IceWings

Rika graduated from High School and got a special award. Congratulations, Rika! Google Translate: I graduated from N High School today! We are very pleased to receive this special award. I am really grateful to the teachers who have supported me so far. Taking advantage of what I have learned over the last three years, I will continue to do my best toward my dreams.

Yeah, I figured they would send Yuzu for $$$ reasons, but I thought maybe they would send Yuma to give him more international comp experience and build up his reputation heading into the Olympic season. Similarly, I thought they might send Shoma to give him another chance at a comeback and boost his rep too. I think Yuzu would have skipped WTT if he had a choice and return to his cave to drill 4A. He is obviously not comfortable competing while COVID is still a danger. They are rolling out the vaccines and there is 0 reason to take risks for something like WTT at this time. Just wait a little longer until everyone gets vaccinated.

Darn. Was hoping they would send Yuma and Shoma to WTT, since they are the JSF darlings. But I expected them to send Yuzu and Yuma since they were the WC medalists, but I guess they're going after the $$$ by sending Yuzu and Shoma. I heard no quarantine for the international teams, and they're going to have an audience, so there's not going to be any bubble or testing either.

I think that's fine for the Poohs that are already sent signed "from Yuzuru". If they receive additional gifts with a bit more explanation, then they will know what all the gifts are about. We all know about Pooh rain and stuff, but the person sorting the packages in the hospital may not be a figure skating fan. That's my thinking.

This is such a kind and lovely idea. Thank you for organizing it! I would suggest that we don't sign our gifts saying that the present is from Yuzuru Hanyu. Instead, let's indicate that the gift is from "a fan of Yuzuru Hanyu". We don't want confusion between projects that fans organize vs. projects that Yuzu himself organizes. Do we have a Twitter hashtag for this project? We can include that so that the hospital will know where the gifts are coming from and why. For JNats, we used #PoohRain4Yuzu. Maybe we can use #PoohRain4YuzuWC or something. The official hashtags for 2021 WC are #WorldFigure and #Stockholm2021, we can include those in addition to our tag.

[NEWS]

Matteo Rizzo practicing 4Lo:

Shingo seems to enjoy training at TCC, so I was wondering if maybe he wants to return to TCC when he can, but perhaps Utana wanted them to switch coaches and train in Japan when they couldn't return to TCC. Maybe that's why they are living in different parts of Japan instead of relocating to be closer to each other, because they can't agree on their training environment. Anyway, here is Utana's statement. Google Translate: "I am very grateful to all the fans, federations, coaches, trainers and families for their support. Thank you very much. I will continue to devote my life to ice dancing!"

Very sad. They had such promise. Hope they can both find new partners.

I only got 2 right, Lol.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's still a few more hours until the New Year here, but I wish that 2021 will bring only good things to Yuzu and to all the satellites! Hoping for Spring to come quickly to those who are struggling, and may everyone be healthy and happy in the new year!

Wow, I'm horribly behind. You guys are amazing with your posts. Anyway, not sure if this was already posted, but someone compared the spins of various skaters:

So glad to hear that they are not mobbing him! Hoping everyone will be safe. Wonder if the news media will drop his programs? Aaaah, can't wait to hear the news about his new programs, music, choreo, costumes! After this long drought, it was so good to see his interview. Want more!

Unfortunately, there's a 45 character limit for the tweets that Fuji TV will show on their monitor, so there's not much room for your message if you include our hash tags too.

I think they asked the audience not to cheer as one of the safety precautions, so no screams even if we had fancams. Hope there will be lots of news clips from Japan media. He wants to regain his National title and World title, so he probably won't risk putting in 4A in either of the comps unless he has a good percentage of success with the jump. WTT is a better place for him to test 4A if it doesn't get canceled and he decides to attend.

These are also my favorites. #PoohRainForYuzu is also fine with me. @freesoul, @milagos_yz, @leona: Welcome to the Planet!

I wouldn't be surprised if Yuzu recycles Seimei and Ballade. After all, he has not been able to train with his coaches. They will not be with him at Nats, which is not ideal for him since he tends to stress out at Nats and having his coaches there would really help him. He has new programs, but hasn't been able to develop and polish them in person with his choreographers. Who knows what his training situation has been like in Sendai and how far along he is with these programs? It seems he received the SP from Jeff rather late. Also he wants to regain his title, and he does need to give a strong performance at Nats to remind everyone that he is still the King, esp if the judges want to throw candies at Shoma and Yuma. He hasn't competed at all this season, and we all know about pancakes, so given all this pressure and having to worry about COVID on top of everything, it seems to me he might want to go back to his comfort programs. Satomi can easily change the colors for those costumes too. It won't be ideal to debut new programs at Worlds, but at least he would have more time to work on his programs and his coaches will be there with him at Worlds. I guess we will see...

I think NHK was limited to 50% capacity. It was still too much people. Most of the audience wore masks, but they were not space apart enough. It certainly didn't look safe for the audience. I think JNats will be the same. I can only hope that they have better safety precautions for the skaters. Personally, I don't trust the organizers to do their best to protect everyone. However, I do trust that Yuzu will carefully consider all the risks and make a decision that he feels is right for him, and I will support his decision. If he decides to compete, I will be , but I will also be excited to see him. They did that at the airport last time. So even if they have safety protocols in place at the arena, what about outside the arena? What about the hotel? Thank goodness JNats is in Nagano and not in Osaka, where COVID cases are spiking: https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00657/coronavirus-cases-in-japan-by-prefecture.html COVID is not so bad in Nagano, so hopefully everything will be ok. (Although we have a vaccine ready and being distributed right now, so really wish they would just cancel and wait until everyone can get vaccinated.)

[NEWS] CBC Sports That Figure Skating Show interview with David Wilson. He talks about doing choreo for Yuna, Yuzu, and Tessa and Scott. Yuzu's part is ~9:55 - 17:50

Glad to hear her health is better now. Hopefully all the other Russian skaters are recovering as well.

12 million views! A slightly belated Happy Birthday present for Yuzu.

OMG, you're so lucky! Congratulations! Definitely buy a lotto ticket. Lol.