Maimi shares her gratitude to everyone who made her birthday a wonderful one in her February 9th update “Thank you.“. Full translation below.

Good evening

Even though a lot of people celebrated my birthday the day before yesterday at the Hello! Project concerts in Sendai and at yesterday’s birthday events,

I’m late in updating with my thanks, so I apologize(/ _ ; )

But those days were filled with so much happiness

First,
it was Yajima’s final day as a 23-year-old,

and unexpectedly they surprised us with a cake in the dressing room,

and everyone celebrated the birthdays of the 3 ℃-ute members born in February and the birthday of Morning Musume。’16’s Makino Maria-chan, who was born on February 2nd

The cake for the 3 ℃-ute members was like this（≧∇≦）

Isn’t it amazing
It was so cute, we looked it over for a long time

Making a cake like this seems like it would be fun

Kobushi Factory’s Fujii Rio-chan,
a.k.a. Fujidon,

said “I want to eat Yajima-san“,
so I reluctantly gave her the part with my left eyelol

Aaaaaa~h
My left eye…>_<…

Just kidding

I also received a lot of letters from my juniors, so I was really happy

Thanks everyone

I wonder if everyone who came to the Sendai performance burned the last images of the 19-year-old Hagi-chan and the 23-year-old Yajima into their brains~

I was happy that I could spend my last day as a 23-year-old with everyone
Thank you to everyone who supported us even though you unfortunately couldn’t come too

And then, my actual birthday yesterday
I turned 24

For the birthday events,
the first one was my solo event
The second was Hagi-chan’s solo event
And the third was an event with both of us,

and I was so happy that I cried

I wanted my pet dog Rookie to see me turn 24 too
I wonder if he watched from Heaven??

 

A variety of things happened while I was 23…

Everyone supported me during good and bad times,
and saved me countless times…
That really filled me with so much gratitude

I don’t know if it’s because it was my birthday or because I turned 24, but I’ve been crying easily lately(^◇^;)

I was in a daze looking at the congratulatory e-mails that arrived from everyone the instant my birthday arrived,
and I felt like I was going to cry as I was typing my birthday blog…

Then, the words I received from my mother
“Thank you for being born as my daughter“…

I had tears streaming down my face in the middle of the night! lol

I’m really happy

Here’s the cake they surprised me with during the event

Cologne cake

Actually, my pet dog Cologne turned 10 on February 7th too

Isn’t February 7th a wonderful day

Maybe Cologne felt it too,
because she slept in my bed on the night of the 7th
Even though she usually sleeps in my parents’ room

In addition,
she was waiting for me in the bathroom curled up in a ball when I got out of the bath,

so my heart melted
Once again, happy 10th birthday Cologne
Thanks for always soothing me
I love you

 

I got off topic,
but thanks to Fujidon too, who was wearing a Yajima-color red sweater with hearts in her comment video during the event

I was able to turn 24 immersed in love!

I’m filled with gratitude to everyone who came running from a variety of places to where I was in order to celebrate my birthday(T ^ T)

Not everyone was able to participate,
so I want to convey my feelings here

Thank you so much for always supporting me

The event with Hagi-chan was incredibly fun

There was a video comment from the comedian Nagano-san for Hagi-chan,
who has become an adult,

and he said “I like the regular Mai-chan more than Gogh“! lol

I was deeply moved that Hagi-chan has safely reached adulthood

The surprise letter from her parents made me think
“So this is how parents feel about their children（ ｉ _ ｉ ）”,

and I was really touched.

I read the letter I received from my mother when I turned 20 from the perspective of her daughter,

but I thought about things from the perspective of a parent when I read the letter from Hagi-chan’s parents.

My mother had already given birth to my brothers when she was my age,
so I wonder, what kind of resolution did it take to give birth to us almost halfway into her 20s?
I think her resolution had to be strong, but she also knew that raising children would be really difficult…

In addition, I was a considerably troublesome child…(^◇^;)

In spite of that,
she continued to watch over us…

 

Surely, each family has their own stories,

but when the daughter they’ve cherished reaches adulthood,
there’s happiness, but is there also sadness?…

I thought about a variety of things that tugged at my heart(T ^ T)

The venue was filled with warm feelings,
so it was a moving event!

I’m really grateful to Suzuki Keita-san who hosted the event,

and the staff who secretly reached out to our families and Nagao-san to plan the surprises

Thanks to them, Hagi-chan, who usually doesn’t cry in front of fans, was crying aloud

Yeah, yeah
It’s good to cry lots of happy tears

 

Afterwards,
I relaxed while soaking in the bath…
Before I knew it, I was looking back on the events,

so today I soaked in the afterglow of the events a lot as welllol

I started the next year of my life with a lot of happiness

 

I will continue running forward carrying the gratitude and love I feel for everyone concerned with me

Thank you so very much

I’m happy