Daisuke Takahashi

Noz Inner Beauty take #3, June 16

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JnXC6kdZ_Y

Rough translations:

Q) Who do you think are beautiful?
A) Difficult to answer in a word, because there are various ways to define 'beauty', you know... I exercise dancing, so dancers come to mind. Both male and female dancers. They do have beautiful bodies; beautiful lines of their bodies with solid muscles, especially on their back.

Q) Can you name a few in particular?
A) Tetsuya Kumakawa. Well, he is such a great ballet dancer that everybody knows. Another dancer who comes to mind is Yusuke Onuki. I have been to the theater recently to watch a musical "Romeo and Juliet", and he was there as 'dancer of the death'. His dance was so beautiful that made me moved to tears.

Q) How do you define 'beauty'?
A) Beauty itself comes from inside, I think. However hard we try to keep up our appearances (= to conceal own weaknesses), we can not cover them up forever; sooner or later we end up showing our own weaknesses.
There are things we do not like, or we have to face some awful experiences/times in our life. If we are beautiful enough inside of ourselves, we can take everything as it is, whether we like it or not.

Q) When was your first love?
A) At elementary school?...no, at kindergarten.

Q) Do you tell girls when you are in love?
A) No, most of the time no. Even though I normally do not tell them about it, it shows with my behavior I guess, so they know it. I am probably the kind of person who easily show feelings with its behavior.

Q) What is important for you when being in love?
A) To try to enjoy the moments and be happy all the time. I am 26 y.o. so I think I am still young, but I sometimes feel lazy or take it rather bothersome...(laugh) And...respect. Yes respect is important for me. I do not think I will fall in love with a girl unless I have some of respect in that girl as a person first.

Q) You are traveling around the world all the time. It must be hard to keep your relationship with your girl friend, I would imagine?
A) I tend to get involved too much when I am in love with someone, I would say recalling my past. So right now I try to keep some distance from such a situation. I do not go out to places where I may meet some girls. It's not a good idea for me (to get involved too much) if I want to fully prepare for the Olympics. I shall be in love with my skating for these two years until Sochi! (laugh)

Q) How about marriage? Have you ever thought about getting married?
A) Never!
Q) Do you have any idea until when you would like to marry?
A) Not really. Marry or not marry, if I have to make my choice, I probably would marry, but I just do not know when...I think I want my own children for sure, though.

Q) Who are close to your image of ideal men? Name a few if you have any.
A) Let me see...Takeshi Kaneshiro, Hiroshi Abe, and Yutaka Takenouchi come to mind. While they are all cool, quiet, matured and refined, they can also pay close attention to others and consider others' feelings very well. I would love being cool and quiet myself, but it's impossible for me to be quiet! I just keep talking on and on, far from my ideal image!
Q) You have lived in Kansai area for many years. It must be why you rather feel obliged to say something unique with humor, maybe.

Thanks deedee. Well know we now a little about Dai's love life which according to him is non-existent at this time. He is in love with his skating only, but I think he
has a little crush on Meryl Davis. lol

Thanks, deedee. Can you tell us a little about the "ideal men" Daisuke cites? They are not names that I recognize.

demarinis5 said:

Thanks deedee. Well know we now a little about Dai's love life which according to him is non-existent at this time. He is in love with his skating only, but I think he has a little crush on Meryl Davis. lol

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Meryl is so lovely. I too almost had a crush on her when I saw her skating live, although I’m a woman.

Olympia said:

Thanks, deedee. Can you tell us a little about the "ideal men" Daisuke cites? They are not names that I recognize.

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They are all hot! (holy true)

let`s talk said:

They are all hot! (holy true)

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Well, that sounds tantalizing. I'll have to Google them. I'm always happy to add to my list.

And I can understand about Meryl Davis. If you gave me the magical ability to look like anyone I choose, she'd be one of my first choices. Her beauty has a magical quality.

I think he has strong chemistry with Akiko Suzuki! They would make a lovely couple as well.

christinaskater said:

I think he has strong chemistry with Akiko Suzuki! They would make a lovely couple as well.

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He does have strong chemistry with Akiko, but I think it is more of brother and sister chemistry. They have been friends for a very long time.

The few clips I have seen of Dai interacting with Meryl I have noticed that his body language is much different than when he interacts with Akiko. He seems almost shy when he
is around Meryl. When he is with Akiko he is very playful and little mischievous just like a brother. Of course this is just my opinion and my observations.
I could be way off base here. lol

Here is a cute clip at World's Gala practice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IJzJUw7eLg

Back to skating. Any news on Dai's programs yet. Even though Dai said Morozov was not doing his choreography this season, I am getting a little worried.

Olympia said:

Well, that sounds tantalizing. I'll have to Google them. I'm always happy to add to my list.

And I can understand about Meryl Davis. If you gave me the magical ability to look like anyone I choose, she'd be one of my first choices. Her beauty has a magical quality.

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You can also 'youtube' those names and will find out they are all very cool actors. I think Dai is talking about the roles and images they project through their works.

Olympia said:

Thanks, deedee. Can you tell us a little about the "ideal men" Daisuke cites? They are not names that I recognize.

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All of them are actors based in Japan.

-Takeshi Kaneshiro (his mother is Taiwanese and father Japanese. Very famous actor in Asian countries.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoQ6laeo8mM

-Hiroshi Abe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gArOjHH6xKc&feature=related

-Yutaka Takenouchi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27nRJCb3Vyg

-Tetsuya Kumakawa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uClWoItv_6g

-Daisuke Takahashi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMKpEEpjvWA

<I was trying to post this in another thread on Daisuke and Nikolai first, but I have changed my mind. Dai sounded so natural and honest in this interview. I just wanted to leave it in this thread, so that I can go back and read his thoughts on this news in the future when I want to.>

Rough translation from Japan Skates:

<1>
Daisuke's comments:

I heard about his offer before the Nice Worlds. Pretty much surprised. His offer was so out of the blue to me. A lot things happened between then and now. My understanding was we would never work together again, so that it was just beyond my imagination. I sometimes thought we might have a chance for choreography some day if circumstances allow, though.
(->note: Nikolai's name was on the list of Dai's team as potential choreographers every season.)

I have made up my mind just recently (took almost 3 months). I could not think about it until after the worlds. I have been of two minds about it, you know. After long consideration, I have finally decided to take his offer because only 2 years left until Olympics for me.

Circumstances changed since we last worked together. At this point nothing has been decided yet, such as how to make it work this time around, but when I thought about it, I realized part of me wanted to give another try.

I am sure I can still learn new things from Nikolai, but this time around my stance is to continue thinking over and deciding my skating and other things on my own (=different from the last time we worked together).
Nikolai himself experienced and learned things since then, too. These experiences of his own will surely be of a good help for me, and he will give me an extra push to go for it if we can set up the same goal again; such as getting another Olympic medal or the Olympic itself, I thought.

After I parted the ways with him four years ago, I was the one who was fully responsible for the direction of my skating, my whole team or how to keep myself motivated, ect. and decided everything on my own. One of the things I appreciated him while working together back then is he was very good at keeping up myself motivated whenever I struggled or was losing to do so. I kind of expect him to help me in that way again.

I believe these four years when I was away from Nikolai was necessary and precious for me. I am a different person now. I used to leave everthing to him before, but I won't be fully dependent on him anymore, as I once was.
I have thought everything over on my own, decided it, put into action, and took it on my own responsibility so far. Nikolai understands and accepts who I am now, and he still wants (expects) me to work together. I remind myself not to fail to live up to his expectations.
I look forward to establishing a whole new relationship, tougher but more trustworthy one, with him. I rather take it as a 'rematch' against Nikolai in my mind. If Nikolai expects me that much, I do not want to dissapoint him, say, him feeling "I thought Dai would be better than this, but I was wrong..."

What I feel now is life is interesting, to be honest, because our path crossed again without my intention. I believe the new season will be even more interesting to me in my whole competitive career, and I am really looking forward to it.

My current training environment is just perfect for me to prepare for the next Olympics, nothing to complain about. From now on, I probably will be visiting his training camp overseas. That means, going back and forth in and out of Japan, I need to skate with my opponents together during practice, or to skate in different countries. It will force me to go out of my current comfortable and convenient environment, and into a stricter and more demanding environment. This will surely help to push myself to another stage, and I beleive that's what I need to fully prepare myself for the upcoming Olympics.

---------------------------------------------------
Dai sounds so natural here, taking the situation quite objectively, doesn't he? Will post Nikolai's comments tomorrow. (hopefully )

deedee1 said:

All of them are actors based in Japan.

-Takeshi Kaneshiro (his mother is Taiwanese and father Japanese. Very famous actor in Asian countries.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoQ6laeo8mM

-Hiroshi Abe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gArOjHH6xKc&feature=related

-Yutaka Takenouchi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27nRJCb3Vyg

-Tetsuya Kumakawa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uClWoItv_6g

-Daisuke Takahashi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMKpEEpjvWA

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Thanks, Deedee! And thanks for the translation of Dai's comments.

<2>
Nikolai's comments:

Firstly, to be honest with you, Daisuke was the most favorite skater among all my skaters for me. We established and kept a pretty good skater-coach relationship throughout.
We had to part ways due to various reasons four years ago, and I always had regrets for that.
Partly owing to Miki who took a year off from Grand Prix 2011-12 season, I had less demanding season myself and had time to look back about it, and realized that we had unfinished business; we did not fully achieve our goal and I want to try again and carry it through to till the end this time.

Q) Daisuke mentioned a word, 'rematch' with you. Your thought?
A) (laugh) True. Our realtionship was like that the last time. We used to kind of fighting against each other. He is a skater, a competitive skater and always has to fight against other skaters.

I believe we can establish a good relationship again, have a wonderful time and share great moments together. Of course we shared great time before, but both of us have matured as a person since then. So I think we will inspire each other and have an even better relationship by working together for another couple of years.

I would like to engage myself fully to his coaching and help him with all of my heart and soul.
I was in the position, as an outsider, only to watch how he progressed as a skater for the last four years. But from now on, I would like to give him everything I have, so that I can help him to win another Olympic medal with the color he has not won yet.

Q) How did you see him as a skater when you were away from him?
A) I knew Daisuke was already one of great skaters back then. He was so talented and had a bright future ahead of him, he was also a great hard worker. But now he has become one of such skaters to be remembered by everyone in the history of figure skating. In order to coah such a skater, I need to improve myself as a coach, too, to be a suitable match for who he is now.

Q) I Suppose you had feelings such as anger or disappointment when you parted ways. Since when did such feelings of yours change?
A) I had a mixed feeling, a complicated one at first, a kind of jealousy watching him to be very successful. But as time went by, I realized that he was doing what he had to do (as a competitive skater) and deservedly accomplished results worthy of his talent and ability. I got calm down a bit and felt better. Then, I could enjoy and appreciate his skating for the last two years or so. At the same time, some of small ideas came to mind while watching him skate, and 'with these small ideas of mine, he could do even better', I thought to myself.

I always had uncomfortable and unsettled feeling ever since Daisuke left my camp, because in the past most of my skaters ended my coaching upon their retirements. But Daisuke did not. For that matter, I was of regrets and felt stuck with him. Now I feel very happy we are in the situation like this again.

Q) When you last worked with Daisuke, you acted like a general producer of his. How are you going to be like this time around?
A) Not decided yet. We will talk about it and decide later. Well, I did not decide everything, you know, it was not like one-way decision from my part the last time, either. We decided everthing as a team back then, so this time will be just the same.

Q) Did you feel he needed you? Or, you neede him more?
A) laugh) I don't know~. I think he needed me, or that (=I needed him more)!

<Upon shooting pics together>

Nikolai pulled Daisuke's shoulder and held him firmly.
Daisuke: '...am embarrassed...'

---------------------------------
(end)

deedee1 said:

Q) How did you see him as a skater when you were away from him?
A) I knew Daisuke was already one of great skaters back then. He was so talented and had a bright future ahead of him, he was also a great hard worker. But now he has become one of such skaters to be remembered by everyone in the history of figure skating. In order to coah such a skater, I need to improve myself as a coach, too, to be a suitable match for who he is now.

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deedee1, Thank you so much for these translations!

I thought the above quote from Nikolai was an amazing tribute from a coach to a student...and I wonder whether Nikolai will indeed improve as a coach! What an awesome thing that would be for all of his students!

demarinis5 said:

The few clips I have seen of Dai interacting with Meryl I have noticed that his body language is much different than when he interacts with Akiko. He seems almost shy when he
is around Meryl.

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Yes, he often mentions about Meryl these days.
Dai says he loves both of her skating and her personality, because of her cleanliness/unimpeachableness (does this word make sense to you???) and gracefulness both as a skater and a person!
Another female skater he mentions among the current eligibles is Nathalie Pechalat.

He used to mention Bebe Liang a lot as his favorite skater a few years ago. I hope he gets to see Bebe's wonderful choreo works from the recent Young Artists Showcase! :yes:
btw, (I don't know how many of you would agree but) Dai also said a couple of times that he loved Evan's jumps the most among his opponents back then.

As for his programs, no news yet...now I am worrying, too.

It's always fascinating to learn which skaters one's favorite skaters like best. I can see that Bebe's quickness of movement would appeal to him, and I'm pleased that he likes Evan.

May I be a copyeditor geek for a moment? (I love the idea of playing with words and shades of meaning, so forgive me for taking up time and space with this.) The two words you offered, cleanliness and unimpeachableness....intriguing. Do you mean in terms of skating? I'd be likelier to use tidiness or neatness if Dai is speaking of Meryl's way of moving. The three words are synonyms in the absolute sense, but cleanliness usually is used to refer to whether someone's clothes are clean, neat, and tidy. Unimpeachableness (just looked up to check) could instead be unimpeachability (both forms are listed in my dictionary but unimpeachability is listed first, implying that it's preferred,), but I've only heard it used in terms of behavior, not technique...I wonder what Dai was implying in his Japanese--an evaluation of her as a person or on the ice?

Olympia said:

May I be a copyeditor geek for a moment? (I love the idea of playing with words and shades of meaning, so forgive me for taking up time and space with this.) The two words you offered, cleanliness and unimpeachableness....intriguing. Do you mean in terms of skating? I'd be likelier to use tidiness or neatness if Dai is speaking of Meryl's way of moving. The three words are synonyms in the absolute sense, but cleanliness usually is used to refer to whether someone's clothes are clean, neat, and tidy. Unimpeachableness (just looked up to check) could instead be unimpeachability (both forms are listed in my dictionary but unimpeachability is listed first, implying that it's preferred,), but I've only heard it used in terms of behavior, not technique...I wonder what Dai was implying in his Japanese--an evaluation of her as a person or on the ice?

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Thanks Olympia, tidiness/neatness would be appropriate/natural to make more sense here, I think.
As always I appreciate you (and other GS members) a lot for helping me out/correcting me of my picking up weird English words!

When asked why he loves Meryl's skating and her personality, Dai picked up a Japanese word 清潔感 (seiketsu-kan) and it made me think of a freshly-washed white cotton shirt. That was probably why I picked up cleanliness I guess, but of course he was not talking about clothes and/or laundry here (even though Dai LOVES doing laundry himself )! :

As for unimpeachableness, I have picked up this word from my Japanese-English dictionary just because it was written there lol. First time for me to encounter this word. I was not so sure whether or not I should use it here (but I did)... again :

Here is what Dai said:
"I love Meryl's skating. Not only her skating, she is also a very charming lady. Her skating is very tidy/neat and all her own, and it shows her great personality the way no one else's does."

Other skaters he mentioned in that interview are: Stephane Lambiel, Jeffrey Buttle, Scott Moir, Evgeni Platov, Gwendal Peizerat, Olivier Shoenfelder and Shae-Lynn Bourne.

Seeing the context of that statement, I might even suggest "meticulous" or "precise" as a possibility for the tidy/neat idea. Your metaphor of the freshly washed white cotton shirt is very vivid and adds to my impression of how Daisuke sees Meryl's skating. How lovely that one of the world's greatest skaters sees Meryl that way!

Unimpeachableness is a perfectly acceptable word according to what I found, though unimpeachability was listed first. That just means that one is preferable, but both are correct.

One of the beauties of translation is that it brings to mind all the range of possible words, and it's like being presented with an array of beautiful fabrics for sewing. Which to use? They're all tantalizing. Often there's more than one good way to translate something, which is why we have so many editions of, say, The Odyssey or Dante's Divine Comedy translated into our respective languages. (In fact, I've read translations into English of The Odyssey in both poetry and prose...the possibilities seem endless.)

I love the list of skaters that Dai mentions. Definitely not surprising that both Lambiel and Buttle are on his list, yes? Both of them have Dai's combination of technical prowess and musical grace that lifts them out of the ranks of mere athletes. I'm fascinated by the fact that he doesn't cite any ice dancing couples. He names one skater from each team but not the other. I'd love to spend an hour or two listening to him talk about what he sees in each of those skaters, wouldn't you? That would be a master class to remember!

deedee1, Hearing that Dai's phrase brought a freshly cleaned (and perhaps, nicely ironed?) white shirt to your mind, I was wondering whether what some people who love Yuka Sato's skating use to describe her skating: "pure" which for me, has both the "precise" and "clean" connotations.

The other phrase used of Yuka is that she is a "skater's skater"--which given it's Dai talking is perhaps also warranted for Meryl!

(I love these kind of discussions, BTW)

One of the loveliest descriptions of Yuka's skating was offered by someone here--can't remember who. This person pointed out that she and Jeremy Abbott both have such beautifully smooth, silent stroking that if they both skated down the rink having a conversation, you wouldn't be able to hear their blades at all.

I love these discussions, too, Doris. It's such a great treasure of GS that we get to read translations of interviews from places like Japan, Russia, China, Korea, or France, purely because of the generosity of fellow members who take the time and make the effort to translate for us. The discussions about word choice are a happy byproduct of our bounty of translators, including Deedee1, our source for all things Daisuke.