sweetwater

@dotsquare Sorry for being late to reply! The event is held in a space called "Sendai Ennnichi (仙台縁日)" owned by Sendai Hoso, a Sendai-based TV company which will air nationals in Miyagi. The event has been announced by them on their website shared by @yumeaki and on the poster as well. As yumeaki guessed, they'll exhibit photos by Sunao Noto. According to the info on the poster, they'll exhibit different phots in the first and second half of the exhibition respectively. Here is the map of the place. (2 Chome-1-18 Chūō, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi-ken 980-0021 is the address of Sendai Ennnichi) Fans in Sendai kindly shared photos of the place today. Seems like the poster is displayed on Sendai Ennich's wall. The third photo is the entrance of Sendai Ennnich.

So there is another photo exhibition, the first part of it is going to be held during Dec. 14-26, the second part is going to be during Jan. 3-16, at Sendai Ennich. Open except for Thursdays (Jan. 3 is an exception) from 10:30 to 18:00.

I am a translator usually translating English into Japanese. The person enshrined in the shrine is an ancient Japanese bureaucrat who was good at Chinese and sometimes worked as a translator. He is also known as the guardian of people taking an entrance exam. Osechi basically is a set of foods you can stock for a while, which gives you time to relax without worrying about cooking meals. However, osechi is a form of wishing good luck as well. For example, there is a food called kobumaki, rolled seaweed called konbu with fish in it. It is often included in osechi because kobu is included in a word yorokobu, which means happy, delighted, congratulate, etc. ETA: Actually, I don't like any traditional food included in osechi, but I like toshikoshi soba we eat on the new year's eve. Toshikoshi means saying goodbye to the year and welcoming a new year. Soba is buckwheat noodles. We eat them on that day wishing our longevity because noodles are long. @sallycinnamon, your post is making me hungry!

Since it's about anime/manga, let me respond here. I love Ping Pong! (I love the manga more than the anime though.) It's nice to find another person who loves it here. I am a huge fan of Taiyo Matsumoto and Ping Pong is one of my favorites among his works. I don't do any sport myself and rarely read/watch sports manga/anime, and this is the first fiction that made me relate to athletes a bit and take a glimpse of the beauty and cruelty of sports. I sometimes think of a scene in it when I watch figure skating, like when I am witnessing someone's retirement. When I first saw Yuzu thanking his foot I thought of a scene where Peco talking to his injured knee. I also like live-action film of it. A live-action film based on a manga/anime often ends up as a disaster but the film version of Ping Pong makes me feel the speed, thrill the sport has.

In Japan, we often throw a party called bonen-kai around Christmas. bonen-kai means, like, forget-about-this-year-fest, but it's just a party with friends or colleagues. Some people also have Christmas parties in various styles. Figure skating fans watch nationals biting their nails. Then some of us write new year greeting cards, clean our houses, and prepare osechi for new year holidays. Some people visit a nearby temple or shrine during new year's eve to Jan. 7th to pray for good health, safety, etc. I usually visit my family and spend new years holidays together having simplified osechi. My personal tradition is to visit a temple and a shrine, the former to pray for good health of my family and the latter to pray for good business because the person enshrined there and I share the same profession.

There is no explanation on where this photo was taken, but this is probably this year's Sendai-exclusive poster for nationals. (I can see the broadcaster's logo peeping out from behind the poster)

I hope they do, but when Rika, Yuna, Marin, or Mako is going to Worlds, JSF may let them go to 4CC too, to give them a chance to go up in world standings because otherwise, they have to skate early at Worlds.

As much as I am happy for Rika, I am a bit worried about Alina. I rewatched ladies FS on TV and it showed her struggle so clearly. I don't know if she was fighting with pain or just trying hard to catch up with the music, (she was a bit behind the music after the mistake in the opening combo) but she looked so desperate in the 2nd half of the program. Alina this season reminds me of Yuzu in the 2014-2015 season, when he looked strained and weary from the beginning of the season. I'm sure she will come back strong and try to prove herself, but I hope she will also take care of herself and be able to receive warm support as much as possible.

Congratulations, medalists!

Ahh That was beautiful

Good fight! I prefer her SP as a program though...