Let's Talk with Kenji continued
This is the latter part of the interview that was translated in this post. Enjoy!
D: Thanks for the choreography.
K: Which one?
D: Luv Letter!
K: Yes, Luv Letter! I wrote a love letter for Dai-chan.
D: He created it, and I am going to share it with you all.
K: It felt good, didn't it. It became a love letter from the moment we heard the music.
D: Yeah, I heard that DJ Okawari wrote about it in his blog.
K: It's a cool song.
D: Yeah, it's cool.
K: We were saying to each other, "it's going to make me tear up if I hear it at night."
D: When I bought that CD I listened to it non-stop. Nonn-stoppp.
K: You were really into it.
D: I was. I turned the lights out in my room.
K: Haha! Just ambient lighting?
D: Yes, yes, just ambient lighting.
K: He's really into that thing. He sent me a pic from his mobile phone once, but it was still early evening.
It didn't quite have the effect he expected because it was too bright outside. LOL
D: I am really into lights.
K: Oh, I'll send you a plastic tree then. As a gift.
D: No thanks. LOL
K: It's too fancy to throw away, but it's too hefty to keep. It's a gift to celebrate your comeback.
D: To celebrate my comeback?
K: You don't want it at all, do you? LOL
D: No, it'll take up too much space. LOL
K: But don't you think all the gifts I give you are well thought out?
D: The DVD? The canvas? Ah, the cockroach? I left that in the hospital.
K: WHYYYYYY!!! LOL
D: I left it at the hospital. As a gift.
K: While he was in hospital, I brought a toy cockroach to cheer him up. It looked pretty real.
D: It was really gross.
Editor: Oh no.
D: It scared the hell out of the nurses there. LOL
K: Did they go "aaargh!"? LOL
D: Yeah. LOL
Editor: Did you play pranks on them?
D: I just left it there. And the nurse will come into the room and go "waaaah!" It was quite fun. LOL
K: Sounds fun! By the way, what do you call that thing? You put painting on it.
Editor: A canvas?
K: The thing you put a canvas on.
Editor: An easel?
K: Yes, an easel! I bought one and brought it to his hospital room, and Dai-chan started drawing people's faces on it.
His drawings captured everyone's features very well. They're not actually good drawings though.
D: LOL
K: No, actually his drawings aren't bad, they're unique.
D: Yeah, they say my drawings are unique...
K: The portrait he drew looked a lot like me. But is it normal to draw the eyes orange?
Editor: Orange?
D: The image I have of Kenji-kun is orange and purple.
K: Orange and purple. LOL
D: Yes. LOL
K: He started drawing me from the eyes, using orange. Where you'd use brown or black.
Editor: Were the eyes orange?
K: Just the rims. The eyeballs were purple.
D: Really? I don't remember. I have a pic on my phone though. I could show it to you later.
Editor: Please do.
K: It really looked like me.
Dai leaving hospital, December 2008
K: Did you get nervous at Friends on Ice?
D: It was upsetting! You should know that because you were there!
K: Well of course I do, LOL. You looked really nervous in the first performance.
D: The first performance was really upsetting for me!
K: But your eyes weren't rolling.
D: What? Do I do that sometimes?
K: You're eyes are like this when you get really nervous.
D: No way... I never realized that.
K: Your eyelashes are really long by the way.
D: ...they are. LOL
K: Don't they get in the way when you shower?
D: .......LOL
K: ...Am I hard to handle?
D: Yes you are. LOL
K: So, how did you feel after your first performance?
D: I don't really remember.
K: Do you remember that you were hyper-excited when you came back after the first one?
D: Really? I don't remember.
K: You were like, "Right there, right there! I made a mistake there!" (high-pitched)
D: Oh my god.
K: "How was I? How was I? Was I moving well? Was I moving well?" (high-pitched)
D: That is annoying. LOL
K: You were repeating the same things over and over. LOL
D: I don't remember it that much.
K: But it was beautiful.
D: The second performance was the best.
K: Yeah, your body was moving there the most.
D: I actually felt that the fourth performance was the best. But when I watched the video the second one was the best.
K: You were feeling it.
D: I was feeling it.
K: Your breath after you took the final pose, where you look up, it looked nice.
D: What, could you see that?
K: Yes. And I thought to myself, skating is a beautiful thing. What am I talking about! This is making me uncomfortable.
Click to viewD: Ahaha! But "Eye" really evolved didn't it?
K: Yes it did. So much more movement, compared to the first version.
D: Yes, so much more.
K: The layout is different too. Did it get easier to skate?
D: Yes, it did.
K: I'm really excited about it..
D: But... it's exhausting.
K: Ahahaha! No, it's just that you can do anything I ask you to, Dai-chan.
I start thinking you can do more and add stuff, but you do those things easily too. And then I want some more.
D: No, you don't. And I can't!
K: You're wrong.
D: I feel so frustrated because I can't do it the way I should...
K: It did take a lot of time to figure out that final pose today, didn't it? Although it's only two seconds! LOL
D: I couldn't get it right. LOL
K: Did it feel alright in the end?
D: Which one was it? This one?
K: This one, this one. It was funny isn't it. In the end you were sitting on the ice like a girl. LOL
D: Because I fell. LOL
K: You fell.
D: So many things happen...
This story immediately reminded me of this pic from Finlandia Trophy 2009. ;D
Editor: What was the theme of the choreography for "Luv Letter"?
K: I used to explain that the theme was "Daisuke Takahashi in the flesh."
D: Yes, yes.
K: The last one ("Bachelorette") was something else, not Dai-chan. This time it's Dai-chan just the way he is.
Editor: "Bachelorette" had an inhuman image to it, how about this one?
K: This one is... nature!
D: Yes, nature. It's like moss.
Editor: Moss?
K: Yes, yes.
D: Shiny moss. LOL
K: In the forest?
D: It's like a scene in "Princess Mononoke" where the Shishigami (the deer god) becomes Daidara-bocchi (the giant).
K: The scene where the trees are covered in moss and dewdrops.
A Scene from Princess Mononoke
Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu
Editor: Like in Yakushima island?
K: Yes, Yakushima! Where is Yakushima?
Editor: That way. (points south)
D: Hahaha!
K: You have no idea, don't you! LOL
D: That way! Which way? LOL
K: But yeah, that's the image.
D: That's the image I have in my head when I'm skating. But I don't know about the image he had deep within him while he was choreographing. Fluffy?
K: More like smooth. Flowing. I wanted to make Dai-chan look... well, your lines are so much prettier now, aren't they?
D: Are they?
K: Yes, because your joints became flexible or something. So I wanted to incorporate that.
D: ...or something. LOL
K: What?
D: You have no idea what you're talking about. LOL
K: I can't mock her (the editor) now, LOL. Well, I concentrated on how to demonstrate his pretty lines.
D: The problem is, I can't do the spread eagle! LOL
K: You can't do the spread eagle, nor the spiral! LOL
D: "What are we going to do? I can't do either the spiral or the spread eagle."
K: But this move looked very nice. (arms wide open)
D: It actually feels pretty good when I do it.
K: It fits the music too.
D: I used to be able to do the spread eagle, even though it was ugly. Well I can't say I was able to do it properly...
K: Some people learn to do it easily. I wonder why. There is an inside edged spread eagle in the step sequence though.
D: Yes there is. Oh by the way, at the Friends on Ice...
K: Hmm?
D: At the Friends on Ice, the male single skaters did the spread eagle together.
But since I couldn't do it, I just opened my arms wide, as if to say "how are these spread eagles?" LOL, I didn't even participate.
K: You just directed them. LOL
D: Yes, like "go on, go on."
K: "Look at these spread eagles! I won't do it though." LOL
D: Yeah!
K: It's okay Dai-chan, you can't do the spread eagle but your spiral is pretty. LOL
D: Oh, shut up! LOL
LOL-SPIRAL with Taka-chan
D: The straight line step sequence in "Luv Letter" was completed so quickly it was surprising.
K: It only took 10 to 15 minutes.
Editor: That's quick.
D: It was.
K: No, actually it didn't even take 10 minutes. But Dai-chan said it should be longer...
D: We added some more.
K: So in total it was like 15 minutes.
D: The thing that took the most of our time was the first pose.
Editor: It took longer than the step sequence?
D: Yes, the part leading up to the first jump.
K: No, the part before the jump was fine, it was the first few seconds where you stand still and look up. LOL
D: Oh, yes! That little part where I look down and then up. LOL
K: I told him to just move his head, but his hands opened up simultaneously. "Hey your hands are opening up." "Really?" LOL
D: Ahaha! I was trying to hold still.
K: You must pay attention to those little movements because they'll look so much better if you really work on it. You shouldn't just do those things easily.
D: That slow action? re-action? How do you say it?
K: Ah, urm...urm... snap is not the right word...
D: What is it called? It's not all slow, it goes slow and then quick, like this.
K: You put "something" in your movement...
Editor: "Accent"?
K&D: Yes, that's it!
K: Yes, accent. He was not supposed to put an accent in the movement.
D: Yeah, and it was hard not to.
K: It took a lot of time to get rid of it.
D: Yes, I used to be so awful at it.
K: Ah, I remember. You used to put accents everywhere.
D: Yeah.
K: "Hey, don't do that. Try to make it all flow."
D: Yes. It was very hard. I felt I'm not moving at all, but when I watched myself on video I was.
The feeling in my body and the actual movement were so different. It was hard.
K: It was hard to tell him. Whenever Dai-chan made a move, he would look in my way as if to ask, "how was it?" but I had to tell him that he's moving way too much. It was hard to explain. It was hard to get it through to him.
D: Yeah.
I blame a certain choreographer for this "accent" thing!
D: And we made lots of requests to the costume designer.
K: Yeah. LOL
D: "I think this is going to be the music for the program, but it's not the final decision yet. There's not enough time so just go with this image."
K: Yes. LOL
D: She came up with two patterns. At first I thought it had a little too much impact.
K: Yeah, in the hotel room on the day before the first show, was it?
D: Two days before the first show I think. But when I actually wore it, it looked better than I thought.
K: At first I thought it looked too strong, but when he got on the ice it looked good.
D: It looked interesting and I like it.
Editor: When I first saw that Japanesque costume, I wondered what kind of music you'll be skating to.
D: Ahaha, LOL
Editor: What did the other costume look like?
D: It looked similar. Only the combination of the colors was different. It looked different from my previous ones so that's what I like about it.
K: Yeah, the overall image looked new.
I wonder what the other one looked like...?
D: And so did the choreography. I've been skating to music that had strong attack. But actually I love music like "Luv Letter."
K: There was a program you used to skate in a black costume ("Nocturne"). You choreographed that one yourself, right?
D: Yeah I made that myself.
K: That was really pretty.
D: I like those types of programs. Something dark. No, there must be a better word for it...
K: Not dark. Fluid?
D: Sentimental! I love sentimental stuff.
K: "Luv Letter" is sentimental too. It's up to the imagination of the audience.
D: And I move in a different way each time.
Oh yes, I did feel nervous at FOI, but at the second show, when I saw that blue line in front of me, I was drawn into my own world. I didn't feel nervous at all after that. LOL
K: Ah, that's excellent!
D: I was sucked into it instantly.
K: It was beautiful.
D: It felt good.
K: That's Daisuke's talent.
D: No, that's Kenji Miyamoto's talent.
K: I heard that some people cried after watching the performance.
D: Thank you very much.
K: I didn't do anything. But I feel honored.
D: I'll do my best with "Eye" too. I'll try to raise attention and tell the world that Kenji Miyamoto created it.
K: You don't have to do that. It's yours. It's Daisuke Takahashi's program.
D: There's something special in it. Kenji-kun's choreography always has innovative moves in it.
K: No, that's because you're performing it. If I were to compare it to a painting, you bring a lot of colors.
And when I tell you what I want to see, you paint it with those colors, just like that.
D: Nah. (blushes)
K: You know how hard it is for me when someone brings only black and white and asks me to paint something pink!
D: Ahahaha!
K: That's an "oh no." LOL
D: Yeah I kind of understand. LOL
K: Well it never happens actually, I'm just exaggerating.
D: It is really fun though. We're both trying to be nice to each other. More like I'm forcing him to be nice to me.
K: No, you're not forcing me. LOL
D: I have mood swings. I'm so selfish.
K: It's okay. We'll all back you up.
D: Well it could be okay for now, but what am I going to do when I quit skating! LOL
K: LOLOLOLOL
D: I'm really anxious about that. LOL
K: You'll have to be a man with patience. LOL
D: Do you think I can become one?
K: You can. When you become one, everyone will speak up to you more.
D: Do you think so?
K: (to the editor) Is it okay (to go on with the interview)?
D: I think so.
K: Then let's wrap this up.
D: Ah, that wasn't directed to me then.
K: What?
D: I thought you said "is it okay?" to me. I was replying to you! LOL
K: Ahahaha! You'll be okay, in the future.
D: I will be okay. LOL
K: So let's finish this by talking about...
D: The Olympics, right?
K: The Olympics. Wow.
D: I'll do my best. My very best. This year will be my first season after the big change (=coaching change).
K: Oh yes! That makes me nervous.
D: Does it? I guess it does. But I'll try to enjoy it.
K: Yeah, I shouldn't dwell on it too much.
D: Well please just "kind of" cheer for me. LOL
K: "Kind of"? LOL
D: I'll "kind of" try to do my best. LOL