanami Weekend

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Sorry it has been a while since I have blogged. These days not sure what to blog as sometimes I feel as if what I have to say is not really important to other things happening here in Japan. However I realize moving on is important to I will start blogging for frequently again. This should be a good weekend for me. Tomorrow I will attend the Shikoku Magic Friends monthly meeting in Takamatsu, then on Sunday I will attend a Hannami party. Hanami means watching flowers and it is when people go out to enjoy the Sakura Japanese Cherry Blossoms in the spring. There may not be much left as last weekend seemed to be the peak. But the important thing is I will be able to spend some time with some good old friends. We can learn a lot from Sakura, as they teach us about life and they have helped Japan recover emotionally over the past week or so. Anyways, until next time take care.
Aaron

Shikoku Magic Friends Charity Show and Street Magic

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Yesterday the Shikoku Magic Friends Club held is 5th annual show. However this year we changed the event to raise money for the horrible quake and tsunami that hit Japan on Match 11, 2011. This year we performed only close-up and there was a great turnout. After the close-up show we headed to the Marugame Shopping Arcade in Takamatsu to continue to raise money. In cooperation with the Marugame Shopping District association we where able to put this event on. We don’t know how much money we raised yesterday bit we should know soon. It was a great event and I hope that with the money we raised us magicians can help out in the tragic event.

Aaron

Japan Quake March 11, 2011

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Japan Quake News Coverage

Japan Quake News Coverage

Well today Japan was hit with a 8.9 earthquake then tsunamis. The earthquake and tsunamis have continued. Those wondering  if I am ok here in Japan I am. I am in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku Island far from the quake epicenter. There was an tsunami warning here but the one that came was very small. If you want more detail on the earthquake google has set up a page here. I can’t even imagine what is going to happen to life here during and after this weekend. Japan has suffered big earthquakes like this before along with rebuilding after the war and has always bounced back. The infrastructure here is great but I think the affects of this earthquake will be felt for a long time. Anyway the main point of this post was to let you know that I am ok. If you want to you can follow me on twitter at @AaronJonesMagic.

Aaron

A Relaxing Drive

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I have been having a busy year, however last Saturday (Feb. 5, 2011) some friends and I went for a drive around some parts of Shikoku. It was a nice and relaxing drive just what I needed. First we went to Kinmi Shrine in the mountians of Tokushima Prefecture near the centre of Shikoku where Ehime, Kagawa, Tokushima, and Kochi Prefectures join together. The view of the snow on the mountains there was very relaxing and it is always great to visit old places like this old Shrine.
After visiting the shrine we drove along the Yoshino River. We stopped a rest area for resting as well as a site for people who raft or Kayak in the river. There we had soba (Japanese noodles) then Tokushima Ramen. It’s always great to enjoy good regional food.
After this we visited Sameura Dam. This is an interesting dam because where is holds water once was a village and the city hall building is still there under the water. The water from this area is the source of a lot of drinking water for Shikoku. They call this area the “life” of Shikoku. After this we stopped to get food and headed home.
It has been a while since I have been able to really enjoy a drive like this so I need to do more of this!
Aaron

More On Doing My Show In Japanese

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Japanese Flag

Japanese Flag

I have written about performing in Japanese and in other languages before in my blog, but today I wanted to write a little more on the subject and this is, it is not just enough for me just to translate or write my show in Japanese but I have to take care to incorporate cultural aspects of the culture into the show. This goes for pop culture, political culture, history, and much more. The reason that this is important is that here in Japan my audience is 99.99% Japanese people. In many of the causes many of the people in a show may or may not know each other depending on the venue. In those cases it is my job to be able to connect the people in one way, with a shared common experience. This I can achieve by making some joke, or commenting on some shared Japanese cultural experience they all have and that I have. I do this by making a comment at the beginning of my show or by making a joke in my introduction. This then right off the starts makes the audience connect psychologically by connecting them to this mentioned shared cultural experience. This really breaks the ice between the audience members so that they are now “primed” to react better to my performance. It also benefits my relationship to them. One it brings me into their shared experience as well. This is very important for me in Japan as a non-Japanese performer. They seem to one find it interesting I know and understand some cultural Japanese experience that they thought that I would not possible have had. This breaks the ice between me and the audience and creates the bond of the shared experience between us. They become more relaxed with me and they start to talking to me like I am Japanese rather than a foreigner, which can be a problem for foreigners living in Japan. This technique I use for my show I also do in my real life in Japan and it has the same effect. So remember if you are performing a show in a different language in a different country make sure you add this shared cultural experience into the show it will go a long way.

Aaron