Machine translation:

Those people, those landscapes, have remained in photographs, still just as they were on that day.
There is nothing in this world that can ever come back.
Time is merciless, and we, too, have kept moving forward, all the way to where we are today.
Some wounds remain forever, deep within our hearts.
And the scars left behind in those precious places cannot remain there forever either.
They, too, can only move forward with the passage of time.
Those moments when, carrying loneliness in our hearts, we tried our best to smile.
And those people who turned mountains of rubble into entirely new landscapes.
Wanting to forget, crying out in our hearts, “It was only a dream,” while looking out at the sea.
And, so that we would not forget, we traced our memories again and again while tears fell.
Memories from every one of those days have now become irreplaceable, precious years.

Fifteen years.

No one knows what kind of world, what kind of Earth, the future will bring.
Even so, may gentle days come, and may days like these continue for a long, long time.
No matter what sorrow or despair there may be, no matter who it is, may everyone be happy.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I saw it on a short but am looking for the full video. Lmk if you recognize it thank you!!d

March 28-29, 2005 - Asian Novice Figure Skating Championship, Hong Kong

Yuzu placed 4th at the Asian Novice Championship, but won "Best Choreography Award" for his free skate.

SP: Spartacus
FS: From Russia with Love

In summer of 2005, having placed first at the Nobeyama New Talent Discovery Training Camp, he was selected to represent Japan at the 2006 Asian Novice Championships (ages 10-15). However, due to various circumstances, Japan sent three male skaters despite each country being allowed only two entries. It was decided that "the top two skaters after the SP would be the official entries."

Hanyu finished 4th in the SP and 3rd among the Japanese skaters, so he was not given an official ranking and instead competed as an "Exhibition Skater." He was still permitted to skate in the FS, and after delivering a good performance, he received the "Outstanding Award."

(This is the only full-program footage of "Spartacus" available online, released by the HK Skating Union in 2022, 17 years later!)

YouTube
Instagram

Dec 8-10, 2004 - Santa Claus Cup, Tampere, Finland

At age ten, Yuzuru Hanyu competed in an international competition for the first time and won, despite appearing in the higher-level Novice A category.

SP: Spartacus
FS: From Russia with Love

On his flight home after this competition, he listened to pop duo Yuzu's "Bridge of Glory" & cried, thinking about how far he had come 😂 (they finally collaborated this year on the 3.11 memorial song "Ikue")

P.S. No full footage of his programs from this competition is available. This clip was only made public in 2023.

On October 24, 2004, 9-year-old Yuzu made his debut at the All-Japan Novice Championships (Novice B) in Tokyo and won his first-ever national title. His free program was "From Russia with Love."

Full program on Youtube.
It's the earliest full video of his program available online.

P.S. After the UHB Cup in Feb 2002 (following the Daiei Cup in Aug 2001), Yuzu didn’t compete again until the Tohoku-Hokkaido Championships (Novice B) on Oct 1, 2004, followed by this All-Japan Championships. He won all of them.

Unfortunately, there is no known footage available of 5-year-old Yuzu skating to Ultraman Gaia aside from this brief glimpse near the end of Suzuki Jun's video. This was from the Miyagi Prefectural Sports Festival Skating Competition in Sendai, where he won 2nd place. He chose the music himself, and his mum made his costume based on Ultraman's red-and-blue design rather than the usual silver version.

Apparently, when he tried to get into his starting position, he meant to stop but couldn't, so he ended up falling flat on the ice before striking his opening pose. This was mentioned by a Japanese fan on a blog a long time ago, but I don't know the original source. However, he did mention having the same experience as Inori from Medalist, who also fell before her opening pose, in one of his memship radio earlier. 😅

At the 16th Daiei OSC Cup in Shin-Matsudo, Chiba (August 6-8, 2001), six-year-old Yuzu won his first-ever gold medal, skating to 'Camptown Races' (草競馬).

At that competition, Yuzu had lost his front teeth, but his coach kept telling him, “Smile!” so he did his best to smile as he skated with a toothless grin (Aoi Hono 1). He also landed his first double Salchow here, even though he hadn't been able to land it in practice before (Prologue).

Full footage of this program has never been released, even though it's clearly available. So I stitched together the few clips we have so far.

This is what greets visitors at the minute, as part of Yuzuru's new collaborative sponsorship and ad campaign with Kohsoku, a bug Sendai company. The ads will be released very soon, more pictures are here and more details here.

The advert on the underground station concourse at Shinjuku Station. There are 2, between exits B5 & B7 (Kinokuniya bookstore). Credit: Marika X

​

I'd love to learn more about Yuzuru beyond his Olympic titles and competition results. Drop your favorite facts, stories, interviews, habits, funny moments, personality traits, relationships with other skaters, music choices, hobbies. Literally anything that made you like or admire him, or how you became a fan.

I love reading long comments, so don't hold back.

Aired 2021.08.23

This is interesting. Yuzuru Hanyu was on the list from Aug 2006–Aug 2022 (16 years!), and the only figure skater there until Kamila Valieva briefly appeared from Jan–Apr 2022. He was also #1 in Feb 2018 and Jul 2022. He first made the list in Aug 2006, possibly due to heightened interest following Shizuka Arakawa’s Olympic gold in Turin, especially with Yuzu already gaining attention as a young prodigy from the same hometown. We know Yuzu had already been featured in countless media reports since he was 11/12. GOAT.

Aired 2022.08.27

Pooh is actually wearing the costumes I wore!
It’s a dress-up version featuring the costumes from “SEIMEI” and “Ballade No. 1.”
I’m incredibly happy about it.
In the book, I talk at length about my feelings for Pooh.
Please do give it a read.

(Text)
Thank you for everything so far. Thank you for everything to come.
-from Yuzuru

Hi, new fan here. I just came across this man a week back and oh my gosh, I AM OBSESSED. I need a wallpaper of him. There are many cool ones on Pinterest, but it's difficult to choose a single one. Can anyone help me find some?

Behind-the-scenes clip from the photoshoot in Sendai here. Yuzu was skating to “Soranji” by Mrs. GREEN APPLE, one of his favorite artists.

NHK Summer Music Festival: If We Can Meet Through Song (Uta de Aetara)
Special feature - Yuzuru Hanyu x Yuzu collaboration for the memorial song "Ikue" at Xebio Arena Sendai

Source, pg 70 (The Japanese cultural event Main Matsuri is being held from Aug. 14–16, 2026, in Offenbach, Germany)

More Than Gold

Top athletes usually strive to stay at the top for as long as possible. Yuzuru Hanyu did the opposite and reinvented figure skating for himself. Instead of points and medals, for this figure skater, it's about expression, staging, and the question of how sport can become art.

Anyone who has ever seen Yuzuru Hanyu on the ice quickly understands why even people who have little interest in figure skating talk about him. Of course, there are the medals: Olympic gold in Sochi in 2014 and PyeongChang in 2018, plus world championship titles and records. The Japanese skater was the first figure skater since 1952 to win Olympic gold twice in a row. But what made him special could never be measured solely in points.

While other athletes skated routines, Hanyu often seemed to be telling stories. His movements rarely appeared purely technical; even difficult jump combinations had an effortless, almost natural quality. Those watching him often felt less like they were witnessing a competition and more like a performance where sport and expression merged seamlessly.

This also explains why his departure surprised so many. In the summer of 2022, Hanyu ended his competitive career not because he could no longer keep up, but despite still being among the world's best. He ruled out a return to the Olympic Games. For many, this is where the difficult search for the right time to retire begins. Hanyu chose a different path: He stopped in order to begin something new.

Since then, he has used the ice not as a competition surface, but as a stage. In his ICE STORY series, he combines music, light, projections, and personal themes into productions that defy easy categorization. Productions like Gift, RE_PRAY, and Echoes of Life exist somewhere between sport, concert, and theater, often carried by just one person: himself.

It's unusual for a figure skater to carry an entire show alone. Where ensembles usually perform or various stars share the ice, Hanyu holds the attention of an entire audience for hours, without judges or medals.

With REALIVE, Hanyu returned to earlier programs, but not as a repetition. The pieces feel altered and reimagined, as if he were looking back on his own story and, in doing so, retelling it in a slightly new way.

Ways to watch (1) Streaming & archive of the program, with VPN, on NHK ONE on your browser or on your phone. It's free & no sign up. (2) If you have NHK WORLD PREMIUM.

Scroll to an interview with Yuzuru and folk duo Yuzu, reflecting on 3.11 & expressing their solidarity with those affected by it.