The long-running variety show "Shinkonsan Irasshai!" (ABC TV/TV Asahi, Sunday 12:55 PM), hosted by Takashi Fujii and Sakura Inoue, will feature a magician and his beloved wife who chose to be with their wife over a life of earning 1.2 million yen a night.
Her husband started performing magic at the age of eight and became a professional in junior high school. He traveled abroad from a young age and won third place in a junior competition where magicians served as judges. He currently works as a corporate sales representative and also performs as a magician on request. His wife is a kindergarten teacher.
They met at a bar in Kobe, where the manager was a magician. The wife was taken there by a friend, and the husband was also a frequent customer. Later, when they both came alone, the manager introduced the husband as a magician. At the time, the husband had long hair with blonde tips, and the wife's first impression of him was that he looked "cool."
At the bar, the husband performed a number of magic tricks for his wife, winning her heart. Gradually, the husband became attracted to his wife's cheerful personality.
One day, the husband received an offer for a two-year contract job in Las Vegas. He had already rented a house and saved up 5 million yen, so he went to a bar to report the deal. His wife, who happened to be there, felt that he "wished he didn't go," and realized she was in love. On the way home, she dropped him off, suggesting, "I'm lonely, so let's give each other a final hug." The husband seemed to be "under the spell of love," and told her, "I'm going overseas, but I want you to go out with me."
They lived together for just one month before moving to the United States. The husband says that his wife's stomach won him over, and he fell even more in love with her. He showed us a photo of an eggplant, saying he had taken a picture of one of her favorite dishes. He squeezed it and held it up to his wife's hand, and a small eggplant appeared, disappearing from the photo, in an amazing magic trick. When asked what his favorite dish was, the husband answered, "Simmered eggplant."
Although the husband didn't want to be separated from his wife any longer, his wife encouraged them to go to the United States, saying, "This is a great opportunity." They began spending every night on the phone until one of them fell asleep. In Las Vegas, he had a smooth life as a magician, even earning 1.2 million yen in one night. However, about four months later, something bad happened around him, and his wife fell into a deep depression, unable to recover. In an attempt to encourage her, the husband returned to Japan for the time being. A certain incident had made her decide to stay in Japan, and he said the answer lay in this, and he took out another eggplant from the flattened paper bag.
In the end, the braised eggplant was the deciding factor, and the husband chose love over money and fame. Although their married life was blissful, the wife regrets that he never proposed marriage. However, the husband, thinking it was a rare opportunity, secretly prepared a ring for his wife. After proposing, when she opened the case again, the ring was gone. "It hasn't disappeared, it's just moved," the husband said, revealing a hidden truth...? The wife was deeply moved by the surprise magic trick of the century.
