Kakizaki Memi's goth-loli birthday celebration

Memi has made good on her promise to wear something like gothic lolita fashion to a handshake event. It was on Sunday at the Yokohama event, where she also had a birthday celebration (her actual birthday was back on December 2). I'll start with her own blog post about the day, then go on to describe the birthday festival in more detail.
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Gothic & Lolita

Kakizaki Memi
2017.01.16


Good evening.
It's school Memi.

Today was the individual handshake event (*´-`)
And I was also given a birthday celebration!

Here's today's outfit, amazingly!!!

with Sasaki Mirei

I wore a Goth Loli outfit, as I'd long wanted to ～ヽ(*´∀`*)ﾉ

This was the first time
I'd worn such cute clothes,
So I was a bit embarrassed (///ω///)

With this, did I perhaps get a bit closer to being like a doll? 

[Memi with Sasaki Kumi]

In the birthday celebration, everyone sang for me. And I was so moved by Shiho's letter!

I love Shiho, too ♥

Shihorin's shoulder, ver. 2 (lol)

When I entered the hall, they played Arubeki Katachi ["Ideal Form"] by UVERworld, whom I love so much. It made me very happy (о´∀`о)

And they made a birthday T-shirt for me!

In my handshake lane
There were many UgaUga-chans, in all colours (*´ω`*)

I wished I had brought my own UgaUga-chan.
I'll bring him next time!

And thank you so much for all the cute and lovely flowers ♥

It was a day of great blessings!
Truly, thank you very much!<(_ _*)>

Once again, as a 15-year-old, I will do my best o(`^´*)
Please support me.

Bye-bye.
Kakizaki Memi

posted 2017/01/16  01:02
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Memi was ushered into the hall by four members of Kanji Keyaki: Uemura Rina, Harada Aoi, Habu Mizuho, and Sugai Yuuka (wearing her riding outfit). A bouquet was presented to her by Kageyama Yuuka of Hiragana Keyaki.

Katou Shiho read the customary birthday letter:

To Memi --


Happy Birthday.


Right from the beginning of Hiragana Keyaki's lessons, I became friends with you, and soon opened my heart. We were together a lot, and often phoned each other.


At the time when I cried on Showroon, it made me so happy when you phoned me right away to give me support. Even though she is younger than I am, I was grateful for her advice.

There are many things about you that I admire: your skillful dancing, your ability to remember the movements quickly. But more than anything, it is your transparent openness.


When I see you working so hard, I feel as if I should work hard, too.


I'm not a good writer, so this doesn't really get it across. In any case: I love you, Memi.


Let's work hard together from now on.


-- Katou Shiho


Here is a summary of Memi's comments at the event:


Thank you very much for such a wonderful birthday celebration. I've never had so many people wish me happy birthday. I'm moved.


Even though I'm only turning 15, I want to become a little bit like an adult. I want to "fly higher than anyone."

Thank you very much for today.


The title of the Hiraganas' song on the latest CD, Dare Yori mo Takaku Tobe, means "fly higher than anyone." Comments on Twitter and 2channel said Memi seems very together for someone still in third-year middle school.


Here's how her handshake lane was decorated before the event:

Here are two interchanges I've read between Memi and handshake guests on Sunday, as reportd by the guests:

guest1: "I'm back!"
Memi: "You're here, eh." (smiles)
guest1: "Could you flirt with me??"
Memi: "Eh? I can't really do that...uhh..." (frowns)
Memi: (acting really bashful, she winks)
(guest is pulled away by the attendants)
guest1: "...cu...cute.. I'll come back next time!!"
Memi: (waves goodbye)

guest2: "Did you buy the outfit yourself?"
Memi: "That's right!" (with a beaming smile)
guest2: "It's wonderful. Was it expensive?"
Memi: "Uh-huh." (putting her finger to her lips in a shhh pose)
guest2: "Uh, ten thousand yen?" (~$100)
Memi: "It's a secret." (smiling)

When Katou Shiho referred in her letter to the time she cried during her Showroom broadcast, she was referring to a time in August when she moved the camera in a way that revealed how messy her room was. She tried to continue, but was so mortified that she couldn't stop crying and had to end the broadcast early. I hoped at the time that Memi would call to comfort her, and so she did. I blogged about Shiho's breakdown at the time. 

Neither Shiho nor Memi pays much attention to age. Note that they refer to each other by just their given names, without any honorifics. This is how close and equal friends talk.

"Shihorin's shoulder, ver. 2" refers to this photo from around a month ago as version 1:

Here's a much younger-seeming Memi with her UgaUga-chan stuffy, from a Showroom broadcast over half a year ago:

Memi is now as old as Hirate was in early August of 2016, about a month into being 15. And although she has a baby-face, her calmness, hard work and maturity -- although not her self-presentation or her accomplishments -- seem pretty similar to Hirate's.

In the Xmas lives, there was quite a contrast between how nervous Aoi was when she had to speak and how calm the year-and-a-half younger Memi seemed. That calmness may be one of her greatest assets, in the intense world she now finds herself in.

Japanese commenters are puzzled by the way Memi began her blog post, calling herself "school Memi" instead of the usual "Kakizaki Memi." It has become a running joke, with people suggesting that "Gakkou Memi" ("School Memi") become her name now. Probably her fingers just ran away with her, as she typed up her blog with her mind on having to go to school the next day. But maybe there is a chance it was intentional, implying that she was back in Nagano, not in idol mode but just a student getting ready to go to school the next day. Perhaps she will explain...or apologize.

Although the post was posted early Monday morning, it was evidently written Sunday night. I keep using the dates and times that are in the published blogs, but many of the members' posts are written in the evening and only posted in the early hours of the next day, so the posting date/time differs from the time when the member was writing.