Yuzuru Hanyu e suas músicas favoritas

“Be the light” by ONE OK ROCK

This song was released in March 2013 and dedicated to people all over the world who have suffered through natural catastrophes.
During Yuzu’s talk with Shizuka Arakawa on her show, Friends+, on 29 Feb 2016, this song was played for a while and words on the screen said “Favourite Song”, “Yuzuru Hanyu”. (@7:20 of video below)
Please watch the official MV above.  The song brings tears to my eyes, especially after watching Yuzu’s recent TV programme on the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, “Memories of That Day”.
(Arakawa’s talk show below: I will try to briefly translate some parts if I have time in the next few days.)

Vídeo da entrevista feita no programa  Friends+

160229 Sizuka×Yuzuru por YzRIKO

Translation by yuzusorbet.tumblr , which with its magnificent work of translation helps Yuzuru fans worldwide who do not speak Japanese.
Thanks also to those who disclose Yuzuru of news to those who do not live in Japan.

Yuzuru Hanyu - 5 anos do grande terremoto.

2016 0307 ‘’被災地訪問‘’続けるワケ ２１歳の‘’覚悟... por yuzupino

This video is a good summary of Yuzuru’s feelings towards the disaster-affected areas and related activities since Sochi Olympics.   Videos and translations of each event have been posted before;  this is an overall view, plus translation of a few new parts.

Jan 2016, at the school that served as the evacuation centre:
“My parent(s) and sister, holding plastic containers, lined up for water here, they lined up for a long time…. everyone was lining up.”

“The stars were beautiful, the day of the earthquake.  The starry skies of March 11…. because it was pitch dark, the stars were really beautiful…. very beautiful.  People in the olden days must have looked at stars like this.”

Photos of Sendai’s starry sky from the night after the quake;  there was no power/electricity, the lights of the town had all gone out.

“A lot of memories are coming back.”

(parts translated recently in nonchan1023’s video “Memories of That Day”)

“In my life, among all my memories, among all my experiences, this was the most painful.” 

10 months after the earthquake, Jan 2012 (17 years old):
“(At the evacuation centre) I lay here, just looking at the ceiling, wondering what’s going to happen to Japan;  thinking, can everyone live in the same way again?   I was fearful.”

“I did think about skating.  I wanted to skate but I definitely couldn’t say it.  I cannot be (selfishly) doing something that I like.”
But 2 weeks after the quake, he started to skate again (due to an invitation to do a charity ice show).
“I felt very sorry to all the people who were still in the disaster area.  Because of my skating, I alone escaped… Is that really alright?”

3 years after the quake, he won the Olympic gold at Sochi.   At the press conference:
“My hard work was not of any help to the reconstruction.  I feel very helpless.  I feel like I didn’t do anything.”

4 months after Sochi Olympics, June 2014:
He visited Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture and interacted with the people there.
“I realised once again that my skating and my results gave strength to these people.  So I want to be able to come back here with good results again.”

He also learned of the horrors of the tsunami.
Old man: Everything, my home, my wife, my dog, my shed…. everything was washed away.  Nothing was left.
[Old man walks off.] 
Yuzu:  "It hurts / it’s painful (x4)…. He can smile/laugh like that now; how much suffering he must have gone through to reach this point….  It’s so hard, painful (x4).“

It was the first time that he faced directly the reality of the tsunami’s devastation.
Yuzu: "There is so much that I don’t know.  I feel that I should know these things properly.”

For the reconstruction of his hometown Tohoku, Hanyu felt that there was something he could do.  He visited disaster areas and conveyed the existing situation to others.
[scenes from June 2015 visit to Fukushima]

(t/n. 7 Jan 2016, he also went to Otsuchi in Iwate, not shown in this video.)

This year January (2016), he went to the area near Sendai airport in Miyagi prefecture.  There is a monument erected there that is 8 metres high, same height as the tsunami.
“A height of 8 metres and it came from that direction, right? …. at a speed of some tens of metres per second…”
[he rings the bell and says a prayer.]

(parts translated in nonchan1023’s video)

Now, 5 years from the disaster, 21 years old, his thoughts:
“Directly visiting the affected areas, listening to the voices of the people there, being told words like ‘you gave me strength’,  'I can look ahead’….. that my skating makes people feel something, gives them energy (genki), there is nothing happier than this for me.

I will treasure my practice every day and I will cherish my daily life.  I will do things one by one to help the affected areas and the people there.  I have to work hard and become better.

Because we are the people who are alive, we have to live our lives fully.  For those who have passed away and for those still suffering now, I feel strongly that we must live in a way that we can be proud of.“

–translated by yuzusorbet.tumblr some parts are summarised; video thanks to yuzupino

Mensagem de Yuzuru no aniversário de 5 anos do terremoto/tsunami que afetou o Japão.


160311 震災から5年 彼からのメッセージ por YzRIKO

Yuzuru leiloando seus patins em prol das vitimas do grande terremoto
Source: sukisukiyuzu.tumblr,  Yahoo Japan 

 

YUZU DAYS - Interview on P&G ((March 2016)

 

Yuzuru Hanyu talks about that moment: 2014 GP series
–It was after Sochi Olympics, in November 2014.  At a Grand Prix series competition in Shanghai, during the official warm-up just before the free skate, suddenly there were screams from the audience.  On the ice lay the figures of 2 skaters.  Hanyu had collided with another skater. (t/n. Han Yan, Cup of China)–

INTERVIEW

At that time, we were each concentrating on our own practice and did not see what was around us.  Because when we perform, it is not always necessary to be looking towards the direction we are going.  The moment I turned round, the other skater was already right in front of me.  Our speed in that situation was 60 to 70 km per hour, and so there was nothing I could do.  I was hit in the abdominal area and flung to the ground (by the impact), and my chin hit the ice hard.

That moment, it was just pain.  And because my abdomen was hit, I could not breathe;  it was so painful to the extent that I was thinking what I should do so that I could take a breath.  My head was in a daze and I could not think and time just passed by.  I received some stitches on my chin and above my ear; this was very painful too as it was done without anaesthesia.  But after resting a while, I became calm and I could walk.  Then I thought, “I definitely can skate,  I definitely want to compete.” 

–After receiving first aid and being diagnosed as having no concussion, it was a tricky situation.  Enduring the pain and going against the worries of his coach and parents, he decided to compete;  what was his intention?—

‘I did not want it to end here.’

I insisted on competing because I absolutely wanted to compete at the Grand Prix Final at the end of the series.  It was solely because of that.  To qualify for GPF, I had to obtain points from this competition.  I had already got a partial score from the short programme, so even if my free programme was not good, points could be obtained based on placing if I did my performance to the end.  Doing this will lead to possibilities at the NHK Trophy coming up next.  And also, the previous season, I achieved the triple crown of Olympics, World and GPF, so I definitely wanted to win the GPF which has a meaning of being the season champion. 

‘I will stand to the end no matter what.’

During the performance, the inner part of my knee was in pain and my leg could not bend.  Thinking about it now, I feel I skated well.  Even if I fell, I could get points for rotating the jumps.  For rotating a triple jump, 2 or 3 points can be obtained, so I thought, I will absolutely rotate it.  In reality, just standing up was already hard, but somehow, my feelings were “I can jump even the quads”. When I finished skating without mishap, the feeling was, I managed to pull it off.  At the kiss and cry, I was so relieved…. my tears could not stop.   

–After the accident, Hanyu had to undergo rehabilitation.  The damaging effect of the collision was worse than he thought.–

After that competition, doctors said I would be able to walk after a week, but actually, I could not walk for about 10 days.  When I could do a half run/ jog, I tried going to the rink and onto the ice, but the pain was so great I could not skate.  Before this, I had experienced injuries but I had never had so much pain before….. maybe I cannot skate anymore, I seriously thought.  My feelings were so depressed that I thought of quitting skating.

For the first time since I was born, I said to my mother, “I can’t skate anymore.” Mother’s response was out of my expectations.  "How about just giving it a try anyway?“ she said.  From the time I was small, whenever I said I wanted to quit, she had always said, "Why don’t you quit?” but now…..  "If you skate just a little on the ice every day with the intention of rehabilitation, the situation may change for the better while doing that,“ she told me.   Then somehow, I was suddenly invigorated and I felt that it was possible to skate again.  And even more, "I will definitely win the next NHK Trophy!”, that willpower gushed forth.

Now when I think back about the accident, at that time if I had withdrawn from the competition, and if I did not have those words from my mother, perhaps the person that I am now would not exist.  I am once again grateful for my mother’s words.  

Translated by yuzusorbet.tumblr;  original source: P&G, myrepi.com

[next month, new theme for YUZU DAYS– What figure skating taught me]

Past translations of these monthly articles [X]  

Memories of “That Day”

5 years on, Memories of “That Day” – from a programme ‘Disasters You Can’t Learn about from Textbooks’, aired on 1 March 2016.  Yuzuru’s part is on the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami of March 2011.

———————

My initial brief translation: Yuzuru Hanyu goes to an area near the sea, near Sendai airport.  He talks with a man whose house is the only one left standing in the area after the tsunami.  The first floor is almost completely destroyed.  He saw the tsunami coming and quickly fled to Sendai airport.  He ran up the steps in the nick of time, but he saw many others being swept away;  if he had been 30 seconds slower, he would have died too.  He will leave his house as it is, as a memorial to the disaster.

Yuzuru looking at the deserted landscape: “It feels like time has stopped there.”

Yuzuru’s hometown was also hit by the earthquake.  He was 16 at that time and was practising in the Sendai rink when it happened.  The rink suffered damage and his home was destroyed.  He and his family took shelter in a school hall with about 450 people.  The cold was severe and there were many aftershocks.  10 months after the quake (Jan 2012), 17 year-old Yuzuru went back to the school for a TV documentary and recounted his experience.  “Earthquake coming again, earthquake coming…. I could not sleep, being anxious and scared.  The aftershocks came often and the sounds were very loud.”

In the years to follow, he has had sleepless nights.  3 years later, when he won the Olympic gold medal in Sochi, at the press conference the next day, he was asked about his own personal experience of the earthquake.  He said, “I’m sorry I don’t really want to think back about this.  I would prefer not to comment on this.”   The emotional scars were still there.     

5 years from the disaster that left this big scar;  this January (2016), he returned to that school again.  Some things have been set up to show it as an evacuation centre just like those days after the disaster.   Memories and complex feelings arise in him as he walks around.

He shows the space where his family of 4 had to sleep.  He said the rice for the ‘wakame gohan’ (rice+seaweed) was hard but it was very delicious.  Trying it now, he said yes it’s this taste and he still feels it’s delicious.  At first, it was 2 onigiri (rice ball) for each person, then it became 1 piece for 2 persons.  His family gave him one whole piece because he was a growing boy (still in the period of growth).  He showed how he ate the onigiri, taking very small bites to make it last longer.  The tiny bits of wakame stuck to the cover of the plastic box were also eaten so that nothing was wasted.     

At the end, he said, “A life without the earthquake disaster does not come to my mind.  I am able to accept it now.  This is normal. Even though earthquake disasters are not normal. I am able to think that walking forth from here is very normal.  I can think that way because I am in the same place as that time.  Because we are the people who are alive, we have to fulfill our lives. I feel strongly that we must live in a way that we can be proud of, for those who have passed away and for those still suffering today."

–Thanks to YzRIKO for the initial video – with no subs.

Translation by: yuzusorbet


"Memories of That Day" (3.01.2016) por nonchan1023

Updated with Eng-subbed video by nonchan1023 (much thanks to her).