sweetwater

S-Style (a Sendai local magazine) paid a visit to the International Center Station to celebrate Yuzu winning the MVS award. You can see the photos of the monuments and Goshiki Numa in a rainy season here.

@Henni147, I am sorry to hear about your loss. I hope your grandfather and your friend get well soon. Hope you take care of yourself too. It was intriguing to read about the similarities between Apollo and Yuzu. I didn't know that Apollo was the guardian of the crops as well. This might have already been shared last year, but the rice paddy art was a project to revitalize the area in which Yuzu happily involved by letting them use his image. The area was hit heavily by a typhoon last autumn, but the rice paddy art somehow miraculously stayed intact, and the rice cropped from the art later served as thank-you gifts for people made donations to help the area recover from the disaster. They had a plan to make another art this year, depicting Yuzu and phoenix as symbols of overcoming hardship, although they decided to carry the plan into next year due to the spread of the virus. So Yuzu really has been and will be helping the farmers a bit, although indirectly. As to ”koi,” I don't believe that someone who can empathize with others so easily and deeply as Yuzu hasn't experienced romantic love, but who am I to disagree with Tsuzuki sensei? I didn't even notice his comment about koi when I read this article first myself since its focus was on 4A. (The Japanese article is devoting much more space to describe how Tsuzuki sensei looked happy while analyzing Yuzu's 4A attempt and the part it mentioned the romantic love is only a few lines at the end of two-pages text.) ETA: Fixed a grammatical error

JSF is hosting NHK Trophy. I think that's why they haven't announced anything about GP yet. If they cancel assigning skaters to GPs as a protective measure against COVID-19, they have to cancel NHK as well, and that would affect GPF ISU seems to be insisting on holding now.

In the press release, they didn't mention excluding the skaters training abroad, so I think this applies to everyone who belongs to JSF.

Cross-posting from Team Japan thread: JSF announced that they decided to stop sending their athletes to the following JGP and CS competitions considering the risk of getting/spreading the coronavirus and that athletes will have to self-quarantine themselves after coming back from competitions held abroad. The CS events subject to this announcement: CS Autumn Classic International CS Nevelhorn Trophy CS Finlandia Trophy CS Budapest Trophy

JSF announced that they decided to stop sending their athletes to the following JGP and CS competitions considering the risk of getting/spreading the coronavirus and that athletes will have to self-quarantine themselves after coming back from competitions held abroad. The competitions subject to this announcement (source): JGP Hungary CS Autumn Classic International JGP Czech Republic CS Nevelhorn Trophy JGP Uzbekistan JGP Slovenia CS Finlandia Trophy JGP Latvia CS Budapest Trophy Reference: https://www.nikkansports.com/sports/news/202007130000533.html

I am experiencing this too, but for me, this is the second time. The size of the embedded tweets returned to normal for a while, sometime around April, May, or June? I don't remember. Wondering if it is this site or Twitter. But I also wonder if it is convenient this way for those who access this site via smartphone?

By the way, Yomiuri uploaded another video of Wakasugi san talking about a photo of Yuzu on their Online Yuzuru Hanyu Exhibition site yesterday. https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/topics/20200615-OYT8T50061/ You can watch it by clicking on the video displayed under this title ”（２）ＧＰファイナル フリー（2019年12月7日、イタリア）” Rough Translation of his comment

Jsports will air you-know-what because they've bought the broadcasting rights a long time ago. They were planning to air it live during Worlds in March. They were supposed to air Worlds as well, although a bit later, so I guess they bought the rights to air them all as a package, including the event. I guess Fuji also did the same as Jsports. They'll stream the event live on FOD (Fuji TV On Demand) which you must subscribe and pay to watch. I don't know if we Japanese will be geo-blocked from ISU stream, but I am more than welcome to be blocked so that I will have another reason to skip the event tonight. Unfortunately, I've already unsubscribed from FOD last month and can't afford to subscribe again because I've spent so much on photobooks, etc. I've never thought that one day I would be so grateful to be geo-blocked...

I am looking at a list of test events for Tokyo2020 now. Many events took place until the end of last year, but test events for soccer, boccia, and sport climbing took place earlier this year, and those for some part of swimming, track-and-field, and gymnastic seem to have scheduled even later. Also, not all of them are international competitions. If the regulations are ISU's, they can change them or make an exception depending on the situation, and in this case, I think they'd better consider to do so...

This may not exactly the answer to your question, but as to Aoi Honoo I and II for which Yuzu is credited as the author, Yuzu is receiving royalties and donating them to Ice Rink Sendai. He is credited as one of the authors in YUZURU and YUZURU II, so I think he can receive a certain amount of the royalties for these books as well. As to the other photo books, publishers have gotten permission from Yuzu and maybe from JSF as well, and pay some fees to use his images, but we don't know who receives what. Most of the figure skating magazines published in these few years are probably paying some fees to JSF. Until a few years ago, there were some publishers publishing magazines consisted mostly of Yuzu photos bought from some photo agencies without going to a competition or paying such fees. They used the system in which the press can use the images for free in news reporting and sold their magazines as reports on competitions. However, such magazines became obsolete being ignored by fans and policed by JSF.

Thank you for reading!

Otekomachi, a news outlet of Yomiuri interviewed Kazuki Wakasugi, who is in charge of photography in Yuzuru Hanyu Online Exhibition, and Toru Yaguchi, the photographer of "Yuzuru Hanyu 2019-2020" by Hochi. (*Hochi is affiliated with Yomiuri) Their comments in this article are really nice, so I posted a translation in Translation. Please take a look at it when you have time

Otekomachi, a news outlet of Yomiuri interviewed Kazuki Wakasugi, who is in charge of photography in Yuzuru Hanyu Online Exhibition, and Toru Yaguchi, the photographer of "Yuzuru Hanyu 2019-2020" by Hochi. (*Hochi is affiliated with Yomiuri) フィギュアスケートの羽生結弦、カメラマンが見た素顔 https://otekomachi.yomiuri.co.jp/news/20200708-OKT8T228107/ Their comments are really nice, so let me share them excerpted from the article. (Rest of the text in the article is information about the exhibition and the photobook we already know, so I skipped it in my translation. Sorry in advance.) Their comments are shared with their photographs in the original article, so please take a look at it when you have time. Especially the first photo is probably the one Wakasugi san mentioned in his comments, so if you look at it, you will see what he meant more clearly. Figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu, his natural self seen by photographers (excerpts) (Translation from the third paragraph) All the photographs (t/n: in this exhibition) are by Kazuki Wakasugi of Yomiuri Shimbun. On what is fascinating about Hanyu senshu, Wakasugi san says, "When Hanyu senshu appears in the venue, the atmosphere in the venue changes. The audience cheer. We photographers feel tense. Once he starts performing, he moves very fast and jumps very high. While other skaters take time to set up for jumps, Hanyu senshu jumps in the flow of his performance and doesn't make a set-up look like a set-up. He pays attention even to the tip of his fingers and to his facial expressions. He is an athlete and an expressive performer at the same time." He says sometimes he even forgets to release the shutter as he gets drawn in Hanyu senshu's performance and fascinated. The competition in the last season that is most impressive for Wakasugi san is the Grand Prix Final. Looking back at then, he explains, "He was radiating an incredible amount of passion that I could feel it even through the lens. That was so thrilling and moving, and made me a fan. The moment I got hooked on." Wakasugi san, who says he is totally fascinated by Hanyu senshu, pays attention to take a photograph that captures his (t/n: Yuzu's) natural self. According to Wakasugi san, Hanyu senshu's professionalism is so thorough that he tries to entertain the audience even in an official practice session and rarely reveals his natural self on the ice. "I may not be able to rival sempais and freelance photographers in terms of technique, but I am hoping to express Hanyu senshu, including what I felt about him with my photography. To do that, I am trying not to miss the moment he reveals his natural self as well as his performance." In that regard, the photo captured Hanyu senshu's expression after he finished performing in NHK Gala was satisfying to Wakasugi san. He says, "He looks in some way, relieved. I felt as if I had seen him as a person." He also says that he enjoys finding the small changes in choreography by watching him all through the season. "I think about the meaning of the changes in his mood and his expressions while taking photography," he says, and that makes him want to talk about what he felt during a competition with someone after watching it. Wakasugi san says, "I would be happy if this exhibition becomes something that enables fans to share their memories like, "At that time, he performed like this," or "After all, Hanyu senshu is great!" and re-live the touching moments." (Translation from the tenth paragraph) What makes him feel Hanyu senshu's excellence--Toru Yaguchi of Hochi Shimbun says it is that he can hear the music in Hanyu senshu. In other words, Hanyu senshu is making every movement in one with the music. "I can hear the music even when I am concentrating on shooting during a competition. If you remember the music and release the shutter in tune with the music, you will be in tune with his movement as well." There are some difficulties in shooting figure skating that you don't experience in shooting other sports. "For example, in baseball, we are close to the players and able to ask them about what we wonder about the way they play. However, in figure skating, there are only a limited number of competitions, and we can't get close to the skaters nor talk to them. We can only imagine what is happening in his mind. But if we can't feel what he feels, we are just following his movements. We can't take pictures that appeal to the heart of the fans that way," he explains about the difficulty of reaching out to athletes' minds. Yaguchi san is fascinated by Hanyu senshu through taking photographs of him too. "He is always serious not only during the competition but also in practice and before the competition. His words are convincing, and he is also kind. Through getting to know such sides of him, I realized how amazing Hanyu senshu was, and my feeling of respect towards him grew stronger. He is a truly amazing athlete." While editing the photo book, he was aiming to "express Hanyu senshu as a whole by showing multiple pictures instead of one." Also, he made the book square to show the photographs on bigger spreads using the margins effectively. This time, it consists of photographs taken in competitions, but he says, "Next time, I would like to cover the backstage of an ice show/ice shows, focusing on how they produce it/them."

Interview with Matteo Rizzo, taken after European this year, I guess? http://absoluteskating.com/index.php?cat=interviews&id=2020matteorizzo

Yeah, it's Karen Chen and her brother Jeffrey Chen's project

This? One of the other two is a pharmaceutical company and the other is running pachinko (Japanese gambling machine) saloons nationwide. The former would not be optimistic enough to invest their money in a sports event next spring, and the latter must be in need of money since they had closed their saloons for a while because it was impossible to play pachinko while maintaining social distance. Pachinko is played in a crowded saloon like this and pachinko maniacs form a queue every morning to secure a machine they like...

Citizen has been supporting ISU since 1982. If they quit supporting ISU for their judging, they would have done so multiple times. Canon still has a web site dedicated to figure skating. The last update was April this year. I think they are seeing how things are going. Many Olympic sponsors have already withdrawn from sponsoring Tokyo2020, which is at the moment scheduled in the summer of 2021. It would be rational if a company avoid being a sponsor of a big international event scheduled next spring, at least for now.

I am half jokingly half seriously believe that they tried to measure how many people actually care about this award by publishing bio full of mistakes because the number of likes and retweets their tweets on the award get looks smaller compared to the number of likes and RTs their tweets about streaming of past competitions, or a tweet like this from Nekomasamune gets.

Some more beautiful Yuzus

Gosh... You should participate in the "my most beautiful Yuzu" contest with this clear file...

Don't know about the other two, but the one in the middle is the back cover of this magazine. https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/4403311083 Ninny has a twitter account but it is private. It is about Figure Skate TV aired by BS Fuji tonight. They asked Japanese skaters to name one of their performances at JNats in the past they wanted people to watch again and one of the other Japanese skaters' performances at past JNats they wanted to watch again, and Shun named Yuzu's R&J. He said he went to Osaka to watch Yuzu live and watched the performance live. It was the first-ever competition he watched live! He said he was so happy when Yuzu won a spot at Nice2012. Yuma and Marin named Otonal at JNats last year.

Nobu's surgery went well, and he has already left the hospital. https://ameblo.jp/oda-nobunari/entry-12608532008.html Hope his recovery goes well as well.

So, he was announcing that they'll upload this clip in which he talks about this photo. https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/topics/20200615-OYT8T50061/ Click on the video displayed under this title ”写真部 若杉和希記者の写真解説講座 （１）オータムクラシック ショートプログラム（SP）（2019年9月13日、カナダ）” Rough Translation of his comment in the longer video

He is talking about one of his favorite photos. I'll post a translation later.