Shoma Uno | Page 56 | Golden Skate

Shoma Uno

Reporting live from the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, where something bizarre happened early this morning! I was asleep in my hotel room when the TV suddenly turned on! The news was on the air. I frantically searched around my bed, but there was no remote control in my bed and I hadn't used it before! After a little bit more searching, I found the remote in a box on the desk and turned off the news. Perhaps a ghost did this? Whatever the reason, at least I now have time to finally post about my experiences at the Uno Cafe! (I was a bit too tired on the bus tour to think about posting anything and I actually came back to the station on time!)

Since the Uno Cafe is close to the Tokugawa Art Museum and the Tokugawa Garden, I decided to go there first. I walked there from Morishita Station, asking for directions from a matcha shop along the way and buying some tea there as well. The garden was tranquil and the museum was filled with Tokugawa-era historical artifacts (swords, furniture, etc.) and paintings. There was even a special exhibit featuring Girl's Festival dolls.

The walk from the museum to the Uno Cafe was through a peaceful residential area with small houses, small apartment buildings, small parking lots, small cars, small roads...some of the roads are so small that only one small car could get through! It is quite the contrast from America, where the size of things in general is often big!

Going the way I did, one has to cross a very busy road before going to the Uno Cafe. It's not easy to spot from across the street. I had thought it would be in a gray building, but it is actually in a tan brick building next door to it! I have to admit, I jumped for joy upon seeing the entrance! It has a signboard out in front featuring Emma and Toro as well as the outdoor photo area you may have seen in videos and Instagram posts.

I was admittedly very shocked to see Emma and Toro in a cart (I think...) near the entrance. They were both smaller and cuter than I expected them to be. I stared at them. They stared at me. "Are these the real dogs?!?" I asked somewhat loudly in Japanese... And then they started barking at me a lot...☹ You cannot imagine how crestfallen I was to hear them barking at me. I took off the face mask I was wearing, thinking it would help, but it didn't stop the barking. Was it because I am a cat owner and they could smell my cat? Did they dislike my excitement or the fact that I doubted their existence? Did I do something bad to them in a previous lifetime? Admittedly, these types of questions rolled around in my head a lot afterwards and are part of why I hesitated to make this post. *sigh* With an ordinary dog I could understand such a reaction a lot more easily, but with two dogs you have seen in YouTube videos and enjoyed, it's harder to understand...

After a while, they stopped barking. Toro hid in the boxlike area they were sitting in and I stretched out my hand to Emma so that she could smell me and hopefully grow accustomed to my presence. She licked my fingers a little bit, but I still didn't feel as if it would be safe to pet her.

I was shown up to the second floor of the building. From there, I could see a large TV screen near the entrance showing videos from the Uno1 YouTube channel. The cafe has a modern look to it, with wood and metal tables, black walls, and seats with black leather on them. There was a group of three young women up there as well.

The service was a little slow, but I believe the food is worth the wait. There is also a call button on the table if you wish to contact the waitstaff. I ordered the Shoma roast beef, a cup of hot milk tea (you have to order a beverage with your meal), and a fruit parfait. The Shoma roast beef consisted of slices of roast beef, rice, salad, shaved carrots, a cup of corn soup, a small bowl of curried kabocha with almonds, and some mashed potatoes hidden under the roast beef slices. The roast beef was only lukewarm (but still fully cooked) and a little chewy, but it didn't taste bad. The savory sauce on it was amazing, though! The salad and carrots had a citrus vinaigrette on them. The best tasting thing to me was actually the curried kabocha, although the soup was nice too! The milk tea was a little too milky for my tastes when I finally got it, so I waited until I had eaten most of the parfait to drink it. The parfait was nice! From top to bottom, it had kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, ice cream, lemon poppyseed cake, almonds, fresh cream, and wine-flavored jelly in it. There was also a poodle made out of a merengue on the top of it. The ice cream was a little icy, but I am being nitpicky here. It was a wonderful dessert for anyone who loves parfaits!

After I ate, I went down to the first floor to get my picture taken near Shoma's autograph. This is apparently a dog-friendly floor, I think I saw a longhaired Chihuahua there. The waiter was kind enough to take pictures for me, even when they weren't to my satisfaction and needed to be retaken.

I didn't even think about getting any merchandise due to the dogs' presence. Toro growled at me a little bit while I was leaving, so I thought it best to not push my luck.

Overall, I felt a little lonely. I wished you guys could have been there with me to chat about Shoma and admire the place and the food... Seeing the young women on the top floor hanging out made me feel this way. Hope this suffices; it might be a while until I am able to make a Shoma report after tonight's show!
 
rabidline said:
The current one has not even finished yet 😅 but nope, no ice shows planned next so far. I can't spoil a lot but it seems Shoma has turned down several invites he's received.
Click to expand...
Wait, so does this mean he's gonna become a full-time gamer? Feel free to PM me if you don't wish to respond here.

Edit: I know this is idle speculation on my part...😅
 
Last edited:
yuumagical said:
Reporting live from the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, where something bizarre happened early this morning! I was asleep in my hotel room when the TV suddenly turned on! The news was on the air. I frantically searched around my bed, but there was no remote control in my bed and I hadn't used it before! After a little bit more searching, I found the remote in a box on the desk and turned off the news. Perhaps a ghost did this? Whatever the reason, at least I now have time to finally post about my experiences at the Uno Cafe! (I was a bit too tired on the bus tour to think about posting anything and I actually came back to the station on time!)

Since the Uno Cafe is close to the Tokugawa Art Museum and the Tokugawa Garden, I decided to go there first. I walked there from Morishita Station, asking for directions from a matcha shop along the way and buying some tea there as well. The garden was tranquil and the museum was filled with Tokugawa-era historical artifacts (swords, furniture, etc.) and paintings. There was even a special exhibit featuring Girl's Festival dolls.

The walk from the museum to the Uno Cafe was through a peaceful residential area with small houses, small apartment buildings, small parking lots, small cars, small roads...some of the roads are so small that only one small car could get through! It is quite the contrast from America, where the size of things in general is often big!

Going the way I did, one has to cross a very busy road before going to the Uno Cafe. It's not easy to spot from across the street. I had thought it would be in a gray building, but it is actually in a tan brick building next door to it! I have to admit, I jumped for joy upon seeing the entrance! It has a signboard out in front featuring Emma and Toro as well as the outdoor photo area you may have seen in videos and Instagram posts.

I was admittedly very shocked to see Emma and Toro in a cart (I think...) near the entrance. They were both smaller and cuter than I expected them to be. I stared at them. They stared at me. "Are these the real dogs?!?" I asked somewhat loudly in Japanese... And then they started barking at me a lot...☹ You cannot imagine how crestfallen I was to hear them barking at me. I took off the face mask I was wearing, thinking it would help, but it didn't stop the barking. Was it because I am a cat owner and they could smell my cat? Did they dislike my excitement or the fact that I doubted their existence? Did I do something bad to them in a previous lifetime? Admittedly, these types of questions rolled around in my head a lot afterwards and are part of why I hesitated to make this post. *sigh* With an ordinary dog I could understand such a reaction a lot more easily, but with two dogs you have seen in YouTube videos and enjoyed, it's harder to understand...

After a while, they stopped barking. Toro hid in the boxlike area they were sitting in and I stretched out my hand to Emma so that she could smell me and hopefully grow accustomed to my presence. She licked my fingers a little bit, but I still didn't feel as if it would be safe to pet her.

I was shown up to the second floor of the building. From there, I could see a large TV screen near the entrance showing videos from the Uno1 YouTube channel. The cafe has a modern look to it, with wood and metal tables, black walls, and seats with black leather on them. There was a group of three young women up there as well.

The service was a little slow, but I believe the food is worth the wait. There is also a call button on the table if you wish to contact the waitstaff. I ordered the Shoma roast beef, a cup of hot milk tea (you have to order a beverage with your meal), and a fruit parfait. The Shoma roast beef consisted of slices of roast beef, rice, salad, shaved carrots, a cup of corn soup, a small bowl of curried kabocha with almonds, and some mashed potatoes hidden under the roast beef slices. The roast beef was only lukewarm (but still fully cooked) and a little chewy, but it didn't taste bad. The savory sauce on it was amazing, though! The salad and carrots had a citrus vinaigrette on them. The best tasting thing to me was actually the curried kabocha, although the soup was nice too! The milk tea was a little too milky for my tastes when I finally got it, so I waited until I had eaten most of the parfait to drink it. The parfait was nice! From top to bottom, it had kiwis, strawberries, blueberries, ice cream, lemon poppyseed cake, almonds, fresh cream, and wine-flavored jelly in it. There was also a poodle made out of a merengue on the top of it. The ice cream was a little icy, but I am being nitpicky here. It was a wonderful dessert for anyone who loves parfaits!

After I ate, I went down to the first floor to get my picture taken near Shoma's autograph. This is apparently a dog-friendly floor, I think I saw a longhaired Chihuahua there. The waiter was kind enough to take pictures for me, even when they weren't to my satisfaction and needed to be retaken.

I didn't even think about getting any merchandise due to the dogs' presence. Toro growled at me a little bit while I was leaving, so I thought it best to not push my luck.

Overall, I felt a little lonely. I wished you guys could have been there with me to chat about Shoma and admire the place and the food... Seeing the young women on the top floor hanging out made me feel this way. Hope this suffices; it might be a while until I am able to make a Shoma report after tonight's show!
Click to expand...
Don’t be sad about Emma and Toro. They’re probably just nervous around strangers. Little dogs like them can be that way. I’m sure even big dogs too. You can always try again during your trip if you wanted to. Is the roast beef really called Shoma roast beef on the menu? Was Itsuki around? Maybe he only stops in every now and then to help out even though he owns it. Enjoy the show! Maybe you’ll be able to say something to Shoma. If you go back to the cafe maybe a friend could meet you there.
 
Figskater23 said:
Don’t be sad about Emma and Toro. They’re probably just nervous around strangers. Little dogs like them can be that way. I’m sure even big dogs too. You can always try again during your trip if you wanted to. Is the roast beef really called Shoma roast beef on the menu? Was Itsuki around? Maybe he only stops in every now and then to help out even though he owns it. Enjoy the show! Maybe you’ll be able to say something to Shoma. If you go back to the cafe maybe a friend could meet you there.
Click to expand...
Yes, it's really called Shoma roast beef. 😂 I don't know if Itsuki was there, but I definitely heard Mama Uno's voice in the background while I was there saying, "Bad Emma!" In Japanese, lol.

I need to give you a geography lesson here with regards to getting back to the Uno Cafe. Nagoya is a couple of hundred miles away from Tokyo, so it wouldn't be that easy to get there and back...
 
Man, my luck has been both incredibly good and incredibly bad...so I somehow got to be the last person to pass Shoma a flower (after shouting "Excuse me!" in Japanese at him!). I asked him whether he had played the Persona video games before and his response was "Sorry, I don't understand." I tried rephrasing the question a little bit but nope, he still didn't understand and had to skate off into the distance...*heavy sigh* Maybe he hasn't played those games before? Maybe my Japanese wasn't loud enough or I was too nervous? Ugh...
 
It seems Shoma has finally recovered his solo triple flip- the one he can't do when he was still competing because of the need to maintain a quad flip, and he did his final EEAO with 3Lo and 3F. And did 2 4Ts in the finale...... 1 was a step out, the other was landed- @yuumagical please confirm, hehehehe. If he still is wearing the ice dancing blades, I suppose it's a good test on whether they can be used for jumping quads.

And yes, he has no plans currently for next ice shows.

 
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rabidline said:
It seems Shoma has finally recovered his solo triple flip- the one he can't do when he was still competing because of the need to maintain a quad flip, and he did his final EEAO with 3Lo and 3F. And did 2 4Ts in the finale...... 1 was a step out, the other was landed- @yuumagical please confirm, hehehehe. If he still is wearing the ice dancing blades, I suppose it's a good test on whether they can be used for jumping quads.

And yes, he has no plans currently for next ice shows.

Click to expand...

Can confirm the 3Lo and the 3F during EEAO! They seemed slightly under, but I am not the best at judging jump rotations. Can also confirm the stepout 4T, as it was landed close to me...Not sure about the landed one, a lot was going on in the finale. 😅

I was also able to overhear the "no plans" response.
 
Getting some rest and thinking about the interaction from Shoma's perspective has has led me to some acceptance of the situation. However, my first show report will be about Keiji Tanaka, please look forward to it in Keiji's thread!
 
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