Scams, Kyoto

My first reaction when I saw this young Japanese man demonstrating his "magic powers" with his "Johnny Jumper" clown cut out was that of amazement. He'd point his finger at the little clown and on command the clown would float up into the air, or stand upright. He's then turn his hand into an imaginary gun and point it at the shaking paper clown. With a loud "bang" he'd act as though he shot the "Johnny Jumper" clown and to everyones awe the clown would hunch over and fall to the ground. He'd then let people in the audience try their magic powers with the Johhny Jumper clown and they soon found out that they too could make the clown float in the air and stand up on command. I know the Japanese are pretty amazing at inventing gadgets but I just couldn't fall for this one. These people would be so impressed with this toy that they'd quicky buy a packaged version of the one that was being demonstrated. The cost was only 650 yen but that's a lot of money considering they's probably go home, gather their family around the floor, and look dumbfounded when their magical commands fail to even get a wiggle out of the paper clown. I decided to step back and look at the entire scene and I noticed another young man standing near by almost motionless as if he was watching this same magical demonstration of the "Johnny Jumper". I took a closer look at saw that with every movement from the paper clown this man's muscle would twitch. It became clear to me that this other guy was assisting the so called magician by controlling this paper clown via a remote control. The clowns they were selling were not going to work in the same way this magic clown was constructed to work. Now with that said I still have no idea how these guys came across a small device that could remotely control a paper clown. Pretty clever! They'd hang out near the underground entrance by Ponto Cho. The perfect spot to sucker drunk Japanese heading home after a night of drinking.