Geo1

I did it again. Erin at the Cricket Club is probably tired of hearing from me. I sent the following email to her: Hi Erin, I had to send you this link to an interview of Kelly Moran, a Brooklyn-based composer and multi-instrumentalist, whose new "Origin" EP was inspired by Yuzuru Hanyu. She says that she is passionate about figure skating – outside of music it is the one activity she is most involved in as a fan and as a skater herself. She says, "Anyone who knows about figure skating knows that Yuzuru Hanyu is simply the greatest skater of all time, and following his career has been immensely inspiring for me – especially in his most recent, post-Olympic season." She has wonderful words about Yuzuru's athleticism and artistry and I thought that he should be made aware of the inspiration he is providing not only other skaters and athletes, but also ballerinas and musical artists. https://toneshift.net/2019/05/16/interview-with-kelly-moran/?fbclid=IwAR29f-CXLPaEGGUpV1z_BW9z9H_Z45nhCX4NoyJelEEb_L_abEMoCytE7mw I know that you are busy. There's no need to reply to my email. I would appreciate it, however, if you would pass this email along to Yuzu's team. Regards, George

He's got that mischievous smirk in the first picture.

Well, Nathan does have that awkward guilty look.

Thank you for the link to the original article and your information about the circumstances surrounding it. It puts everything into perspective.

In this dry season, I was randomly going through my 2 TB of Yuzuru Hanyu material when I came upon a translation of an interview published on May 10, 2012 where Yuzu talked about his sprained ankle at Worlds 2012, the earthquake in 2011 and how it changed him, and briefly on the change of coach from Nanami Abe to Brian Orser. I know that this properly belongs in the Translations thread and that it may have already been posted, but I thought that it might be of interest to newer fans or fans who were not aware of this interesting interview before. I will leave it for the administrators to transfer this to the appropriate thread later. The title of the Japanese article is "Journey of Giving Back Continues" and is written by Takaomi Matsubara. The translation is by a fan with the tag "yoko71". I do not have the link to the original article.

Yes and thank you!

How do I place large amounts of text in a hidden mode when posting?

On May 6, I sent an email to Erin d'Eon at The Cricket Club with the link to "Notte Stellata – A Ballet Tribute to Yuzuru Hanyu". I had communicated with her before. I said that I was providing her with the link to a video of a ballet group rehearsing to do a performance in June as a tribute to Yuzuru Hanyu. I said that Yuzuru may have already seen the video, but if he had not, I said that he should be made aware of the impact he has had on the world, even outside of figure skating. I said that his heartfelt performances had moved and inspired these young ballet dancers to pay tribute to him. I received an immediate response from Erin on the morning of May 7: "Hello George, Thank you for your email and your kind thoughts for our skater and coaches. I have passed this email along to Yuzu's team. All the best, Erin" In my reply to Erin thanking her, I referred to The Japan Times interview of Christina Valdes and article by Jack Gallagher and provided her with the link to the article and asked her to pass it on to Yuzu and his team. Christina, I hope I see you at the ACI this year! (I'm the grumpy looking Japanese-Canadian guy in a wheelchair.)

To continue with this OT, I have no idea about whether Stephen Gogolev has gone to Raf, but somehow it has the ring of truth to me. Nathan Chen's strong suit is jumping. Stephen's strong suit is also jumping. Michal Brezina was a guaranteed splat-fest whenever he jumped before he went to Rafael Arutunian. Since going to Raf, he rarely falls and has podiumed. Something he had not done for a long time. It makes sense to me if Stephen and/or his parents thought that going to Raf would make him an even stronger and more consistent jumper like Nathan. And Raf is Georgian-Armenian and has coached in Russia before, if this is of any importance to Stephen's parents.

Hi Vadrouille! I'm only kidding of course. It's probably a very expensive designer label article of clothing and intended to be a long cardigan, but it still looks like an old blue bathrobe to me. And I'm pretty sure that Yuzuru does not have much say in what he wears for these photo shoots. I think that the people in charge dress him up in whatever they think is fashionable and then let him be naturally photogenic.

Yuzu looks good in anything... Even if it's an old blue bathrobe over T-shirt and jeans. Now if you ladies would just imagine him in just the old blue bathrobe....

I have it on very good authority that the ACI tickets will go on sale sometime in June – exact date to be decided.

Our little Japanese Dorian Gray. His soul is so pure that even his picture doesn't age.

I noticed that too. They don't make a waist size small enough!

He won the OGM twice!

Lucky you! Maybe that ¥350,000 ticket is still available.

I know that the topic of looks and beauty has been flogged to death, but I had one other anecdote that I wanted to share with everyone. A number of years ago, a woman I know was in Japan working as an English teacher in a privately run school. She is a third-generation Japanese-Canadian born and raised in British Columbia. She was riding a bus in Kobe sitting across from two nerdy-looking white American guys and they were loudly talking about how easy it was to pick up good-looking Japanese girls and how much they seem to love white guys. They didn't realize that this lady understood English. After listening for a while, she stood up and said, "The only reason they go out with you is because they can't tell the difference between a good-looking white guy and an ugly one. I am Canadian and I can tell you that you are two of the ugliest white guys I've seen!" Then she turned to the rest of the people on the bus and explained in Japanese what the white guys were bragging about and what she said to them. Needless to say the two guys got off at the next stop with their tails between their legs Maybe it's the reverse of @Old Cat Lady's experience and "All Caucasians look the same." PS For those who don't know, I am one of the very few guys in this forum and I had to laugh and applaud the action of this woman.

And here I am with insomnia and it's 6 PM for me! I'll probably fall asleep....

All I know is that it's 6 PM Pacific Daylight Saving Time in Canada on April 19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Akp8cwNSg&feature=youtu.be This link should give you the proper time in your time zone.

Yuzu's fame and popularity is not due just to his physical attributes. If he was just a pretty face and a beautiful body but was an airhead with no personality, he would not be loved the way he is. I was watching the British Eurosport coverage of Yuzu's "Origin" at the Saitama Worlds and Simon Reed was saying (again) that he has been covering sports of all kinds for decades and he could not name any other athletes that has or had whatever Yuzu has other than Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Mohammed Ali. I think he was referring to popularity, charisma, fan following, the "it factor", whatever. In a piece and video entitled "The Legend of Yuzuru Hanyu", CNN's Coy Wire said that he had played nine seasons in the NFL and had covered sports as a journalist for many years but had never witnessed the passionate fan reaction that Yuzuru receives. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/02/19/cnni-japan-figure-skating-megastar-wire-pkg.cnn The reason for Yuzu's fame and popularity is due to his athletic ability, natural talent and, of course, his looks, but it is so much more than that. It is his personality and charisma. People are unable to describe what it is that they find charming about Yuzuru. People tend to ramble on and on when they speak of him. Basically, he is an incredibly good human being. He is sympathetic and empathetic. He is humble, modest, full of humility. He is honest and person of pure integrity. He has a natural charisma that cannot be faked. At the same time, he has a "hate to lose" personality. He never makes excuses and owns his failures and shortcomings and credits others for his successes. He welcomes challenges and has an incredible ability to overcome obstacles. In short, he has all the qualities that people admire, regardless of which culture you belong to. We all aspire to be like him. I'd better stop because I'm rambling....I know that I am preaching to the converted! (I'm sure other satellites can ramble on ad infinitum for me.) PS: Did I mention that he is exciting to watch? Others may occasionally get more points than he does, but they don't excite me and make me passionate the way Yuzu's skating does.

There was a video after the Sochi Olympics around March 12, 2014 in which they discussed Yuzu's popularity amongst his female fans and how he resembled a character out of the world of manga and anime. To check out this point, they visited an anime school and one of the instructors showed two anime characters and explained how their height could be divided into a certain number of equal segments which was considered ideal (the "golden proportion" referred to above). They then put an image of Yuzu from his Sochi PW between the anime characters and he had the same number of equal segments as they did confirming that he had the same ideal proportions as the anime characters. They also pointed out that all of the anime characters had unusually long necks and that this was considered attractive. It was pointed out that Yuzu also had the same unusually long neck as the anime characters confirming that he had all the attributes of a character from the manga and anime world! Unfortunately, I was unable to find the link to that video. I believe it still exists. Some other satellite may be able to find it.

@micaelis as someone who has spent a good deal of my life in hospitals, you have my sympathy and empathy! You have all of our prayers and good wishes for recovery from and/or amelioration of your various medical issues. It is a good thing that you don't have a laptop to take to the hospital with you. The last time I was in hospital in October and November last year, I used the hospital's unsecured Wi-Fi network and was hacked!

I agree with everything except Yuzuru has had the honour of meeting with the Emperor and the Imperial family on three occasions. In addition to the two garden parties, he and the Sochi Olympians were invited to a tea party on July 16, 2014. He had the opportunity on that occasion to show the Emperor his Olympic gold medal.

Your English is great! Please post more often!

"Dare we say that this is the best ASS shot of the most perfect skater in the history of figure skating?" would also work.