The European team is already formidable. The 2nd man will be someone relatively "weak" or inconsistent. Tomas Verner is a good choice. He is VERY popular in Japan since 2007 worlds in Tokyo.
The 2nd NA lady will be Rochette or Nagasu.
If both of them will not go, then may be Machida will go instead? But the other lady?
Shizuka is having a baby. Haruka Imai or Akiko Suzuki might be possible.Could I hope for either Shizuka Arakawa, Haruka Imai, or Akiko Suzuki?
Why pdf link in post #65 says Mura and Kanako are no longer on the list?
The pdf file appeared later than TV Tokyo information where Team Japan was in full from the beginnig,The last page of the pdf file has a list of participating skaters. Team Japan has 2 TBD's. This could be simply old information. On the TV Tokyo site, they have the names of all the participants.
I think there is no question the Hanyu can draw in a crowd. All the iceshows he was in sold out, including the one where he was the main performer. His hometown parade drew 92000 people, and when I went to the World Championships, it was a full house. If there were any empty seats, I couldn't see any.
There needn't be a war. Many Dai fans are also Hanyu fans. It is only a small number who like one or the other exclusively.
You should have taken the picture of this hystorical event. I think during the intermission it's fine. There are penty of THE ICE videos on youtube that says otherwise than your story does.Did I see empty seats in THE ICE? Unfortunately yes, there were empty seats in "ARENA SS" area and I saw a board saying "tickets available for today (当日券)" in the front door of the stadium. So even a mega star like Mao may not be able to sell every single ticket in a weekend in a populous city like Osaka.
My friends in Japan also have the same story as pandaatlarge.You should have taken the picture of this hystorical event. I think during the intermission it's fine. There are penty of THE ICE videos on youtube that says otherwise than your story does.
The top tickets for JO and COI is 47,000 yen as their official sites say. How much is the DVD? You got my point. Some Hanyu fan called it "risk aversion." Hanyu doesn't want to embarrass himself with empty seats, that's why he chose not to compete in JO. Whatever. But as I said before if hypothetically speaking Mao didn't compete in JO but Dai did, there wouldn't be any risk aversion. He would skate. Mao would do the same.
My friends in Japan have a different story. So does youtube. Do you have the videos that can verify the opposite? If you and pandaatlarge wants to promote Hanyu by libelling Mao's show, it doesn't work.My friends in Japan also have the same story as pandaatlarge.
It's not easy to describe it unless you live in Japan.
What's happened to you? No one ever tries to libel Mao's show. You don't have to be that rude. I don't live in Japan, I don't even know pandaatlarge. I simply said my friends who are living in Japan also told me relatively the same. If you want their statements, I can send you their facebook acc so they can even tell you more than that. But I guess you will say you don't believe that they are truly living in Japan.My friends in Japan have a different story. So does youtube. Do you have the videos that can verify the opposite? If you and pandaatlarge wants to promote Hanyu by libelling Mao's show, it doesn't work.