Higashimura Mei (MeiMei) / 1st Generation

Name: Higashimura Mei (東村 芽依)
Birth Date: August 23, 1998
Height: 153cm
Hometown: Nara, Japan
Blood Type: O

 

She's also an aspiring model, with what appears to be an Osaka agency for aspiring models.



I'm not sure where this info comes from, but on 2channel, the basic info given includes:
high school club: tea ceremony
favorite foods: prawns, strawberries
special skill: colour guard (I believe she demonstrated rifle exercises on Showroom)
dog: a chihuahua named Tiara-chan
blood type: O
an all-around athlete who won a medal in swimming (breastsroke)
her Keyakizaka46 oshimen: Watanabe Risa

 

See this tweet for a short video of her on the runway at a fashion show on Saturday.

 

Her Showroom performance last week was very enjoyable. She seems sweet and natural. Her model photos above do not reveal the fact that she is quite short: 153cm (5'), the shortest member of Hiragana Keyaki. She has said she wants to go to college in Tokyo, so she is apparently no dummy. On Showroom, her colour-guard rifle-twirling was a big hit.

But she has an artistic side. Here are two photos she took recently, probably near her home at Nara (blurring any signs). She says Sasaki Kumi has an SLR and has said she will help her learn more about photography.

 

Happy Birthday Mei-chan
She's the only member who was born in August. Will we have Hiragana Keyaki's jibun history too ? (Can't think how they will manage in November tho )

Anyway, from HS sales report, it seems she's quite popular.
Her blog post about Akanen captured my heart. Seems like a very nice girl.

I will try to find out more about her.

 

Happy Birthday Mei

 

To make up for the fact that I forgot her birthday (Meimei otanjoubi omedetou!), here are some photos:



-- after the Nagoya Handshake event


-- with Akanen at the Nagoya handshake event





(l-r): "Manafi," "Memi-tan," "Takemoto," "Meimei"



from Saitou Kyouko's blog today: "She is always so cute, speaking gently in her Kansai accent.... At the hook of the song, our eyes meet, and she smiles."

 

Wonderful photos of Mei at the wonderful Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto -- not too far from her home in Nara. She says she went early in November and expects the leaves to really have turned red now. She also says she went to the Sanjusangendou, the temple with the thousand images of Kannon, and was (appropriately and conventionally) amazed that each face was different.

I see that Mei and Ushio Sarina are among the least posted-about here. I don't think that will last, once they start performing.

 

The second picture is really nice.

 

just recently took note of her, was shocked to see she's Zuumin height! None of her photos (that I've seen) even hint at how short she is

 

She's actually just a hair length shorter than Zuumin, being the short Keyakizaka46 member. I was suprised too, especially since was a former model and just doesn't look short imo

 

From Mei's most recent blog post, back in Nara going for a walk with her dog Tiara. She's just so cute...and I don't mean the dog. (One previous photo added.)

 

I have translated a couple more interesting posts by Meimei. She did her version of the "what I want to do" post that all the Hiraganas seem to be doing.

And she wrote about going out for pancakes with a friend back in Nara. I like Meimei for her personality, her smile and her dancing, but I also like Nara. Great place to visit. It was the capital of Japan a mere 1300 years ago, before Kyoto.

 

It's sad how SILENT the MAJORITY of the Hiragana threads are, but thank you for your updates ukifune!

 

I bet you've been holding on to that line for a long time for an opportunity like this

 

Well in general I try to find ways to make silly puns or whatever, but that one I came up with in like 5 minutes

 

@YagiNako -- Sometimes good puns just arrive on a silver platter.

Here's another blog post from Meimei. She returned to school in Nara, where she's in her final year of high school. She has said she wants to go to college in Tokyo. I wonder if she's going to do that? In any case, she showed her physical prowess by scoring three goals in gym class soccer: not the highest league, but she has physical talent. You can see that in the way she dances around tossing that rifle. I can imagine her flashing across the field, leaving classmates in the dust. With a sweet smile.

 

Man I love seeing you in various threads, @ukifune. It's like we are in sync or something.

Mei's also another person that been getting more and more love recently. Taking lots of pictures, looking prettier everyday. For me, the change happened at their xmas live. True, I was mesmerized by her rifle drills on the show and their first live [did you see how high she threw that??] but the smile she flashed during the xmas live was great. She's also hanging out with mirei and yuuka more now and thats always good.

 

New photos from HustlePress



https://hustlepress.co.jp/hiraganakeyaki_19/

 

She was already an aspiring model with an agency in Osaka, despite being so short (153cm/5'). This will obviously be just the first of many gravure spreads. She's like the definition of cute.

That smile. Her wonderful drawling accent. And in performances, she seems to me like an excellent dancer. She's another Hiragana I expect to become very popular as things progress.

In the interview about her schedule on her days off, she says she spends two hours in the morning getting ready to go out shopping (for five hours) in the afternoon: hair, makeup, clothing. "I do it slowly (laughs)...I'm the type who takes time to do things."