lazuliblade

Happy New Year! It's been ages since I've posted anything here, but if anyone wants to read a translation of the page in the Sponichi paper today where Yuzu wrote a message in support of the Olympic and Paralympic athletes, I uploaded pictures and my translation here. The writer(editor?) included an article-poem to accompany Yuzu's message, so I also went ahead and translated that as well. It's pretty short, so I figure there are people on Twitter who have already gotten around to it, but it doesn't hurt to have multiple translations. Here's hoping for a wonderful and healthy year (decade!) for Yuzu. May all his goals be realized and may he have many happy reasons to smile.

Just passing by to say that the name of the powder is "precious snow III" which is super fitting with the precious happy Yuzu pic that the person decided to post for comparison. Our precious snow~ It seems Welcia(a grocery store chain in Japan) is going to stock it. The site doesn't explicitly say that it's based on Otonal, but since Yuzuru is representing Sekkisei, you can pretty much draw the conclusion that the design is taking after the Otonal costume. That's also what the person who tweeted is guessing based on the case design. The tweet basically says "I'm in trouble, there are too many things I want, but as I thought, I'm also interested in this limited edition powder. It's set to be at Welcia. Releases on May 16th. Looking at the model, the container is wonderful. Otonal-sama?" (they're referring to Yuzuru's Otonal program&demeanor as something that's respected)

I was working on this last weekend hoping to get it done for New Year's but it took longer than I thought to streamline how I wanted to format it, then phrasing things so they flowed better while keeping the meaning, then writing the extra notes at the end with research and relevant info. I'm glad some people are finding it useful!

I'm in the Osaka region. I just ran/jogged nearly two hours around my city checking all the convenience stores and supermarkets. I didn't know the big three weren't participating, but at least I got some exercise in. I was only going to check 6 stores, but ended up checking 13 places: Aeon, Kohyo (Aeon's smaller subsidiary), Don Quijote, 3 Family Mart, 3 Lawson, 2 Seven Eleven, Daily Yamazaki, and Aos(?I don't remember the name, but it was small and attached to the station). Not a single one showed any sign of having stocked the clearfiles, so I think my city simply didn't have any to begin with. It might be staggered? I'll do another run every couple of days I guess. I remember the last time I lived in Japan, the files were popping up throughout the week, but I wasn't sure if that would be the same this year.

I checked both the Aeon's in my city, one of which is attached to the big mall, and neither had the clearfiles up - not even a holder for clearfiles. I wonder if I should check all the local Lawson's? The 7/11's? D: Unless I want to take a bus to the train station and wander the grocery store there, I'm not sure where else to look...

......I guess I'd better head out to my local Aeon to see if they still have clearfiles.

His music is edited by Keiichi Yano. You can read an article about it here, and see a subtitled version of the kiritoru program about him here (I've already time-stamped it for 7:25). Keiichi has also talked about editing Hope&Legacy, and how he went straight to Joe Hisaishi's studios to ask permission to edit the soundtracks because he didn't want to run into copyright issues like what happened in the past with another skater. I can't seem to find that interview at the moment, but I'll search for it. I'm trying to remember if it was a video or an article... I know there was also a behind-the-scenes article/video where people talked about Yuzu's crazy requests regarding music - like seeing if it was possible to do a live guitar riff for his Parisienne Walkways program for an ice show. I'm really going to have to hunt those down. I know I shared them somewhere before.....

This is actually a commemorative postcard&stamp set you can order from the JP Post website (or with the paper form). I stopped by my local post office a couple of hours ago to pick up a package and saw the flyer there with all the details: Sales just started today (Sept 18th) and run until December 14th. The first round of orders will close on October 14th and be shipped by the 31st (Halloween!), the second round closes on November 18th and will be shipped by December 17th, and the third(final) round will close on December 14th and be shipped by January 15th. I remember the first commemorative set back in 2014 and it was deliverable in Japan only, but I'm sure you can use your usual means (whiterabbitexpress, blackship, CDJapan, etc)to buy this. I've been waiting for this because I actually bought the first set back when it was released. It's very well made and the pictures are beautiful. This one comes with even more stuff than the original, although it looks like there's no handprint this time around. I think the postcard book makes up for it, though.

He apparently goes through one pair per year. (Same as Javi btw) It was stated in a Yomiuri Shimbun article snippet that one pair of Edea Piano boots lasts him a year, but I'm not sure if the tweet with the picture of the newspaper was deleted, or if the link went dead? The comment on the Planet was here and I saved the original pic of the snippet but I'm not sure where/if I should reupload it. He also said in the P&G "Thank you mom" commercial behind the scenes (translated here) that he's only gone through about 25 pairs of boots in 18 years of skating - and that would include his feet outgrowing boots when he was little. It's Nathan who goes through a pair every 3-ish months. I think Shoma does too? But I need to look up that reference again. Speculation started on the Planet that Yuzu went through 4 pairs per year based on a tweet by John Wilson blades that had four sets of blades with Yuzu's name on it. But blades doesn't equal boots, and we got the Yomiuri Shimbun article translation and P&G commercial later on anyway.

Passing by with a tiny Japanese lesson because I'm a nerd and I love how much sense this word makes. It's "ren pa" with the kanji 連覇. The 連"ren" is the same kanji for the word 連絡 "renraku" - to communicate/get in contact, and the same kanji as in the word 連れていく"tsureteiku" - to take along. "ren" means something like "take along/connect/join," and the "pa" is like "supremacy/champion" so you can think of "renpa" like supremacy being strung/brought together -- or more concisely: connected champion, AKA consecutive champion. So "nirenpa" = two wins back-to-back, "yonrenpa" = fourpeat champion.

If Yuzu is practicing the 4A in these practices right now, he probably asked the reporters not to show footage of it. Going by his interviews, it's not perfect yet and he's still working out the technique to land it more consistently at a high quality and success rate. So yes, I'd say they're hiding the footage, but not in a "lol just wait until they see it at GP Helsinki" more of a "he's never shown his attempts before and so we'll respect his decision and request not to show anyone this time too."

I'll have to wait until after work tomorrow to get more Yuzu news, so on the one hand I'll miss news as it's released, but on the other hand, by that point everything should be out and I won't be suffering waiting for content. So there's that silver lining I guess.

Yeah, he was like "what's this pose?" when he was handed the figure, and properly fixed it for the entry pose, and then altered it to show the in-air pose. He was pointing out the position of the free leg, but I'd need to rewatch to get the specific points he wanted to make.

Well...we got new footage of him putting on his skates, and a bit of Otonal, but I think we saw that bit before. We did see a new 4T clip and 3A clip. Then there was the interview, but part of it was stuff he already explained in the ANA interview - about looking up to Plushenko and Johnny, and his thoughts wanting to skate to these songs, watching the programs many times. The new content was mostly him explaining the form and the points to think about when entering into the 4A and landing it, and comparing the distance he would need to jump in order to land it.

I have my first class with my students tomorrow, so I should go to sleep within the hour if I don't want to be dead in the morning. I guess I'll stay up for another hour max.