Yuzu’s Ice
“I’m here to leave my heart for Yuzuru Hanyu.”
This is what I feel I should say as I hand my 200円 vending machine ticket to the front desk attendant at Ice Rink Sendai.
This place. Next to a hardware store. Behind a pasta restaurant. Across the street from a coffee shop. This unassuming place, with its cobblestone entry and flood lights and storefront doors holds the heart of every Fanyu – because of what has been created here – and by who.
When I go to Japan, my friends ask, “Why do you want to spend so much time at Ice Rink Sendai?” And I want to respond, “Why did Alice want to go through the looking glass?” You enter a world that seems to only exist on the other side of a TV screen.
Everything I love most has been created, battled and perfected here.
You’re not only close to Yuzu, but you’re close to SEIMEI and Haku and Ashura-chan and Haru and Romeo (ohhh, Romeo) and, yes, even Origin. So many of Yuzu’s “children” were born here – the dynamic, dramatic, poetic and epic who have come to entertain us, move us, comfort us and live with us.
I once compared us Fanyus to a swarm of killer bees – ready to attack anyone that threatened to harm Yuzu. But when it comes to Sendai, we are more like locusts. Luckily, we are economically friendly locusts. Because while we’re pouring love into Ice Rink Sendai, we’re pouring money into the city of Sendai (and, actually, all of Japan). Both times I have visited Sendai have been during “Fanyus Take Japan” events: GIFT and RE_PRAY. And after seeing how books and newspapers and Irene gloves and zunda and anything Haku-related at the Studio Ghibli Store were sold out, I was surprised Ice Rink Sendai wasn’t a pile of shaved ice once I got there. Fanyus, we even sold out the Dr. Peppers in the Ice Rink Sendai vending machines. My first thought? ‘Well, of course we sold those out.’ My second (more important) thought? ‘I hope Yuzu always brings his own.’ Though I think we all know he rarely allows himself to get one. (I hope they make Dr. Pepper flavored electrolyte powder…)
If the Fanyus could, we would buy not only Ice Rink Sendai, but the ENTIRE CITY and GIFT it to Yuzu. Do you like that hotel? It’s yours. Do you like that bench? It’s yours. Street sign? Yours. Zelkova tree? Yours. We want to take him on a date and buy him a nice dinner…and a prefecture. To do with whatever he likes.
Visiting Ice Rink Sendai gives you a 360 degree point of reference to this place in the world. The bus stop where you’re never sure if the bus was super early or super late. The Colonel Sanders statue outside the nearby KFC. The bookstore across the street with its robust supply of multicolor pens. The “Fun Te” sign illuminated on the side of the road by lights nearly eclipsed by the snow as I bid my farewell during a blizzard. (Yes, I hit the Fanyu “Snow in Sendai” jackpot that day.)
Inside, you sit on the blue bench where Yuzu famously removed one pair of pants to reveal another pair of pants, and you wish you could’ve been sitting there when Yuzu walked down that same hallway while wearing his Gate of Living costume. Because let’s be honest. Is there anything sexier than Yuzu at Ice Rink Sendai (in double pants)? It somehow magnifies his Yuzuness. Maybe it’s because it’s where he’s most comfortable. Maybe it’s because it’s where he’s most creative. Or maybe it’s because it is the only place with a strong enough air conditioner for him. (Because DANG is it cold in there.)
We love what Yuzu loves. Winnie the Pooh. Backnumber. Mrs. Green Apple. Dr. Pepper. Gyoza. (And after having Aoba Gyoza at Sendai Station, I wouldn’t care if Yuzu loved it or not. That stuff is 美味しい [delicious].) There is no question that Yuzu loves Ice Rink Sendai, and I love that he doesn’t gut the surroundings for his post show credits or YouTube channel. There is no attempt to make it “theatrical.” No addition of curtains or changing of lighting. No attempt to hide what it is. It is what it is – his home. And we love it that way. We love the Pepsi banner and the cardboard boxes and the lockers. We even clearly know where to rent skates or return helmets.
But it isn’t just a place for us all to love. It is a place for us to BRING love.
There is a connection between Yuzu and the Fanyus, and Ice Rink Sendai is a concrete, real life, Google map pin of that connection.
There is always a Fanyu sitting on the bench – heart completely full of love for Yuzu and this place and this ice and this carpet-covered bench. It’s a daily delivery of love from all over the world. He has to feel the love and adoration that is constantly being poured into this building for him. He just comes and picks it up later that night. It’s like our own version of the Olympic torch. We keep the light burning for Yuzu.
Can’t land that jump? “頑張って [do your best]!” from the heart in France.
Sore muscles? “休んでください [please rest]…” from the heart in Canada.
Need a nap? “お休み [good night],” from the heart in India.
Feeling overwhelmed? “大丈夫 [it’s okay]…” from the heart in America.
Little known fact: all hearts are fluent in Japanese.
I wonder if 小さい [small] Yuzu ever dreamed he would be the “king” of Ice Rink Sendai. As he was crying about getting thrown out of the rink, I wish he could’ve told himself that one day he’d sell out the vending machines he was probably using for pitching practice with baseballs made from the rink’s flyers. That 大きい [big] Yuzu would have to go there to practice in the middle of the night because he had become so famous, so accomplished, so beloved. And that his heart would still be so big that he didn’t want to deprive other 小さい [small] skaters a home to call their own.
Don’t cry, 小さい [small] Yuzu. People are going to come here someday to buy gold ice cream spoons…all because of you and what you will create on this ice.
And now that we know he has been creating a third ice story, it’s like he’s been etching a new love letter in invisible ink on that ice. Stories that will challenge us, enlighten us, encourage us. Programs that will find permanent homes in our hearts and make us question how we ever lived without them. Costumes and hair that will…well, we know what those will do.
The show is already in the ice.
There was a time when Fanyus visited Ice Rink Sendai, unaware Yuzu would arrive that night and skate Haku for the first time before GIFT or film the closing for RE_PRAY or take his Gate of Living costume out of a suitcase. (Do we think it travels in a suitcase? It’s hard to believe it travels in a suitcase…) We had no idea what brilliance he had in store for us. But the ice did. And now, again, he is there – in that same place where we sit on the benches – perfectly perfecting perfection for us.
We haven’t seen “Echoes of Life” yet…but Ice Rink Sendai has.
Soon, it will all be revealed. But until December 7th, it is a secret shared only between Yuzu and his ice.
