Totally freaky.

Also, I am surprised at the amount of English idiom that has slipped into everyday Japanese these days...

My guess is there is a small, beveled, circle of glass in the table that was fitted very precisely, so the cuts aren't noticable except on very close examination.

To pass something through, just push it up from the bottom and pass the item through, then drop the beveled glass back in.

The first rule of "street magic" is that if some trick seems to require custom-built props or a assistants in the audience or creative framing or clever editing, that's how it's done. It's all about the viewer experience.

Here's the obligatory metafilter thread, btw:

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/46818

Great links. Magic has been very popular in Japan for over a year now. I still have yet to hit a "magic bar", been meaning to. The magician is not technically Japanese btw- English hasn't seeped into Japanese as much as was shown.