Atom x Kanspo Collaboration Project
Figure Skating Danshi Special Session
Kinki Danshi's Daily Life ~Off-season~ Part 2
http://doshisha-atom.net/web/result.php?no=2163
Photo
From left, Shu
Nakamura(Kansai Univ), Kazuki
Tomono(Sports 2nd
{Faculty and year because this article is done by Doshisha Atom}), Taichi
Honda(Kansai Univ)
――What are the things you find enviable about each other?
H: ... 5th place in World?
N: 5th in World is really enviable. [laugh]
H: Seriously. [laugh]
N: Seriously envious. [laugh]
T: Maybe... umm... to the skaters in my generation, well, I guess I did inspire them. [laugh] (I think so) myself, too. [laugh]
All: [laugh]
T: Well, but you know how I failed (the selection) for JGP...
N: But it's like, you're there now because of that (experience).
T: Maybe...
N: Anyways, it was good.
T: But that time, even for me, it was... {didn't finish the sentence}
H: Enviable things... how should I put it, maybe 'Ikemen', Kazuki? I'm envious that Tomono-kun is 'Ikemen'.
T: I loled. Let's start with Shu-kun's good things... I mean, enviable things.
H: He's got this masculine 'iroke' {sexual charm} that neither I nor Kazuki has.
T: Ah, I know what you mean, 'iroke'!
H: Like 'iroke' ...
{Not sure what he's trying to say here from the available context, he may be trying to come up with another term or another enviable thing, or he may have said that for totally different reason.}
T: His 'amai'
{handsome, mellow, sweet, tender, lady-killing...etc} face. [laugh]
All: [laugh]
N: Whose point of view is it from!? [laugh]
T: Since he has lost his 'charai'-ness lately, ...
H: Not funny. {for Osakan sence of humor}
T: Nope. [laugh]
N: Well, it means I grew up too. [laugh]
T: Okay, 5th in World for me, now, Taichi. What's envious about Taichi...? His communication skills.
H: That's as a person (instead of a skater). [laugh] But, that's true.
T: And your extremely high skills as a person, for everything. You're good at studying, sports, and I'm amazed at how you interact with adults.
H: That...[laugh] Well, you're right. [laugh]
T: I am, ain't I? [laugh] Well, he's really amazing! There was a time when I tried to copy Taichi for everything including skating and all.
H: Kazuki's been like that {copy-cat} since forever. Whenever he finds someone, no matter same age or senpai, to look up to and admire, he copies them right away. And he even tried to copy my attitudes (to build relationships)...
T: Yup, his ability for communication. I wanted to copy his communication skills and ...
H: He copies other people's hairstyles too.
T: [laughs hard]
N: You copy fashion (clothes) too. [laugh]
T: Yup.
H: When he sees a fashionable senpai, he starts buying the same brand of clothes that senpai wears, and no others for a while. He does that often.
T: I'm a copy-cat. Though I don't do it for skating. [laugh]
H: You copy others' jumps too, don't you?
T: Yeah. I guess I do copy jumps too. Indeed I do! [laugh] I do try to copy a lot, but from Taichi, so I once tried to copy his skills, like how to make friends and such for a while.
H: But it didn't work?
T: It didn't work. I thought I'd only get hated for it. [laugh] That skill is Taichi's original, I just recently realized that only Taichi could make it work and I gave up trying. [laugh]
Photo during the talking session
――What do you mean, how to make friends?
T: Well, his interpersonal relationships with others? He's really skilled in it. How should I put it? He can just blend in so easily, and I always thought, "sugee!" But just as expected, I couldn't do the same. [laugh]
H: Is this really something I could have a smug face {be flattered/proud} about?
T: It's a compliment!
H: Okay, then.
N: To me, Taichi is strong in the clutch.
H: Ohhhh. {pleased voice} [laugh]
T: That's some serious one. [laugh] I too was like that before, well, I still am now.
{I think 'that' refers to the following episode} But anyways, he said he was hiding his nervousness. [laugh] (Don't remember but maybe it was) when I just moved up from Novice to Junior, I was working hard with off-ice warm-up. Then I saw Taichi (doing nothing) and I asked, "Oh? No warm-ups?" (Taichi was) lying down on a bench chair, saying "I'm just fine~ (without warm-up)" [laugh]
H: I used to chat with friends before my performance, trying to bluff and fake I wasn't nervous at all, but that was because I was just too nervous and I was trying to unwind myself. I revealed that to Kazuki, then later I found out that he had spread it out pretty much.
T: Yeah, yeah! I recently heard from Taichi (about being so nervous) as if he were some born-to-be-nervous character or something, so....
N: Well, you say you get nervous, but...(you don't seem to)
H: Really I do.
T: You're very honest lately.
H: I guess I'm quite good at controlling the tension.
T: So, I asked him, weren't you pretending you're asleep without doing any warm-ups before?
H: I actually did work out for warm-up.
T: I kinda guessed you did, but anyways, so I asked him about it (his pretending to be sleeping), and he goes, "I was camouflaging that I was nervous."
All: [laugh]
H: I don't like being called clutch.
T: But you can actually...
H: I mean, I'm pleased to hear that, but you can't (don't want to) say you're a clutch performer, can you?
N: Ahhh~.
T: That's true.
H: Once you say that, you know? [laugh]
T: You can never fail. [laugh]
H: You can never fail. [laugh]
T: Well, from my point of view, he comes through really strong in crucial competitions... Of course all the top level skaters who get designated have it, but his clutchness is outstanding among them, I think.
Photo
The session went along in a peaceful atmosphere.
――Aren't you all strong in the clutch?
All: [agrees]
H: All the skaters are.
T: (All) come through in the clutch, I think.
H: Not weak, at least. Even those who are said to be weak are also clutch performers compared to the general standards.
T: It's the nature of the sport.
H: Everyone somehow manages performing to the last at (the dreadful) Japan Nats.
T: It's the competition that makes you nervous the most in the whole world.
N: But I didn't get nervous at the last one at all.
T: You're lying~~!
N: Wasn't nervous at all in Short.
T: That must be a lie~. As for me, the moment I did this (striking a pose to begin his performance), I was like 'I'm done for it'. [laugh]
All: [laugh]
H: Japan Nats is terrifying.
T: Yes, it's the last one I'd enjoy.
H: Japan Nats is the only competition where you get betrayed by your practice*. [laugh]
Note: Japanese saying, "practice don't betray you". More explanation here on Sota's fan thread.
T: Yup. [laugh]
N: I got betrayed~. Spectacularly betrayed.
H: Even when you can nail it in other competitions...
T: You actually betray yourself, but you can't help it (at Nats).
H: Everyone says, Nats always betrays you.
T: It's really about whether you can win yourself or not.
N: You stop making no mistakes as soon as Nats is over.
T: [laugh] For sure.
N: I really want it(Nats) to back off {stop betraying us}.
T: I want it to back off. [laugh]
N: Not here (in this competition)!
T: There're many skaters who always win (do great) at Nats. [laugh]
H: Several of them spring to mind.
T: Not gonna say who. [laugh]
N: Of course not... [laugh]
T: Well, that's how dreadful Japan Nats is, it's speaking for itself.
Photo
They say Japan National Championships is a special competition.
――How is Japan Nats different from other competitions?
H: First of all, the number of audience.
T: The number of audience is one thing, but also, you know, every skater there is Japanese and...
H: We all know what each of us has spent/invested to win there.
T: Your own nervousness, and also people's attention...
H: Male skaters are all too good friends. At other competitions, we chat with each other a lot. But at Nats, they all stop talking and it's kinda frightening.
T: Yes, you feel the tension in the air.
H: At other competitions, we all chat before performance and do some exercises (off-ice warm-up) together.
T: We start getting tensed up around at West (Western Japan Championship). [laugh]
H: And on the day of Nats in the locker room, nobody talks... it's appalling.
T: It is.
N: (Everyone) pretty much shut themselves (into their own world).
――You three don't talk either?
T: Not before performance.
H: Not before performance. Really we don't. [laugh]
N: Everyone does their own warm-up alone, individually.
T: Yes. And then, you come back to the locker after your performance, with a sigh, and then talk only a little bit, put on your shoes, and that's about it. Always. You don't talk even then.
H: Perhaps it's no good that we are habitually all too good friends.
T: But I think it's good that we are switching on and off solidly.
N: I like it.
T: I think it's perfectly fine.
Credit: [企画・構成:宮西美紅(KanSpo Editorial), 名倉幸 Photo:川田翼]
The end of Part 2
Next, Part 3, on my next day off or on coming weekend if I get to do it.
http://kanspo.univ.nikkansports.com/?p=24951
'Prince of ~/～王子(~ouji)' was a thing before (different from Prince of Tennis), like Prince of Handkerchief (a baseball player who always carried a handkerchief), Prince of Shyness (a shy golf player), and so on, and media enjoyed making up new Prince of Something out of young athletes and people were kinda mocking the phrase.
, but it sounds like a real contemporary art and interesting. I wonder how Phillip Mills interprets this concept into a figure skating performance. And I can't yet imagine how the costume will be like at all :scratch3:
It sounds like a very fitting description for my speaking level actually, but I don't suppose it's a word I should use for it in my class? (not that there's any other student, and sensei is a guy, but the word sounds like a bit too much still?)
