kiches

I want him to win them all and finally have that undefeated season I've been waiting for since Sochi. A girl can dream, but I'd sacrifice 4CC for another GPF and World gold.

Aww I'm supposed to be in SF but later in the afternoon (dentist appointment is eating up my morning). Have fun though.

I was at this small medal ceremony and the original question asked was what is your favorite program. His answer was his current programs, but that he loved his old programs like Sing, Sing, Sing and Change (which the translator missed). Forgot to add, this competition result was the pits but Yuzu looked really radiant at this medal ceremony! The first thing I thought when I saw him was that his skin looked amazing here. I think he may have had an interview right before this and maybe they put a little bit of powder on him because his face looked so smooth. He's got great natural skin, but this was a step above what I'm used to seeing.

I saw those zunda cookies but didn't get to try them, I even got zunda kinoko chocolate biscuits and gyutan chips - the kinoko chocolate biscuits were good but the gyutan chips were too sweet for my taste. I tried gyutan from two different places in Matsushima and found I prefer it when it's sliced thinner, so if you're unsure about trying it, find a place that serves it thinner and it pretty much just tastes like tender beef. I went to the new Ice Rink Sendai right after Pyeongchang and it's nice, there's a nice display of fan messages in the front entrance and the new exhibit hall but it said no photos for that area or inside the rink. If you've never been, the tourist center will advise you to take the bus but I actually got there by taking the subway and walking which is much more frequent than the bus. It was maybe a 20 min walk (I walked from Yaotome station, but walked to Izumi-chuo station to head back to Sendai station). If you plan to buy any of the goods at the rink be sure to bring cash as they don't take credit card (I had to walk to the 7-11 around the corner to get cash to buy the keychains/gloves I wanted).

Yay, have fun :). Sounds like it'll be a bit hectic. I wonder if they'd let you bring a selfie stick/monopod to try and get some better pictures. Also, try a zunda shake/smoothie in Sendai if you get a chance, I really liked it.

I was in the same boat. I knew Shoma’s SB could have him at second and logically that once he missed the loop it was over, but I still needed the scores to come out - didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself. I was also much much more nervous in Helsinki, I think because Yuzu just appeared so calm at the Olympics it somehow also calmed me (and I didn’t have to worry about a 5th place SP, but after having been at Boston and ACI I knew a lot could happen during the free). I don’t think i started crying until I saw Yuzu’s face on the screen when the scores showed that he had won. There was so much emotion on his face that it made me emotional too.

If you’ve found a hotel ask if you can get something shipped there and maybe you can order and ship the shirt to your hotel. If not, if the hotel has a concierge service ask if they can help you order it.

My initial reaction was maybe it was Phil Hersh (he's asked some rude questions as of late), but now I do want to see Mikhail's face when he answered this!

Wow, who asked such a rude question!?

In regards to his off-ice friendships, we can o Lu speculate but I’ll say what I think his relationships are like with his fellow skaters. Regarding Javi, I think it’s more of a comraderie as you said built off striving for the same goal and a feeling of empathy and sympathy because they both have a front row seat to the struggles that each of them have faced. They respect each other, but it’s not the type of relationship where they probably talk about non-skating things or hang out casually. For others like Misha and Nobu, I think he actually chats online through Line or other apps with them. Nobu it seems like they have an ongoing chat (Nobu mentioned once they were in one with Kanako and Akiko once I believe). Misha hunter that he sent a long message to Yuzu during his recovery process off ice leading to the Olympics which leads me to believe they message each other somewhat regularly. As for non-skater friends, I don’t think we’ll ever find out about them as he’s pretty private.

Well I was a bit surprised they added Gabby's team medal so I didn't expect the final result to look like that, but it's nice to see him with his 2 plaques :D. I wonder when Yuzu and Javi will get to return to see this.

That gala practice felt really special, he created an incredible atmosphere that was entirely different from the actual exhibition later in the day. I’m not sure if it was the lighting, the less empty arena, or what - but it felt like Yuzu was skating in his own world and allowing us a glimpse into it.

Yep, a pretty decisive and undisputed victory! Although I think in all disciplines you really weren’t 100% sure of the final result until almost the end. Quite the exciting Olympics, I’d say I’m pretty happy with results all around (this is a huge understatement, I’m over the moon!).

If Yuzu does the Grand Prix I’m almost certain he’ll get the host spot for NHK and I don’t expect them to try to put him against Shoma there. Shoma’s GP selections will depend more on the World podium results any way. The only way I see the two of them at NHK is if it were held in one of their hometowns and I don’t believe it is for 2018. Yuzu hasnt had a competition in Japan since 2016 NHK Trophy, it’s been a ridiculously long time since he’s competed in Japan and I think he knows and acknowledges this too. The only way I don’t see him going to NHK is if with his rehab he tries to schedule himself for later grand prixs to allow himself more time to prepare.

I’m not that familiar with yahoo japan auctions, but I find it strange people can retract bids and there isn’t a legal obligation to pay if you do fake bids like this. I know on eBay that’s how it’s supposed to work, where it’s basically almost a contract to pay if you bid and many sellers only accept bids from paypal verified users who have a history of following through on what they agree to pay for. I do hope this resetting hasn’t deterred real bidders for going for the boots. It’s for charity and all so if these are people with malicious intent they should automatically get their yahoo auction account banned.

They asked where we were sitting so they must've filmed while we were watching too (they came to find us at our seats a few times for comments). The media will always cherry pick what they want to show, I think this applies even outside of Japanese media, which is why I was a bit apprehensive about allowing them to film. They didn't give a ton of context of what the angle for the piece was going to be beforehand, just that they wanted to do a bit on his international fans. I think for these types of tv spots/specials they usually try for the more extreme examples to showcase as it probably makes for better TV, so I'm not surprised. There were a lot of things they asked us that were probably more interesting than what they actually chose to show (we gave some pretty lengthy explanations about what we liked about him and his skating and none of that really got in). Luckily, I have a sense of humor so I was able to laugh (pretty hard at that) at what they included - although I thought some of the other examples of fans they included may have been shown with a slightly more mocking tone done for laughs.

I’m catching up on all the footage so I haven’t had a chance to watch this press conference, but just reading the bits translated and this talk about whether he meant tv specials about his fans or fan made videos when he talks about the fit of the music got me thinking. TV Tokyo followed @Danibellerika And I at the Olympics and included us in their short TV segment about fans and it was interesting to see what did and didn’t make the cut, and how certain things were edited. When I saw the segment it was definitely made to be more humorous than I expected (although I enjoyed laughing at it all since it was exaggerated for humor on purpose and I probably have an odd sense of humor), a lot of the questions they asked us didn’t make it onto TV. They also very deliberately edited in footage of my tears after he was announced the winner while I was in my seat INTO scenes of Yuzu skating Seimei to make it seem like I was crying while he was skating. I know they were fishing for tears as they asked us during the SP if we cried and I told them specifically that I save any tears for after the free as I’ve learned my lesson. This makes me wonder if Yuzu meant he notices the odd cut and splice into they do with their footage on fans. Perhaps he’s noticed sometimes their background music doesn’t fully match the video they show because it actually has been edited in.

That was really interesting, thanks for sharing!

I think I have a slightly different take on this, as I feel his desire to win has always been internal and doesn't really rely on anything else. Sure, he probably wants to pay back those who support him with results, but ultimately the motivation to compete and win has always come from within - which is why I'm not surprised if he genuinely wants to compete at Worlds. This is a skater who has was taken off the ice for about 4 months before he could compete again, I think he probably is itching to compete (so long as he gets a pass from the doctors). He may say that he wants good results to pay people back, but ultimately, I think if we were to strip that from him his own desire to win and compete outweighs that, so I think that he's always done it for himself and is still competing because he genuinely wants to compete. I don't ever expect him to be the type of skater that would say "I'm just skating for the joy of skating" because competing = joy for him. I do agree that once he won the Olympics again and accomplished his goal even with injury, that a huge weight was lifted off his shoulders. I think that weight has been on him since he won Sochi and is probably why he felt he needed to compete continually these last 4 years. He knew the best way to make his case for that second Olympic gold was to not skip competitions and do the grand prix each year, even though Shirota advised him to take at least the GP off after Sochi. I think, if the injury hadn't happened he may have considered a short break, but because he was forced to sit out of competitions he may actually do the grand prix next season if he's healthy, and Worlds if the doctors let him.

You know, they should update the Parisienne Walkways one with the pistol-pose!

I'm trying to find the right place to post my fancam videos, but I must admit that I have a hard to finding/navigating the threads (for some reason nothing is ever where I expect it to be on our forum, maybe my logic is just different). I thought there was a fancam thread, and also a fluff thread a while back for the Olympics, or do fancams belong in the general Yuzu thread? My initial thought was to post it in the general thread, but for the sake of organization I get why it might get cluttered.

Thanks for the info on the book everyone! That was fast to publishing... guess he had a lot of time while he was off ice after NHK

Ok... where have you guys seen pre-orders for the third auto-biography? I didn't see anything on amazon.co.jp the other night and hadn't heard anything about it until now (although I expected another book, and hopefully DVD/Bluray).

I get the feeling Yuzu knows, with how educated he is about this sport I think he knows who is who, even if it's just by name. Not sure if he ever got a chance to meet Max, but Milan would've been a great chance for it to happen if he ends up going!

They have part of this video on the CNN website, however you can't download it. You may be able to screen record it though. https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2018/02/19/cnni-japan-figure-skating-megastar-wire-pkg.cnn/video/playlists/winter-olympics-2018/ Yep, "Moni", or Monica, is me. I laughed so hard when I saw they combined our names like that.