There was a TV program On-Aired last week, featuring Shizuka, as an interviewer to Daisuke. I will post interesting quotes from this, some at a time for you.
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Sources: 'Friends Plus vol.7', Friends talk Shizuka x Daisuke
On Air: March 18th, 2012 @ CS channel Nittere+ (日テレ+)
Reminder: as I mentioned before, I am NO expert in translating English <-> Japanese. Please ignore grammatical errors if any.
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Fyi, 'Friends Plus' is a 60min. TV program focused on Shizuka Arakawa, as the Olympic Champion, as a professional skater, as the show producer ('Friends on Ice'), and as a person.
Shizuka somtimes invites one of her friends at a time as her guest, and gives an interview. This season (2011-12), she already invited Nobuo Sato, Shae-Lynn Bourne, Takeshi Honda and Yamato Tamura, and the final guest of the season was Daisuke, whom Shiz admires and treats as if were her 'younger brother'.
<1> Prologue
After the most successful season (2009-10) in his whole career, with the historic Olympic bronze medal and winning the Worlds as the first Japanese male skater, Shizuka also gave an interview to Dai around the same time of last season (January 2011).
As some of you remember, January 2011 was probably one of harder times for Dai; right after the neck/back injury due to the unexpected collision and the disappointing 5th place finish at GPF, another disappointing 3rd place finish at the Nats and losing its title to Takahiko.
Shizuka asked a question, "The new year 2011, what do you think is gonna be like for you, Dai?"
He answered, "Well, this year (2011) is going to be very important for me... concerning my future,...indeed,... to decide whether to continue... or stop (competing)..." "If I choose to continue, there will be a lot for me to deal with and catch up with, considering my position among the current Mens field. If I decide to retire, there will be other things and people I feel obligated to, so I have to weigh it very carefully, you know."
Dai looked so unsure about himself to the eyes of many people during last year's interview.
When Shiz asked Dai about his program preparation for 'Friends on Ice' that summer, he even suggested, "it sounds interesting to have a poll and ask fans, doesn't it? Something like, 'what programs of mine from the past would you like me to skate for you?'" Then Shiz and Dai talked cheerfully, "We have five outings in total at FOI. Let's do one at a time from the 5th for the first outing, then onto 4th, 3rd, 2nd. And save the 1st favored program for the closing night of the shows!"
My guess at that time was, he was leaning towards retiring from competitive skating.
At Worlds in Moscow later that season, after the disastrous earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan and cancel-off of Worlds in Tokyo, another unexpected insident hit Dai; a screw loosened up from left boot at the beginning of his Free Skate and he had to settle with 5th place finish there.
That changed everything.
Dai felt that he did not give his absolute best just yet, that he still had energy and competitive fire within, and he believed he could still keep improving to be a better skater. The next day Dai announced that he will continue three more seasons till Sochi, and his goal is to join the National team for the Olympic Games (he was not sure if he could make it, because of such depth in Mens field in Japan), and to aim for a medal if possible.
After removing a screw from the injured right knee in May, Dai and his team checked on his overall skating going all the way down to the basics.
In summer he flew to Lyon, France to relearn skating skill from the world-renowned ice dance coaches; Messieur-dames Muriel Boucher-Zazoui, Romain Haguenauer, and Olivier Schoenfelder.
He went to David Wilson for a new chreography to extend the range of his stlyes.
In autumn, he started ballet excercises to focus more on core strength and flexibility, which was something he always felt inferiror to others since as a kid skater.
Dai showed up to Shizuka's interview this year, looking very young and refreshed, with sparkling eyes full of energy.
Shizuka's first question.
"Tell me. What is it that interests you the most now? And that interests you the least now, or in other words, you find it very hard?"
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to be continued...sorry my time is up for today.