General Yuzuru Chat

[rockstaryuzu]

And now for something completely different...should we tell Yuzu about these, or do you reckon he already knows? :

 

UA True Wireless Headphones

[Yuzurella]

22 minutes ago, rockstaryuzu said:

At the start of the news clip, one of kanji captions on it said June. So sometime during June. 

 

I couldn't tell whether he did Seimei in full for the kids, but you could tell he was putting his heart and soul into it just as if he had an audience of thousands. And it sounded like the kids were asking skating-related questions. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the little girl was asking about speed going into jumps? 

 

Lae actually translated what they said in the video. Just click on the tweet and go through the thread.

[ralucutzagy]

 

Somebody bought Yuzu's watch! 

[ralucutzagy]

 

What is Yuzu saying ? We get to watch the Sakura Fairy tomorrow? 

[sallycinnamon]

Hey,

 

we have a broadcast thread for 24H TV  I don't know when Yuzu's segment will be, maybe in the evening (JST) but we'll find out. You can comment here when the time comes!

 

 

[mercedes]

2 hours ago, rockstaryuzu said:

And now for something completely different...should we tell Yuzu about these, or do you reckon he already knows? :

 

UA True Wireless Headphones

And they are already sold out ....hanyu.economy at its best again or just a coincidence?

[rockstaryuzu]

1 hour ago, mercedes said:

And they are already sold out ....hanyu.economy at its best again or just a coincidence?

If you read the page, they were voted best new product in their category at the Consumer Electronics Show 2019,  so it's probably just that, like Yuzu, they're just that good. 

[micaelis]

23 hours ago, Geo1 said:

"Yuzuru Hanyu, a heartthrob for the Japanese, who became the first man in more than 50 years to win back-to-back figure skating gold medals, also figures in the discussion. He hails from Sendai, a northern city hit by the 2011 tsunami."

 

If they really are trying to showcase Japan's recovery from the 2011 disaster, Yuzu would be the ideal representative of that because of his accomplishments and dedication to the recovery of the area. In addition to his athletic accomplishments, he is immensely popular with the people and has also received the People's Honor Award in recognition of everything he has done.

 

Knowing Yuzu, he would be inclined to not accept the position of final torchbearer even if it was offered to him because he is not a summer Olympian; however, if they said that his being the final torchbearer would assist in the recovery of his hometown of Sendai and Tohoku, he would likely accept it. This was the reason he decided to accept the acting offer when he played the Lord of Sendai in "Tono, Risoku de Gozaru" ("The Magnificent Nine"). He and his father decided that it was appropriate for him to accept the offer because it was a story about the people of Sendai helping themselves to recover from their financial difficulties.

 

Yuzu is also someone who is very high profile and very much in the eyes of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Imperial family.

 

Having said all that, I have a feeling that it will be someone else that will surprise everyone by running into the stadium bearing the torch to light the Olympic flame.

As remarked here Yuzu is probably on the shortlist of candidates to light the cauldron.  However I can also see his participation in other ways in the torch relay.  One, and I'm certain that this is probably already planned, would be for him to carry the torch for part of the time it's passing through Sendai.  A symbolic use of that would be for him to either receive the torch or hand it to someone else at IceRink Sendai.  Another possibility would be for him to be the one to carry the torch into the stadium and hand it off to one of several who will carry the torch around the field until passing it off to the one who will light the cauldron.  Another scenario would be for him to be the one who hands the torch to the cauldron-lighter.  In that scenario I see Yuzu handing it to Kohei Uchimura (if he isn't competing this time), where Winter's most decorated Japanese athlete hands it to Summer's most decorated Japanese athlete, a very nice symbolism.

 

Another idea just occurred to me, and it has precedent of a sort.  In the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City the cauldron was lit by the entire 1980 USA hockey team, the team that beat the Soviets against impossible odds and then beat Finland to take the gold.  It wouldn't be bad symbolism for Yuzu and Kohei to jointly light the cauldron.

 

All this, of course, is speculation.  I would expect that in those areas of the torch relay taking place in Tohoku many of the torch-bearers will be survivors of one sort or another of the 3/11 event.  That will highlight the prime minister's thematic objective.  What we can be sure of is that Yuzu will of a certainty be involved in some way as being the athlete most identified with the recovery.  

[Pammi]

Just some thoughts on the sad bit of the Hokkaido video 

Spoiler

Going back to the video in Hokkaido, I can’t get over how Yuzuru’s tears still come so immediately when someone raises the issue of him having had painful times, and Mami-sensei says she thinks he still has them now, and he agrees, with tears in his eyes, and the brave face he then fights to put on for everyone. Will he always suffer this hurt? Will it always be so close to the surface for him?  I have never experienced a traumatic disaster, I can’t even imagine how it feels, especially to the young, sensitive person as Yuzu was, and still is.

I felt heartbroken watching that ... but then I so admire that Yuzuru shows this to us, to his people, to those he is supporting who have also suffered - he’s so real, and true. He has such Genuineness, despite the mask of fame that he wears.

 

[TallyT]

1 hour ago, rockstaryuzu said:

If you read the page, they were voted best new product in their category at the Consumer Electronics Show 2019,  so it's probably just that, like Yuzu, they're just that good. 

 

Only the best for our Yuzuru... it's a stunning piece, I can see why.

[Coquelicot]

4 hours ago, ralucutzagy said:

 

Somebody bought Yuzu's watch! 

 

Eep!!  It really is beautiful.    I don't need a watch but I need a watch.

[Moria Polonius]

4 hours ago, micaelis said:

In that scenario I see Yuzu handing it to Kohei Uchimura (if he isn't competing this time), where Winter's most decorated Japanese athlete hands it to Summer's most decorated Japanese athlete, a very nice symbolism.

 

From what I read around, Kohei is planning on competing if he can recover from injuries in time, but that lady wrestler brought golds from 3 Olympics. 

 

Selfishly, I wish they'd "use" Yuzu...

[Sabrina]

10 minutes ago, Moria Polonius said:

 

From what I read around, Kohei is planning on competing if he can recover from injuries in time, but that lady wrestler brought golds from 3 Olympics. 

 

Selfishly, I wish they'd "use" Yuzu...

We’ll see what happens but that would be nice ! 

The torch relay will also go through Sendai but it’s planned to arrive in Sendai on the 21st of March ,but I doubt that he’ll be there because worlds in Canada is until the 22nd of March ! 

 

[KatjaThera]

3 hours ago, Pammi said:

Just some thoughts on the sad bit of the Hokkaido video 

  Hide contents

Going back to the video in Hokkaido, I can’t get over how Yuzuru’s tears still come so immediately when someone raises the issue of him having had painful times, and Mami-sensei says she thinks he still has them now, and he agrees, with tears in his eyes, and the brave face he then fights to put on for everyone. Will he always suffer this hurt? Will it always be so close to the surface for him?  I have never experienced a traumatic disaster, I can’t even imagine how it feels, especially to the young, sensitive person as Yuzu was, and still is.

I felt heartbroken watching that ... but then I so admire that Yuzuru shows this to us, to his people, to those he is supporting who have also suffered - he’s so real, and true. He has such Genuineness, despite the mask of fame that he wears.

 

Spoiler

Sadly, I don't think it's even just the disaster and I can't even begin to imagine the trauma of the disaster itself. (visiting some disaster related places in Sendai was a shock, even while having always felt somehow... close to it, as I watched it unfold on TV and already had a deep interest in Japan, and it hurt a lot to see Japan be hit that hard then. But none of that can compare to actually having been there. I have been slightly traumatized by the earthquake I experienced in Japan in June and that was nothing compared to this, so I try to imagine multiplying my trauma many times and maybe that might just approach the feelings Yuzu and everyone affected then probably have...) It's also the pressure and responsibility that came with being "the star of Sendai's hope" - that he openly struggled with at first and then embraced, but even after embracing it, I can't imagine how hard it must have been to take everything he did and analyze it through that filter. Where every victory was for Sendai/Tohoku and every failure was a disappointment not just for him, but he probably perceived it as letting everyone else down as well. Then deciding to leave Sendai, to improve and get better and be able to win - his goal still being to win more, for Sendai. Working so hard to get that Olympic Gold in Sochi, only to still doubt himself and his victory's importance to the recovery efforts, after winning. Facing the people more affected than him with a heavy heart, only to be healed by them, some (the video where he meets the teachers who folded and shared onigiri when he was in the evacuation center, after he wins in Sochi is a video that never fails to make me cry; we often see Yuzu bringing comfort to people, we don't see nearly as often people comforting him). But I think that only made it more important to him to do even better and get a second Gold, one he could really be fully proud of, for them. Going nearly crazy intense over the next four years, despite injuries and illness and risking his health and well-being to achieve it.

 

And throughout it all, dealing with so much hate, people accusing him of having invented his own trauma, fans of other skaters doing everything they can to discredit him, his own federation appearing to not try very hard to support at times, judges always holding him to a higher standard than everyone else and having to always be a paragon whenever he sets foot out the door, because everyone expects him to be perfect. Perfect on the ice, but also perfect off the ice. Always polite, always well-behaved, always calm, always the bigger man. And despite that, still getting tabloid coverage, people either trying to dig up stories, or just invent them altogether, when they can't dig up anything. To always be watched, to probably rarely being able to just be himself, at least in public.

 

And all this at just 24 years old. I can't begin to imagine all his pain, his possible loneliness and his strength to keep going and doing his best despite it all. I could never be as hard-working and ambitious as he is (the part with "I work 3 times harder than everyone else" also makes me tear up; the way he says it also hints at how hard that is, that it's not just pretty words, but that it is really hard to do, but he knows it's necessary; not enough people point this out to aspiring athletes, or, indeed, people trying to achieve any big dream, IMO), but I cannot help but admire the incredible person that he is. I actually don't understand how anyone can not admire him...

 

[daisyjune]

After winning gold medal in Sochi, Yuzu sent Yamada Mami-sensei gloves as a gift from Sochi.

Mami-sensei gave those gloves to Kazuki Hasegawa, then a middle school student, who asked a question about

pressure before the competition to Yuzu in the yesterday's TV program.

Kazuki said four years ago "I don't wear them. I treasure them. When I can jump a quad, maybe I'm going to start to wear them."