Geo1

Maybe John Wilson is expanding his business to electric shavers equipped with the sharp edged legendary JW blade. Business may be down since Yuzu stopped competing…

Same reason why Disney doesn’t sponsor Yuzu for all the exposure Winnie the Pooh gets. Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free? Disney and UA are getting the benefits of Hanyuconomy without having to pay for it.

Exactly! Yuzu is afraid of heights. 3:11? Be careful, the new video may hit you like a tsunami. Yes, Yuzu had decided on Seimei as his PyeongChang Olympics free skate from the very beginning, according to him.

You know how we often refer to Yuzu as a “unicorn”? He’s actually an “alicorn”, not a run-of-the-mill unicorn. An ALICORN is a unicorn with wings. A winged unicorn – an alicorn. This is a fact I learned from my niece’s four-year-old daughter recently! She is crazy about unicorns and alicorns. One of the gifts we bought for her birthday was a white alicorn plushy with rainbow coloured mane and tail. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_unicorn

When is the men’s SP?

Yeah, but before it was just Old Man Pooh Bear under one arm. Today he looks like an impromptu Santa’s helper at Toys “R” Us with two armfuls of stuffed toys.

Rika has not healed yet and still managing the injury so she was limited today, but seemed to be happy to be back in competition.

I don’t think that they had high expectations because of her ankle injury. Kudos for trying.

Brian Orser is coaching Rika Kihira.

Ghislain is at Skate Canada assisting Stephane Lambiel and Mie Hamada.

Hi Henni, I am so happy to hear about your good news! It seems like you had the best outcome possible. You may have over-burdened your eyes with all your close work with Wikipedia. Please take it easy and give your eyes a chance to rest and recover. Wishing you all the best, Geo BTW, you sound great!

Ghislain had very sad news today. His beloved mother passed away. Last week, while in Switzerland, Ghislain placed his mother, in Canada, in palliative care so that she was comfortable. Ghislain will still be going to Skate Canada International. Please join me in sending to Ghislain our deepest condolences for his loss.

I think that rockstaryuzu was at Skate America and commenting on the influx of spectators for the women’s SP and posting it in the wrong thread.

Is that the October 24, 2019 Skate Canada International Otonal practice? If so, this is the full video. We were amongst the lucky ones.

But…

I think that all Japanese and Japanese-speaking Fanyus are aware of this. I don’t know about the rest of the world. There is a scene in a news broadcast during the 2018 PyeongChang Sendai victory parade when a Japanese lady Fanyu starts to tear up. When she was asked why, she said that she had just heard that Yuzu had donated all of his Olympic winnings to Miyagi and Sendai. If you ever watch the 2014 Sochi and 2018 PyeongChang Sendai victory parade videos showing Yuzu from the beginning on stage, you will see him handing envelopes to the governor of Miyagi and the mayor of Sendai.

People can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that Yuzu is the only one who has ever donated all of his Olympic winnings. I have not heard of anyone else donating any amount of their Olympic winnings. A couple of things to note: Firstly, Yuzu and his family are financially well-off now, but they were not when he won his first Olympic gold medal at Sochi in 2014. I am sure that they could have really used the ¥6 million for family expenses, not to mention expenses that had been incurred on behalf of Yuzu for his skating. In other words, I am saying that it is not a case of a rich man and his family giving money away that they don’t need for a tax benefit. I am sure that the Hanyu family could have used this money, but they chose to give it away. Secondly, although the Japanese yen is significantly reduced in value right now, when Yuzu donated his winnings in 2014 and 2018, ¥6 million and ¥10 million were probably very close to $60,000 US and $100,000 US, respectively. I understand that Yuzu and his family were living very modestly in what might be characterized as a low-cost housing apartment project when he won his first Olympic medal and for quite some time afterwards. It speaks volumes about his father and mother that they remain quietly in the background, taking none of the credit for the accomplishments of their remarkable son, while imparting to him all that is truly important in life.

I really hope that Yuzu’s tree will one day blossom as beautifully as the Japanese cherry trees around our home.

Most people think that Yuzu's philanthropic nature started after the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami, but his desire to give back to his community predated the great disaster. In the Miyatele Stadium interview for a Sendai TV station in 2010 after winning his junior world championship, 15-year-old Yuzu was asked at around the 11 minute mark of the video about his thoughts regarding the Olympics. Yuzu said that there was a time when Ice Rink Sendai was closed due to financial problems and it was only due to Shizuka Arakawa's efforts after winning the Olympic gold medal in 2006 that the rink recovered and they finally got an environment to skate. Yuzu went on to say, "I want to compete at the Olympics and get the gold medal and improve and help this rink." Of course, the 3/11 earthquake and tsunami provided even more focus for his philanthropy. Even before winning his first Olympic medal, he published his first autobiography "Aoi Honoo" in April 2012 and donated his royalties to Ice Rink Sendai. When he won his first Olympic gold medal at Sochi, he donated all of his winnings – ¥6 million – equally to Miyagi Prefecture and Sendai City. In 2018, when he won his second Olympic gold medal at PyeongChang, he again donated all of his winnings – ¥10 million – equally to Miyagi and Sendai.

I’ve never seen this picture before. I just happened upon it today. I wonder when and where it was taken.

This is a tale of two unicorns from Tohoku and how differently their respective sports have treated them. I am, of course, speaking of Yuzuru Hanyu and Shohei Ohtani. I do not have to say much about the way Yuzu has been treated by his sport. Everyone here knows about that. He has been blatantly underscored while his opponents have been ridiculously over scored to the point that it amounted to a virtual slap across his face. Instead of wholeheartedly embracing him as the greatest skater of all time, the ISU and JSF have forced him to do the only thing he could in order to retain his dignity and sanity and that is to withdraw from these unwinnable competitions and re-create himself as a professional athlete. He has not withdrawn from competition. He is competing on a different level and on his own terms. I agree with you that writers and commentators are always misstating or leaving out facts regarding Yuzu to either downplay him or so as not to step on someone else’s toes. During the 2019 Skate Canada International competition, I noticed that Rod Black, the colour commentator, repeatedly said words to the effect of “he’s one of the best” and “he could be the G.O.A.T.” And at one point, he said to Tracy Wilson, something to the effect of “Nathan Chen is great too.” And of course, no one ever says anything about how Yuzu’s accomplishments compare with those of Dick Button, except to say that Yuzu is the first to win back-to-back Olympic medals since Dick Button. Figure skating as a sport seems so petty with the ISU and each of the feds promoting their favourite pets while jealously guarding their little fiefdoms. It’s pathetic really. On the other hand, let’s see how Major League Baseball has treated Shohei Ohtani. For those of you who are not familiar with Shohei Ohtani and baseball, there have been only two true two-way baseball players in the entire history of baseball. The first was Babe Ruth over 100 years ago. He has been considered the iconic G.O.A.T. of baseball. He is to baseball what Dick Button is to figure skating, except several million times bigger. A two-way player in baseball is someone who is an ace pitcher and an elite hitter. For those of you who are more familiar with soccer, it is like one player being the league’s best striker and at the same time the best goalie. Except, in baseball, Shohei Ohtani will play both positions in the same game. In one half of the inning, he will be pitching and in the other half of the inning, he will be hitting. In 2021, Shohei Ohtani was unanimously voted Most Valuable Player of the American League. He was also awarded the Baseball Commissioner’s special award for historical accomplishment in addition to a ton of other trophies. This year, the competition for the American League’s Most Valuable Player is between the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs this year surpassing former Yankee Roger Maris’ AL record of 61. This kind of reminds me of multiple jumps versus all-around skater in figure skating. The difference between the way in which Yuzu and Shohei had been treated is that Shohei has always been treated with the utmost respect. Even those supporting Aaron Judge for MVP will readily agree that Shohei Ohtani is the best player in baseball and probably best all time. They just argue that Aaron Judge is more “valuable” as a player this year. Shohei Ohtani wanted to play in the American Major League as soon as possible. If he had waited until he was 25, he could have negotiated a multiyear $200 million contract. Just prior to the 2021 season, he negotiated a two-year contract for $8.5 million. He received $3 million for 2021, the year that he was unanimously picked the MVP. This season he was paid $5.5 million. He has one more year to go before free agency. To avoid arbitration, he and the Los Angeles Angels agreed to a one-year contract next season for the sum of $30 million. Since he would command such a salary as either a hitter or a pitcher, people are saying that he is worth twice that amount. Shohei Ohtani is being treated as the face of Major League Baseball. He is regularly called the unicorn. He is making baseball fun and popular again. His nickname is “Showtime”. People come from around the world to watch him. He is must watch TV. Other ballplayers stop to watch him play. Experts, commentators and other ballplayers have no hesitation in calling him the greatest of all time or words to that effect. Everyone acknowledges that he has surpassed Babe Ruth’s accomplishments. “Better than Babe” is a saying that you hear often when watching Shohei Ohtani. One commentator has gone as far as to say that we should stop using the phrase, “Ruthian” as a superlative in baseball. Someone has surpassed that. Major League Baseball recognizes and knows how to treat its number one star. Too bad figure skating didn’t.

I also really like “Change” and the Canadian connection with the Plant Brothers from Ottawa being founding members and the lead singers and guitarists of Monkey Majik. You and your daughter may enjoy the official music video of “Change” with Monkey Majik collaborating with the Yoshida Brothers on shamisen. This is Monkey Majik performing live at the Budokan in Tokyo.

Hanyuconomy at work in Hachinohe. https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/general-news/20221008-63199/ This post has been tagged by yuzuangel as [NEWS].

The Biellmann spin, named after world champion Denise Biellmann, is a difficult variation of the layback spin and requires incredible flexibility that is beyond the capability of most males.

And here is 19-year-old Yuzu fresh from winning his first Olympic gold medal and performing (and falling) to “Change” to the live sounds of “Monkey Majik” during his ice show “Together on Ice”. I love the sound of the shamisen. I also like 16-year-old Yuzu’s performance of “Change” during the 2011 Nagoya Festival. Does anyone have a link to that performance? (I have one downloaded on my hard drive, but I do not know how to get it onto the planet.)