KatjaThera

And I think I've been to too many concerts... I feel like learning that song today so tomorrow we could all gather in front of the venue and sing it for Yuzu >_< (as if I'd ever take such an initiative... I can't even sing ^_^; )

I wanted to write a reply to your post ever since I read it, so here it is. I agree with you on so many things. I doubt what we fans want matters for Yuzu. He's an athlete, not an idol. Of course, he wants to make us happy, but he'd have to be an idiot to force new quads because his fans want it. He does it because he wants it, even when his coaches are against it. It's just who he is, and part of why we all love him, I think. And although I wrote about Brian and how things might - or might not - have been different if he'd been there, I still don't think assigning blame is useful. Identifying problems is, because it helps one fix them, but blaming is counterproductive, IMO. (That's something I maintain at work, too. When there's a mistake and the boss asks whose fault it was, I usually say: it was all of us or multiple people. It doesn't matter, what matters is learning from it. Blaming only gets people discouraged and frightful and unwilling to take chances.) I also agree that I think most of us don't care about jumps, medals, not even the OGM as much as we care about him being happy and healthy and doing what he loves. But he loves winning and he wants those medals, so we want them for him. We support him both when he wins and when he doesn't. Because that's what being a fan is really about. Anyone can be a fan when it's all sunshine and flowers. But a true fan will support their favorite(s) through the hard times, too. (Not saying there are any here who don't.) Even when they make decisions we don't necessarily agree with. This is probably the thing I want him to know the most. That our support should never become pressure, because he could never disappoint us. Not really, not in a way that matters. So all he needs to do is focus on himself and use our support to fuel him on. (I guess I'll try to put that in a letter today...) I don't really mind the comments about the FS world needing him, though. Not everyone likes him, and not everyone is empathetic and that's fine. But that even those who don't like him acknowledge that he IS important to the FS world - just like that other tweet about where would FS be without the Yuzu fandom - to me is a plus. Maybe it's reluctant, but I'm not sure that's been said about other - or if so, not many - skaters. Nobody alone has ever been, single handedly, so important to FS like Yuzu - and the following he brings - is. That they're probably gritting their teeth having to say things like that is even better (Or maybe I just have a mean side who likes to see it like this.)

LOL They might still have a more detailed thing later... this was obviously just about his withdrawing. Though I think I'd rather not. Now I wonder about the Japanese press one... >.> (And funny thing: last evening, a hotel staff member came to my door to ask if I wouldn't like to take part in a report/interview that TV Asahi was doing on their hotel, to show how they interact with guests... I said no, because I wasn't particularly thrilled by the hotel (I guess it's just right for their target clients, but as a tourist it's pretty meh). But I'm starting to feel like a celebrity!

Also, since everyone is talking about encouraging songs, the one that still gets to me the most - and that I ripped the audio of to have on my phone and listened to on repeat a million times during the 20 hours trip to Japan - is this:

Yeah... out of everything I said, that was the only thing worth publishing... also, I said I'm checking my phone for news every five minutes, not my watch *eyeroll*. If they take comments, I'll leave one later.

I wonder if Disney being originally an American company has something to do with why they won't sponsor him... (ETA: just to be clear, I'm not talking about politics, but rather the complications of international sponsorship. Then again, P&G isn't originally Japanese either, as far as I know... It might depend how much autonomy the local branches have...) But I, too, think it has to do with copyrights... Since Pooh is a Disney character, the IOC would probably be required to pay a part of the television rights and such to Disney, if their character appears (because the Olympics is a much bigger deal than the average skating competition). And in general that probably applies for all non-sponsor brands. Though that's just a guess, not sure if that's the official stance or not. I also think Yuzu should maybe practice not giving Pooh a squeeze first... it seems to have become part of his ritual more than before and every time he does it - and cameras focus on it - I feel like headdesking at the timing... But I doubt he and Brian are overlooking that, so, it's probably under control.

I wonder if NHK Sogo is the one I'm watching now... I've been watching basically only NHK, but aside from an NHK Trophy promo short thing I haven't seen any Yuzu >.< And the other at 11pm...

I think that beats my parts... Or does it? I am surrounded by grouchy old men... and the occasional grouchy young men And to get back to something you said about side streets, the area around Yuzuruha is really beautiful. I'd love to live there, everything looks so... perfect! As I followed google maps' instructions I couldn't help thinking it'd be an awesome place to get lost in. The only thing is people there don't seem to have seen many a foreigner. I even got an old lady turning to look at me twice... (though it might have been my X Japan get up rather than my gaijin-ness that caught people's attention ^_^; Even one of the cashiers at Himeji souvenir shop commented on it lol) Oh, but as I got to Yuzuruha, there was one of those white vans - the type he sometimes got picked up in when in Japan - just leaving and I had a "Yuzu?!" moment and kind of stared at the window to see if there was anyone but the driver in... must have scared the poor lady - I think it was - driving ^_^;;;

Actually it was raining and generally cloudy in the area (I left for Kobe around 10am, but I don't think that changed while I was away). Perfect day for sleeping in, to be honest... I would have happily done it, too, if not for my schedule ^_^;

Actually there wasn't really anyone there... one lady ahead of me who took a look at all the emas and a couple with a little girl in kimono. There had been some highschoolers and another group of ladies leaving then. But the rain and somewhat early hour (it was around 10-10:30am) might have kept people away. However, most of the emas (even not around his) and most of the Yuzumaru were for him. (many Yuzumaru had gold medals drawn around their necks lol) PS: faithfully sticking to google maps, finding it was easier than Seimei lol although it requires taking some smaller streets. The first 'entrance' I found wasn't the actual entrance though ^^; Also, it's a bit more expensive than Seimei (at Seimei, pretty much everything was 600yen. At Yuzuruha, pretty much everything was 800yen). They also don't take credit cards and it's not very tourist friendly lol (no English explanations and the staff didn't seem to know much English - I mostly spoke to them in Japanese, though it's at times like this I realize how limited it actually is ^^; )

OT, I did it again... and couldn't resist temptation to add it right under Yuzu's (I did tuck it to the side after taking the picture though, as it seemed rude to leave it like that

I'm sorry for my handwriting, it's ugly in any language and my hands were shaking, plus the bamboo was soaking up the marker lol I'm also sorry I couldn't think of something better to write (and the .com is virtually impossible to read) also the swan adding was improvised (my batch of swans only arrived this morning and I used a piece of the scotch tape from the box ^_^; ). But I thought it'd be good to do it anyway

OT, but I just wanted to say: mission accomplished. There is now a Planet Hanyu ema at Seimei Shrine. I'll post pictures a bit later. It's late and I haven't done half the visiting I wanted to ^^; PS: it also has a tiny gold swan attached to it.

天国への階段

My two cents on EXes: I would be surprised if he did something completely new, because I think that does take time and energy he might prefer to put into perfecting his SP and FS. But I would actually like him re-doing various EXes, instead of using just NS for the whole season. Partly because, like others, while I like NS, I'm not THAT fond of it, but also because I think practicing for something other than his competitive programs would be good for him. It'd be easier - well, easier by Yuzu standards - programs, that he doesn't have to stress over as much and that he can fully enjoy and maybe it'd help him relax a bit and tone down that intensity that Brian always thinks he has too much of. Whether he will or not... no idea. I won't be surprised either way. But I think like that 'teaching others to hydroblade' fun thing Brian (or was it Tracy?) mentioned in an interview about the off-season, I think working on other EXes would give him a little break, without actually having to take a break from skating itself.

Regarding the sparkles, I remember there was a fan cam of when he took off the jacket in Moscow and it looked like he had a led net over the top, that's how much it sparkled, continuously. (Like a very elegant Christmas Tree :P) I think the TV cameras don't even come close to doing it justice...

Regarding Brian, while I'm no medical expert, if Brian's surgery was laparoscopic as was said, that's completely different from open surgery. The area that needs to heal is much smaller - essentially it was just a tunnel to his gallbladder - and while I'm sure that's painful, too, I know someone who had the same kind of surgery and who said he should be fine in a couple of days. Of course it depends on whether there are complications or how quickly he usually heals, etc. (For example, someone with more fragile health, like Yuzu would surely take longer to recover than the average person). Personally, I think Brian might skip China this week - I think Javi has competed without him, before - but will try to go to Japan with Yuzu. Although it would be better if he skipped both not to put any strain on himself, especially as Yuzu doesn't have that fierce competition at NHK and after WTT, it'd be good to see if he got over his Brian not being there issues. Not sure if Tracy would step in, though. I think she has signed up for commentating for the GPS and they're big boys, shouldn't need that much hand holding. If anything, Jun probably needed it more in Canada... Also, on Brian health issues, I tend to trust foreign media more than Japanese media... if it had happened in Japan, I'd trust Japanese media more, but like this... They might also be looking for drama where there's not really any. So, let's just see what happens.

I'm not really taking it seriously, but if that Brian interview was accurately translated, the 4A 'training' sounded as casual as the 4Lz one. Or maybe that was just Brian's wishful thinking lol However, I don't think we know just how far he's gone with it. He says it was casual and didn't even say if he's landed it or not. The only one who's said he's landed it was Maxx I think. But it was Brian who first threw it out there, and that was actually kind of surprising, since the fandom is otherwise full of Brian being terrified by it and losing his hair as a consequence. *shrugs* Though either way, we'll see it when we see it.

I think Yuzu is aware of the judging issues, but he'll never complain about it, because it's just not who he is. And there's nothing he can do to force judges to be fair, so instead he uses it as "there's still room to improve". Since he himself said he wants to do such beautiful jumps that anyone looking would think they're worth 3GOE. So he'll keep working hard until he will leave all judges no choice but to give him those scores. I agree it's not fair and it's very frustrating to watch as a fan. But it makes Yuzu even more amazing than he is, seeing how he deals with it. I guess we can use that as the bright side. (And if push comes to shove and Yuzu feels he might lose the OGM because of it, he still has the dangerous and risky secret weapon... I think he might use it if becomes a 'do or die' sort of thing. Not literally of course.)

I think that Ghana CM was his first Ghana CM? Or one of the first? The tweet actually says: "I haven't seen this Ghana CM in a long time" or so. (Not that it's a new one) But I think there should be a new one soon, for the icecream...

Seimei sounds so epic on earphones, I can only imagine what it's like in an arena... (Maybe there'll be an encore at NHK Gala and I'll get to hear and see a bit of it...) Regarding the earlier swan talk, I'm really bad at anything that requires delicacy and could never fold even a paper plane properly. But if there will be someone from PH with ready-made swans at NHK, maybe I can help with the spreading, too. (I only have a ticket for the gala, but I'll probably be around before doors open every day ^_^; Just in case I might cash in on someone's sudden misfortune). I was thinking, also, maybe take a swan each to Seimei Shrine and Yuzuruha Shrine? Though I plan to go there before the event, so not sure how that would work... (Bringing this here, since in the NHK thread we're still busy stressing out over tickets ^_^; And the atmosphere is still a bit dark lol) To increase the swan power network (and maybe if Yuzu goes there again, he'll notice PH was there :P). And I just remembered what else I need to do before I leave... write a letter to Yuzu...

About ANA, it's a Japanese airline, so they won't have many flights that aren't Japan related, I think. So I think there will be times when they can't fly him to competitions. And I'm not sure they can offer him flights by other airlines they collaborate with. So at times like that he probably uses the same means as other skaters. (All I know is that Dusseldorf-Barcelona Iow cost flight, though. Or I think it was Barcelona...) And I thought I remembered it was the competition organizers who covered the travel expenses and yep: Source: ISU So if he travels like all the others, it'll be economy... I guess it makes sense in a way, that's a ton of people to seat in first class = a ton of money. But it is surprising.

I'm not sure, but since for choosing the Team Leader at WTT they used a seniority rule - i.e. the oldest (or was it most experienced? as in, most 'senpai'?) member of the team is captain - the same might apply to flag bearing. But I'm curious myself if that is the case. In a way I'd rather he doesn't get picked for it. Not to pile even more responsibility on him, as he's got plenty on his shoulders already.

I never said there was a right way to be a fan, but I'm sorry if it came across like that. And I did try starting that topic, but there wasn't much follow up ^_^; But yes, timing and different personalities and so on probably explain that. Anyway, no matter. Yuzu should be in Moscow soon and we won't even have time to breathe anymore.

Oh, I agree. As a person, especially, he's not a sparkles kind of guy. But sparkles suit his purpose as a skater, at times, IMO. And if I had to choose a Chopin, I'd choose the first, too... It was more simple and elegant. If this turns out like the new Seimei, though, a prettier, more understated, yet still impressive and shiny, it could be very nice, though... *fingers crossed*