kiches

I don't think we're surprised that he was chosen as he brings in the viewers, but the event is unnecessary (unlike Nationals and Worlds) and given the virus situation in Osaka it seems like something he would avoid if he could given he had also withdrawn from the grand prix which was also in Osaka in the fall.

Could be, and likely China sees that it's an unnecessary event so they aren't risking their athletes. Of course I wish all would withdraw and they would cancel since Osaka's situation with the virus is escalating and most of these skaters only just competed in Sweden and are doing some form of quarantine but still give some of the participants the anticipated prize money.

Team China withdrew their entire team from WTT, I wonder if they got some sort of sanction for that or if the ISU was understanding enough this time since Chinese Team wouldn't be considered a big enough audience draw for WTT. Anyone have a link to an update on Japan's current policy to allow foreign athletes into the country? Last I heard they were supposed to go through a 2-week pseudo quarantine/training, but I'm curious if they have other requirements regarding when they can enter and when they have to leave the country after they've arrived. Canada I think technically could've sent Keegan since he lives in Alaska and I don't believe they have a quarantine requirement like Canada does. Edited to add: On the exemption for athletes, I believe that whatever policy they had was put on hold mid-March due to increased cases? Feel free to correct me here.

Judging by what he's said in interview it sounds like the team has been brainstorming about ways he may be able to return to Canada, though none of it sounds sure. In terms of COVID-19 I think training at home in Sendai is likely safer as he can use the rink on his own at night and limit his own exposure, of course that's given him a lot of freedom to train with his own music and own plans which he seems to really enjoy. The downside of course is he has less oversight or third party to help guide him on things that are harder to figure out on your own, and access to physical therapist - the second part is the most worrying for me. I hope he realizes he shouldn't delay care while in Japan if he needs it (and maybe Kikuchi could unretire for a bit to help him on that front). I do think it would be beneficial if he could return and do some in-person choreography sessions, especially for a new SP.

I think the annoying thing about GP selection is that there's actually no clearly written rules about it, but I think you've outlined how some of it works. From what I've read the matter of who gets what GP are: 1. Host country choice 2. Skater preference (with highest ranked skater usually getting first priority) 3. Making sure the seeded skaters (1-3, and 4-6) don't meet in any of the GP prior to the final (there are exceptions) Basically host countries usually get the final say and what they want can overrule #2 and #3. Sometimes it's so they can have a skater at their home country GP. I think this is also how Helsinki managed to get all the competing Olympic gold medalists at their GP when Cup of China cancelled in 2018. This is also why Yuzu and Daisuke both ended up at 2012 NHK Trophy even though both were seeded #2 and #3 at Worlds in 2012. NHK Trophy that year was in Sendai, and Japan usually sends their national champion (Daisuke in 2011). This is not typical since putting two of your top/seeded skaters in the GP usually means you have more competition qualifying for the final. Depending on the situation in the fall, I think there's a chance Yuzu may choose to skip out on the GP again. Otherwise I think chances are he'll end up assigned to Skate Canada and NHK Trophy. NHK Trophy since he's the national champ (unless the JSF want to push Yuma and have him compete at home) and Skate Canada since I think they may actually want him there after the success of 2019 Skate Canada in Kelowna. Personally I also hope he doesn't get IdF or CoR. He hasn't been back to CoC since 2014 and I think in 2014 as the World Champion he selected it as a preference since it was being held where Worlds in 2015 would be. I just hope COVID will slow down enough to allow safe international travel by summer but I think fall is more realistic for the entire world.

Looks like it's out of stock for now on Amazon and also CD Japan and they are going to do another printing. You'll just need to wait until stores update the availability when they confirm more stock so I would just check the listing every now and then to see if you can add it to your cart.

Checking the Japanese publisher's website I see it does explicitly say all of Yuzu's royalties are donated to Ice Rink Sendai so maybe the publisher manages all of that. I do wonder if the information about the donation was added later after the first book came out. Based on the recent interview in Number the donation from the book royalties was a surprise to the rink managers so I assumed that info was added afterward.

I think the translator for Aoi Hono II actually helped work on doing a Vietnamese translation that was used for publication and sale, so she may be able to answer whether or not a portion of the proceeds get donated. I think the donation itself is not advertised as being linked to the books and it might be something Yuzu just decides to do on his own, as far as I know for the Japanese books it's never been advertised as benefiting Ice Rink Sendai so maybe as long as Yuzu gets a royalty for each book sold that will address donation of proceeds indirectly. Shipping options from Japan are really limited right now so the cost is high, but when I initially bought my books it wasn't too bad. I actually think an e-book version of the biographies may work better for sales and production in English, although I like having physical copies.

Honestly I hope they don't serve meals in a group setting (plexiglass doesn't do much if you're in an enclosed room for long periods of time) at all. I believe at Skate America food was brought to each persons room and they had to eat in their rooms by themselves (which is what I hope they're doing if Worlds happens). Personally I don't think it's necessary to have an exhibition during a pandemic, but I hope they do away with group skates and just do individual/pair/dance teams - and no live singers please!

I started turning off comments to all my Youtube videos after some fancam videos I uploaded got some comments in another language that didn't seem very nice - figure this way I didn't have to police comments this way either. I do know that a lot of Youtube uploads from other accounts for Japanese Nationals were taken down by copyright violations so I'm hoping my uploads can stay below the radar. I'm somewhat surprised they're still up on Youtube so crossing my fingers they're okay for the long run, but at least we have the FNN upload which is an actual legitimate media source.

On jump layout, watching LMEY I felt that the program may have been designed with a different solo jump (and maybe combo) in particular. Unless he was off on his timing (maybe he was) I feel like musically the solo jump would've been landed at "You're my rock of empathy my dear" which is a couple seconds before the point he jumps the 4S. Maybe 4S isn't the jump he planned to have in the SP in the long run. Likewise I think in the FS that 3Lo may be a placeholder for 3F also based on the timing of the landing with the music (maybe trying to avoid the edge call he got at 4CC and going for a clean program). I think he would keep the 3Lo where it is if he wants to do 4T-1Eu-3F again, but I do remember reading the reports of him practicing 3Lz-1Eu-3S and I wonder if that was just an emergency sequence in one of his possible layouts.

I love Hagio's work! Can't wait to hear about what she said about Yuzuru.

I'd definitely say PC was worst since there was a lot on the line, but there are definitely similarities in that we have no idea what condition he's in. I was lucky to watch live in Pyeongchang but the whole time leading up to my trip I wasn't even sure if he'd show up (and debating whether I should cancel because I'd just be bummed if he didn't and I was there) and I had similar thoughts leading all the way up to these nationals. I guess once he makes his appearance things may shift but who knows.

$$$ is the difference I guess. Though Nagano’s venue is smaller (I think full capacity is around 10k?) than Saitama Super Arena. It’s a confusing standard since I think Japanese speed skating and short track I believe decided to hold no audience competitions yet figure skating is going through with it...

Yeah Blackship recommended I use their proxy service which is White Rabbit since they have lots of buyers across Japan so the address wouldn’t be an issue.

Has anyone tried using a mail forwarding service in Japan to purchase the 3.11 exhibition goods and run into issues? I made an order to my Blackship forwarding address and got a notice that goods are only for sale and Japan and they won’t ship to forwarding address and to give them a Japanese phone # so they can call me to confirm my address. I had used this method for the Yomiuri exhibition goods this summer without issue but I’m wondering if the limit 3 of each item flagged some type of alert.

If it's true that they're planning to cancel Euros and Worlds (and they should, I don't think things will magically be better by March) then the ISU really needs to make this known ASAP so that skaters and federations can make informed decisions about their careers and what they're willing to risk if they are going to hold domestic competitions like nationals. Especially since this Worlds would normally be the one that determines number of Olympic spots for 2022 and I'm sure that weighs heavily for everyone. These high infections and hospitalizations seem to come in waves, if federations at least knew that Worlds wasn't going to happen in March they could delay their nationals until the COVID situation in their country has improved (Canada has already moved their nationals to February since 4CC is cancelled). Counter measures to mitigate the virus usually take a couple of weeks before the effects are visible in the testing/hospitalization numbers so time will tell if things in Japan and Nagano improve by Japanese Nationals. While I still think Yuzu is likely to withdraw later, I did expect him to at least register himself for nationals to keep all his options open so I'm actually not surprised his name is on the entry list. I think that means he may have also submitted program information (I'm very curious!). I believe the cut-off for registration was November 24. I think if the cut-off wasn't that date we probably would've heard a statement from Yuzu on what he was thinking regarding Nationals sometime after this week since NHK is happening right now.

Yeah I can't remember if it was Yaguchi's photobook or Satomi Ito's, but I distinctly remember that one of them I was able to add to cart at first, and then later I couldn't (and then I could again). I do think eventually Amazon JP will sort it out for international orders, though I was wondering if maybe the reason was linked to demand. I think Yaguchi's and Ito's (the special cover edition) were in pretty high demand when pre-orders first came out.

Now that I think about it, those 2 books and this coming book are probably considered oversized. Maybe this is the extra complication.

I think this was an issue with Satomi Ito's photobook and also with Yaguchi's photobook at first where at least for the US, Amazon Japan didn't allow us to pre-order it. Eventually that got lifted so I hope the same will happen here. There' still nearly 4 months so I'm not too worried about stock at least.

The footage is from gala practice for 2015 Skate Canada and it's the only time I remember seeing him do a cantilever (I also am not a fan of it for any skater), but if you search for some fancams you may find more footage. I think he and Elizaveta were trying it out and they eventually had her do it in the actual gala.

For those looking for a little levity, I thought you might enjoy my attempt at being crafty with the Seimei hand towel from the photo exhibition this summer. If anyone with some real chops could actually sew I bet you could make this look a lot better than I did!

@rockstaryuzu check your trash too just in case it got moved there. Google recently updated their policy on trash and files get emptied out after 30 days in both drive and email. Was looking for an order receipt I had in September which I probably deleted and realized it's probably gone forever now.

I'm currently using the lotion and emulsion too, bought them as a set at the Duty Free shop in Haneda Airport where I got a Yuzu clear file Honestly if that clear file wasn't a gift-with-purchase I probably would've never bought it but the products are nice, and they really are large bottles. I probably wouldn't make it a regular re-purchase for my normal skincare routine unless they had more Yuzu goodies with it (mostly because I'm not a fan of it containing alcohol, even if my skin does fine with it), but if it went on sale I'd consider buying the regular Sekkisei line again. If one of those cheaper sets were available in the US I probably would've splurged to try the Actrise products (and I like the white colored box).

I was curious how much the ultimate line products cost in that 55,000 yen set and one of the creams on by itself is 20,000 yen and the ultimate lotion is 10,000 yen. From what I can tell the full-sized Miyabi items total about 50,000 yen if bought on their own, but I can't price/identify some of the other items in the list. I assume it's because they're not full sized but more a deluxe sample size. Aside from the box I can't tell if this is supposed to give a value over buying things separately (I'll assume you do get a bit more for your money, since there were 4 things that would be making up the extra 5,000 yen, plus the limited edition box).