I went to meet Ciarán this evening. He was staying at the Annex Katsutaro Ryokan, where I stayed a few times before. We had some noodles and then headed for Akihabara to meet Niibe Yutaka, RMS, and other Free Software hackers.
On the train Ciarán held up his ticket and asked “What happens if you lose this?”, and the ticket vanished. There wasn’t a flash of light or a puff of smoke, but that was the last we ever saw of the ticket. When we arrived at Akihabara Ciarán searched his bag and all his pockets, but no ticket was found. We then discovered what does happen if you lose your ticket: you go to the guy at the ticket gate and tell him you don’t have a ticket. He asks where you came from then sells you a new ticket. Not a big surprise.
Then Ciarán tried to phone Niibe. Niibe’s phone number was on a card that Ciarán was carrying. Ciarán dialed the number, but nothing happened: the phone seemed to be broken. Then the card vanished, just like the ticket!
So, if you meet Ciarán, don’t ever give him anything important :)