16 August, 1996
4:59pm, 2620g, 45.4cm
That was when I was born into the world with a loud cry.
That tiny baby has already turned 24 now.
So, I’m glad my birthday came again this year.
This year especially has been a lot of not really knowing what the future will bring. My thoughts have been messy and there have been so many days where I felt uneasy.
I feel lucky to be able to experience each morning that passes.
I wanted to charge through my 23rd year doing my very best, but couldn’t stay the course, leaving me pretty frustrated up until the very end.
Since I couldn’t finish the course I wanted to take at 23, I think my plans after turning 24 will be to finish what I wanted to do at 23.
Of course, those plans include all of you reading this right now.
There will probably be a lot of difficult times ahead, but we’re all connected by the same sky; we’re all connected by our hearts. Let’s blast through year 24.
There’s definitely going to be fun times waiting ahead.
Every year I’m seriously surprised by how many congratulatory messages I get on my birthday. I’m so thankful. So very thankful.
I’ve met so many good people.
I met all of you, and I met all of the wonderful members of my staff who came to work with me.
It’s really because of all the people supporting me lots that I can stand strong.
I always say that no matter how much I thank everyone, it won’t be enough to express how grateful I am.
It would be nice if my gratitude and love could reach you in one way or another.
I hope I can treasure the bonds we have.
Rather than someone who is just loved by other people, I want to be a person who gives love in return.
It would make me happy if you could continue to closely, or gently, watch over me.
Thanks for watching the stream as well - I was finally able to tell everyone my three big announcements.
I’m putting together a rave review for the stream. Look forward to it, okay?
Image: Saito Shuka
\ Three Big Announcements /
1. This fall, 2nd mini-album release confirmed!
2. The mini-album theme will be announced live on stream!
3. Original merchandise confirmed for production!
Thanks for making today, the day I was born, a wonderful day.
*(The title means “Thank you” in Korean. Shuka writes the words phonetically in katakana so that her Japanese readers can read it. I decided to do something similar and romanize it, rather than translate it.)
However, Seoul was super cold.
Sure is winter already.
It’s too bad that Japan’s only feeling a little cold.
After experiencing that kind of coldness firsthand...
I was like, “I can fight the cold this winter!”
That sort of thing, well.
Whatever, it doesn’t matter!!!
This was Saitou’s first time in Seoul!! It was so much fun!!!
When I was out shopping
I made sure to use the Korean phrase I learned:
“Gamsahamnida”
And say it to all the cashier ladies. I had fun shopping 🤩
Everyone at the venue! Everyone at the Live Viewing!
Thank you very much!
And once again, to everyone at
The Love Live! Sunshine!!
Aqours Club Activity
LIVE & FANMEETING
Trip to Aisa *(lol Shuka spelled “Asia wrong)
-Landing action Yeah!!-
in Seoul
Gamsahamnida 😋⛵️⛵️
Everyone came to see us at the venue, and
Everyone who went to the LV!!
Thank you so much!
Did you guys have fun?
I said that I would talk about the stuff in the Twitter photo, so I’m going to talk a bit about it.
During the Live portion of the Fan Meeting,
This time, we sang a song that is very precious to You-chan and myself.
In the part with You-chan’s solo,
They make a Yousoroad in the MV.
Somehow, this time, well! Well!
A Yousoroad appeared right before my eyes.
Everyone made a road.
I was so surprised, I was stunned...
But, above all, I was so happy that I felt like I was about to cry on the spot.
Then I was like “Wait, but if I don’t sing, then!!!”
And thought “I have to do my best, guhh!!” while holding back my tears.
That’s why my voice ended up a bit shaky. Hehe
So, there must have been some sort of unreadable expression on my face at that moment, I think.
A “happiness and surprise and tears!!” triple combo of expressions!!
What’s more, I was sweating sooo much. Lol
How hectic. Lol
Because of that, at the last ending pose,
I stuck my tongue out as best I could.
I made a “Uhehehe!!” type of expression!! 🤪
I wanted to jam all my gratitude and happiness into that pose, right there.
After the live performance was over, one of the staff members
Brought this and gave it to me!!!
It looked like it was being distributed outside?
I think I was only able to see that view
Because everyone cooperated together.
Now that I look more closely, when I look back on the live performance,
My eyes start getting teary again. Tears just start flowing...
I ended up receiving a surprise from everyone.
I ended up getting a big present.
I can’t thank everyone enough.
Thanks so much.
Thank you so much for the wonderful view.
I couldn’t get my gratitude across immediately at the venue, so
I talked about it in my blog like this.
My eyes were all wiped out.
So after that
My smiles were awkward. Hohoho.
Every time we go to all these places and sing, but
What I’m thankful for is...
Thank you very much for showing us a different view every time.
(Well, at least to me it’s different every time. I mean it in the best way possible!)
Speaking of thank yous.
Thank you very much for watching Episode 7 yesterday.
I’m watching from now on!
And, thank you very much for having us on All Night Nippon* as well!!
Were all of you able to stay up late enough to catch it???
*(Note: A radio show. The second years guested recently.)
Were you able to see an unexpected side of me?
It was my first time on that show, so I probably ended up revealing some personal information.
Probably. Lol
Srsly, “nose hair” is like, my power word*.
*(Note: I have no clue what she’s talking about either, but I assume it makes more sense if you’ve listened to their All Night Nippon broadcast. Just chalk it up to Shuka being a weirdo again :’) )
You’ll understand if you’ve seen livestreams of me and other things, but...
I just really like useless stuff. Lol
This was a blog that was full of thank yous
That blog will end here!!
Okay! The day before yesterday was...
ANiUTa Live 2017, “ANiUPa!!” ( -`ω-)✧
“This is the second music festival we’ve been to lately, so I’m probably less nervous than I was the first time~”*
... I said something like that. I was nervous as usual~
*(Note: The first being the Bushiroad 10th Anniversary Live.)
But what’s most important is that I had so much fun!!
I’m so happy I could perform with Aqours at a wonderful place like Yoyogi National Gymnasium.
Yoyogi National Gymnasium is where some of my favorite artists have performed.
So, I was overjoyed to be able to perform there myself.
On top of that, we wore the MIRAI TICKET outfits that I love!
The hat is a boater, and if you look near the base of my neck, there’s a necklace.
How classy.
Whose hand is this??
We took a ton of photos during our breaks.
Aikyankyan.
Aina ♡
I want to stick to Aina ♡ for some reason. Hehe
Anju of Inami-chan
She’s going “Guwa~” with her hands lol
Osuwa and Aina
Osuwa’s hugging us.
CYaRon! ( -`ω-)✧
ANiUPa!!’s “Pa” pose.
We actually took more pictures than this, but
I’ll just post this many for now, I guess~☺️✌️🏻✌️🏻
I truly had fun!
I still really want to sing and dance~
To everyone who enjoyed the music with us:
Thank you so much!!
I wanna do another concert soon~
Now that I think about it, I wore my You-chan hoodie during ANiUPa!!.
Ahhh!! Today was another good day.
Tomorrow is gonna be a good day, too.
Imma sleep early today.
I think I’ll sleep well.
Ah. I received all the letters and presents you guys sent to Bushiroad Live! and ANiUPa!! Thank you very much!
Well then, I’ll say bye around here.
Oh yeah, my hair color has gotten a lot lighter, hasn’t it?
Tbh I cut my bangs too short before, so now they have a real onmayu* feel.
*(Note: Onmayu literally means “on eyebrow”, and is a hairstyle where the bangs are cut short, above eyebrow level. If you google the term オン眉, you can see some examples.)
On April 16th, 2017, I went to visit someone I love.
That’s right! I went to Numazu, where You-chan and the others are!!
You might be thinking “Why did you go?”
I happened to see all this birthday celebratory stuff on Twitter and other places on the web...
And I thought, “It’s no good unless I see all of this with my own two eyes!”
Then I was like “I’m gonna bring my mom and older brother!!”
So we came to visit Numazu together!
We threw our plans together on the 15th for an impromptu day-before trip! Lol
The sounds of “Numazu! Numazu!” kept echoing in my heart.
I couldn’t stop them.
You-chan’s birthday is 4/17
I really wanted to visit the day-of, but...
There was no way for me to go that day....
So instead, I came to visit Numazu the day before, on the 16th!!!
I picked out all the places that I definitely had to visit.
Then Shuka went strolling around town.
First off, first off! You-chan’s house!!
We went to Orandakan!!!*
*(Note: In real life, You’s house is a cafe called Orandakan.)
The inside of the shop was also packed with You-chan:
There was a lot of stuff celebrating her birthday too!!!
“I’m happy. So happy...”
Saitou cried while meeting the employees at Orandakan for the first time.
After that, a You-chan taxi appeared outside—!
One of the reasons I rushed here is because I heard rumors that the taxis were back! It’s a miracle that I actually found one though!!
Since this was my first time seeing a You-chan taxi in a while...
I was bouncing up and down.
Wait, it was more like I was squirming with delight lol
What’s more, Uchicchii was there to ride with me too!
I also got to borrow a You hat!
We rode the taxi and toured Numazu together!
While we were going around Numazu...
The driver pointed out all these little places and taught us about them.
Saying stuff like, “Oh, this is where that one part of the anime took place!”
Once again, when I thought about how the Aqours girls grew up in a place like this, somehow it made me really happy.
To the You-chan taxi driver
Who pointed out so many little places from the anime to us...
And who took the time to check those places out and study them...
Thank you so much.
⚠️ I will not be revealing the driver’s name since it is personal information.
Then, we visited Shougatsu.*
*(Note: Confectionery shop in Numazu. In the drama CDs, CYaRon! “worked” there part-time; and in real life, the second-year seiyuu visited the shop and helped to make some of the confections.)
Message Text:
Statement of Gratitude
To Shougatsu’s visitors:
Thank you so much.
Since Chika-chan, You-chan, and Ruby-chan came to work part-time here, many more people have started visiting Shougatsu. We’re just a small shop in the middle of nowhere, but thank you so much for always taking the time to shop here anyway.
In addition to expressing our gratitude, we have a couple of things we must apologize for...
☆ Sorry that the three in CYaRon! were absent from work for a long period of time, leaving the shop unattended...*
☆ Sorry that our mikan dorayaki and mikan pound cake are constantly sold out.
☆ Sorry that we shortened our business hours.
Even though we’re like this, we’ll continue to be in your care in the future.
Shougatsu
*(Note: In one of CYaRon!’s drama CDs, Chika, You, and Ruby work part-time at Shougetsu. They pretty much left the store and ditched work for the majority of the drama lol.)
I haven’t been here since “Strolling with Aqours”!!*
*(Note: This is bonus footage from BD2, where the second years visited various places around Numazu.)
Hehe, I was really happy when you remembered me ♡
We shared some really vigorous handshakes lol
Sorry that the three in CYaRon! were absent from work for so long!! ( ･᷄-･᷅ )
Then...
I also wrote lots of notes for others to read in the guestbooks and stuff.
Numazu Gamers*
*(Shuka uses the abbreviation “Numaazu” here. In Japanese, “gamers” is “geemaazu”, so Numazu Gamers is commonly shortened to “Numaazu”. Clever pun. Doesn’t quite work in English, though. You have to admit “Numers” sounds pretty dumb.)
Message Text:
April 16, 2017
Today is the day before You-chan’s birthday.
So, I came to visit Numazu 😊♡
Saitou is really happy to see so many messages.
Thank you very much.
It’s a day early, but...
Happy Birthday You-chan!
I’ll always be with you ♡
BY: Saitou Shuka.
Shougatsu
Message Text:
2017.4.16
Today, I came to visit my beloved Shougatsu before You-chan’s birthday 😊♡
Sorry Chika, You, and Ruby were absent from work for so long... 😣 (haha)
SUN! SUN! Sunshine Cafe
Message Text:
I came to visit Numazu 😊
April 16, 2017
It’s a day early but...
Happy Birthday You-chan.
I’ll always be with you ♡
Since I took the time to secretly leave all these messages...
Please take a look when you visit Numazu, okay!!!
It really was a day full of happiness and blessings.
A single day wasn’t nearly enough time for me to tour the whole area.
Although there were some places I wanted to visit that I couldn’t visit...
It was still a ridiculously satisfying day.
And since today was a day trip with my family
I suddenly barged into a lot of different places.
My apologies for surprising all of you staff members.
I must have interrupted your work, too... I’m sorry.
And to everyone who just happened to be at those stores, too...
Sorry for surprising you guys.
Sorry for bothering all of you.
I even barged in while some of you were eating...
But, once again, I could reeeeeeeally feel everyone’s love.
All the warmth and love from everyone in Numazu.
I felt so blessed. Thanks.
And You-chan—
Happy birthday.
I’ll always be on your side.
I’m right with you.
You seem so skilled and talented, but you’re actually a bit clumsy.
I really like that part of you.
I’ll continue be in your care in the future!
Today I’ll say bye around here!
Sorry it’s so late at night!!!
ShukaBlog 2017.05.04: Today’s content is directionless. Take a look?
[Original Post] [←Zenkai no ShukaBlog!]
Hello. It’s Saitou.
It’s Golden Week right now.
Did any of you guys go anywhere?
Or will you go somewhere?
Today I went out with my mother.
Since we walked around so much earlier, I’m lazing around in bed now.
While we were walking around...
We ran into a boy holding a carp streamer.
So I also held one~
When I asked my mom to take a picture, she was like “Here, take this~” and handed me the carp streamer to hold.
Today I don’t really need to report any announcements.
It’s a blog post where I’m gonna do whatever I want.
I mean. There seriously isn’t any actual content.
So I’m writing based on how I feel.
Well, I wrote this post thinking something along the lines of “Eh, writing this kind of post every once in a while isn’t so bad.” ( ´∀` )
It’s not like I only have one thing I want to say; I think I have like three?
First, the app game UchiHime-sama’s...
Wait, what is this called? An icon? It’s okay for me to use that word, right?
... is Amaterasu-chan.
(This is from a while ago)
I was surprised.
Oh man. She’s winking.
I was like, “She’s so cute!”
Thank you very much, UchiHime-sama 🤤💓
Still two more things left to say!
I have 180k followers on Twitter.
And this blog has 8000 subscribers ☺️
I’m connected to so many people on social media...
It’s kind of embarrassing.
This blog is all colloquial language!
That’s just how I write my posts, so... there are always typos everywhere.
I’m bad at thinking of what to write about.
I’m bad at organizing my thoughts as well.
It makes me really happy that so many people read my blog anyway.
To everyone who reads my blog. Thanks!
I’ve always been using this as motivation to write, and I hope it stays this way.
I want a lot more people to say "I like Letters from Shuka ☺︎”!
Somehow I ended up telling everyone one of my desires, but it’s okay to do that every once in a while, right?
Okay then. I’ll do just one #ShukaInstructionManual question.
① What kind of facial cleanser have you been using recently?
→ I’ve been using Cher-Couleur.
I just bought a new one the other day so I’ve been looking forward to using it!
I’ve been using Cher-Couleur’s cleanser, face wash, toner, moisturizer, and their oil.
I use their whole line of products ☺️
You guys probably forgot about #ShukaInstructionManual, huh...
Everyone tweeted #ShukaAppearance because that’s the new thing going around, but #ShukaInstructionManual is still alive, y’know...
Hehe. Don’t forget about it, okay!!
Every so often, I’ll suddenly do a #ShukaInstructionManual!!
That being said, I’ll guess I’ll say bye-bye around here.
I’m actually ending this post while it still feels content-less!!!
Whooo!!!
Well then, bye-byeeee!
Ah! Good night! I’m gonna sleep!!
Today I put my bangs up for the whole day!
It’s extremely rare for me to put my bangs up!!
Ultra Rare!!
By the way, the clothes I’m wearing in this picture are different from the clothes I wore in the first picture.
It was hot so I changed into short sleeves lolol
I made sure to wear a jacket though!!
Also, my hair color got a lot brighter.
Though the color has faded a bit!! Lol
The color is still pretty, so it’s nice for performing on stage.
Ever since I made those announcements...
It feels like today has arrived quickly~!!!
I was really looking forward to this release, y’know 😌
I’ve been hearing others say “I got my copy!!!” here and there!!
Thank you very much.
People who have seen the magazine might have thought about this, but...
These are clothes that I would normally never wear.
I wore two different outfits too!!
Here’s the first one~
They bought so much dango for me...
I was super worried lol
Yellow top with a white skirt!!
I definitely had to wear a hat, so I requested to wear one.
When you think of hats, you think of Saitou, right? No? 😏
Since I always wear black, somehow I found myself thinking
“That was refreshing, wasn’t it??”
It’s been way too long since I’ve worn heels!!
Then, at the beach I wore...
A white one-piece dress!!!
A white one-piece dress!!!!
...
A white one-piece dress!!!!!!
I mean, I never wear white one-pieces...
I own one-piece dresses but they’re all black. Lol
I was already refreshing by myself, but the one-piece dress was super cute because it was all light and fluffy.
It was an outfit that made me, who moves around a lot, look more dazzling.
As for that outfit, here you go:
The first pic was the one I censored earlier lol
I was like, “Sand got all over my hands!” as I was brushing sand off my hands.
The contents of the interview were kinda embarrassing too.
Because the general concept for this interview was “first date”, the theme became something like a date.
Describe my ideal type?!!
If I were to reread what I said, I’d get a bit embarrassed!!!
Up until now, I haven’t really talked about anything related to love ♡
So with this, you’ll know more about Saitou...
Also, also!!
Starting from a scheduled time, I gave a sneak peek!
That is, of my big announcement.
Are you thinking “What? What’s your big announcement?!!”?
Hehehe.
Yeah! I’m going to be serialized in B.L.T. VOICE GIRLS!!
I’m so happy!!!
The series will start from Vol. 31!!
So, I have a request for all of you.
Hear me out?
I’ll be collecting requests of the form:
“I want to see a ___ Saitou Shuka” for the series!
In case there’s a specific type of Saitou Shuka you want to see!!
I want it to be a series that I create together with everyone ( ´•௰•`)☆
What kind of Saitou do you guys want to see?
Cool kid Saitou? Or a more giddy Saitou?
Please complete the sentence “I want to see a ___ Saitou Shuka” in a Direct Tweet to me!
If you want to use a hashtag, that’s cool too.
#ShukaAppearance
(Note: If you actually want to tweet her, make sure you use the original hashtag #しゅかすがた )
Well, how’s that?
Idk if it’s good or bad, but... Lol
If you tweeted “I want to see a ___ Saitou Shuka”
And tagged it with #ShukaAppearance, I’d be happy!
Oh, and I also autographed a camera~!
So we can try giving it away as a present!!
Check the mail ballot section of the magazine often and be sure to enter!
Those of you who don’t use social media can directly mail B.L.T. with the message “I want to see a ___ Saitou Shuka” to participate!!
Their forwarding address is published in the magazine!
I’ll be in your care 😌
I’m looking forward to the series I’ll be creating with all of you!
I’ll think really hard about it too so that I can show you a lot of different Saitous! Hehe
Thank you very much 😌💓
Actually, these are the same people who helped with the furisode shoot! Hehe
I owe Shimizu-san a lot of favors!
I was able to relax and complete the photoshoot ♡
Fai. Since I’ll be going to Numazu tomorrow...
It’ll be one week since I’ve been to Numazu. Lol
Here are photos from when I went there the other day 📷♡
I also used a QuickSnap to snap some photos but...
I can’t develop the photos yet, so please wait for them~
Although I have a Holga, the MicroSD isn’t working, so...
I haven’t been able to play around with it recently. I have to get it fixed.
Speaking of which, I was gonna upload just the photos, all in one go.
Then I thought I’d turn it into a blog post instead.
It... should be okay to do this every once in a while, right!??
The moment I arrived I found this bus!
I was super lucky 😏🤘🏻
After seeing the bus, the very first place I went to was
SUN! SUN! Sunshine Cafe
I ate You-chan’s cake~
Of course, I had Youkisoba and salisbury steak too!!
Since the staff were all wearing hats for some reason,
They lent one to me 😂🙏🙏
Next I went to! Ga—...
I mean, the Little Demon Store, Numazu Gamers!!
*(Note: As you might recall, Aikyan got to be the manager of this store for one day. This is presumably when she crossed out GAMERS and wrote Little Demon Store + the abbreviation for Numazu Gamers on the front of the store, as shown in the photo.)
I went ahead and wrote in the guestbook~(´-ω-`)
I took up the last page, too!
The very first person in the guestbook was me and the last person is also me!!
Mm! What a nice way to wrap things up!! Juuust kidding.
After that, we took a bumpy bus to You-chan's house.
We’re here~!!
There were a lot of people visiting when I went, too.
I had to wait nearby until my name was called to go in~ ( *¯ㅿ¯*)
Decided to take a picture with Mt. Fuji in the background. Whew!
After barging into You-chan’s house, once we left~
Somehow!! You-chan was RIGHT there!!
I got to sit in the driver’s seat too......
So nerve-racking......
*(Note: I don’t think Shuka actually drove the taxi.)
I went to Shougatsu together with the You-chan taxi.
When I got there, I saw this wonderful cake.
I wasn’t sure whether it was okay to put pictures of the cake on the internet, so I censored it, but...
It looked so delicious. I mean, it was amazing!!
I was like “It’s too cute!! Ehhh!!”
I didn’t get to put all the pictures I wanted to post in this one post.
So I’m going to continue in another post.
I said I was only going to put photos...
I wrote more words than expected. Heheh.
