Some numbers from Yuzuru’s victory celebration parade (22/4/2018) in Sendai…..
1) The temperature of parade day was 29.9°C, the highest ever recorded for April in Sendai. The next day, the temperature fell to 14°C and it was cloudy with brief rain. (*thank God for good weather on parade day!*)
2) Yuzu received the total of ¥10,000,000 /approx.US$93,000 (¥5,000,000 from Japan Olympic Committee and ¥5,000,000 from Japan Skate Federation) as the reward for his Olympic Gold. He donated the whole amount to be used for the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake/Tsunami (¥5,000,000 to Miyagi prefecture and ¥5,000,000 to Sendai City), at the ceremony before the parade.
He did the same four years ago, after Sochi Olympics. At that time, the money he received from JOC and JSF was ¥6,000,000 in total, and he donated it all as well.
(Btw he also donates all royalties he receives from his 2 autobiographies, ’Aoi Hono’ 1 & 2, to Ice Rink Sendai.)
3.a) Yuzu’s parade T-shirts and wristbands were manufactured and sold to cover the cost of the parade. The T-shirt is ¥2500 each and they made 80,000 shirts, and 70,000 shirts were sold by the day of the parade. 70,000 x ¥2500 = ¥175,000,000 /US$1,623,500 b) The wristband (a set of 2 wristbands, purple and blue) is ¥1000 /set and they made 10,000 sets and all were sold out on the day of the parade. 10,000 x ¥1000 = ¥10,000,000 /US$92,800 a) + b), the sales of those items were ¥185,000,000 / US$1,716,300 in total. In addition to this, many people donated for this parade and their donations reached ¥20,000,000 /US$185,550. (note: these are not the final numbers as the amount was still going up at the time of original post)
【¥205,000,000 /US$1,902,000】take away【the material and labour costs (yes, it gave a good influence to the local economy too)】was the profit = fund for the parade. If it is more than the actual expenses for the parade, the rest will be used for the recovery of Tohoku. (They did the same for the parade after Sochi).
4) Over 100,000 people (the official announcement is 108,000, but many who were there say the number should be higher!) turned up for the parade, and 1000 volunteers were ready for the after-parade clean-up, However, hardly any rubbish was found on the streets. Yes, almost zero rubbish!! (*I’m so proud of us! haha*)
5) Another interesting figure… according to the TV program ‘Kininaru’, Yuzu said “arigato” more than 294 times on the parade van! xD
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Translated by Shuko Doyle, info from yahoo.co.jp and other Japanese media sources. Much thanks to Shuko for giving me permission to share this in my blog; original post in YHIFG. Pic credits are marked on each photo; last 2 photos (showing sale of T-shirts and wristbands) are mine.
On this day in 2018 (22 April)..... what awesome memories..... 2-time Olympic champion with heart of gold.