I didn’t know a Japanese girl is playing ice skate in Russia as a Pair Skating player.  Her name is Yuko Kawaguchi.

Yesterday, she and her partner Alexander Victorovich Smirnov (Александр Викторович Смирнов) played skating in Vancouver Olympic. Russia seems to be traditionally strong in this competition with more than 50 year medal reception history in Olympic games.

In that hard competition, first of all, we Japanese are surprised that Yuko Kawaguchi got a ticket to go to Vancouver Olympic in Russia.  She said her life was hard in Russia in an interview, and it sure is true. 

Yuko Kawaguchi became a Russian citizen to join in this competition because there is no male skater in this skating game in Japan.  If she really wanted to be a skater as a pair skating game, she must leave Japan. And she did.

Becoming a Russian citizen means she is no more a Japanese nationality and maybe it’s really hard to come back to Japan as a Japanese again under Japanese immigration law.  She risked her life for her dream.  In a country where the language and culture are different, she tried it.  What a person !

I feel sorry for her because she and her partner could not get a medal, and she said the play they did today was the worst in their career.  They won sometimes in European games but the Olympic game was not satisfactory.

Yuko Kawaguchi probably wanted to try the 4 spin throwing jump, but her coach told her to try 3 spin jump instead of 4 spin jump just before start of the skating.  I don’t know which decision was right, but if she could try 4 spin, maybe she would have  no regret even in the bad result.

Anyway, I also am glad to know her.

When I was traveling in the world, I often felt lonely in the different culture. But more than my experience, I suppose her trial in her life had been so hard because no other Japanese had ever tried in Russia as she did.

Does she ever want to become Japanese again ?  If she is really dissapointed with today’s result, she may want to be so.  Or she may again try to live in Russia.

Back in Russia, maybe she needs to struggle with people around her. Everybody expected her to get a medal in Russia, but she could not. She may feel down so much. 

Probably she would arise again. She already did the hardest life.  I think she can do it again. I want to support her from Japan.