- Hi, guys.
This is Micaela for those of you that haven't seen her yet.
- I exist on the internet.
My name is Micaela.
Hi.
- She is the original Japan blogger.
I started out by watching her videos,
and now we're friends and it's weird.
(laughing)
- It is weird.
We look the same.
We came from the same place.
We do the same thing.
- Yeah, Micaela was originally from BC as well in Canada
so our hometowns are super close,
and we've both been living here for over 10 years now.
How did you start out in Japan?
- I came as an exchange student when I was 17 years old.
I'd always wanted to study abroad,
and I went to a school in Canada
that had lots of Japanese exchange students
so when I asked about opportunities for myself,
if I could travel abroad, they hooked me up,
and I ended up going to Kyushu, which is in southern Japan,
and I went to high school in Miyazaki for a year.
- My first time here, I was 17 as well
but I did like a two-week homestay high school experience
but it wasn't like a real year in high school.
- It wasn't immersive?
- No. - Yeah.
- It was just like I joined some classes and we had some fun
but I had a really cool homestay experience
but then the next time I moved to Japan,
I just started out working as an English teacher.
- I went back to Canada 'cause I had to graduate
and finish my education in Canada,
and then I got a working holiday visa,
and I came back.
- Same with me. (laughs)
- Yeah, and then I did that.
It was really good
because it came with training and everything.
They trained me for the job and that kind of set me up
with skills that helped me even in later years in Japan.
- Yeah, I feel like most people that come here
to teach English, they're not trained to be a teacher
but lots of jobs do prepare you (laughs)
for what you're gonna be doing, which is nice.
I also had the same experience.
I worked in a private English school, which was awesome.
My boss was great.
He was from New York.
We still talk.
It was really fun.
I taught English for about three years,
and then I went to university in Japan.
I did education both in Canada and Japan.
Yeah, I was almost ready to graduate in Canada
but then I moved here because of the earthquake
and wanting to be in Japan
and I ended up finishing my education here.
That's kind of my history,
and now I do YouTube and translation and that kind of stuff
and Micaela does--
- I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. (laughs)
I taught English for a little bit.
I also went to college in Japan for music and entertainment.
- That's so cool. (laughs)
- Yeah, it was a lot of fun.
I graduated.
I joined a talent agency,
and then there was a bunch of years of that,
and I quit that because it wasn't for me.
It wasn't what I thought it would be,
and now I'm kind of just scaling back.
My boyfriend just quit his job
so this year, we're probably gonna start our own company.
- That's so exciting.
- Yeah.
- So because we've both been here for so long,
I thought it'd be cool to talk to you guys
about why we decided to stay here
and what kept us in Japan for this long.
For me, I think the main reason is that it's so exciting
and I have so many different opportunities
that I feel like I wouldn't get back in Canada
so I speak English obviously and Japanese
so jobs like translation or like being a tour guide
or all these things that just wouldn't be so easy
to get back in Canada, I could just do if I wanted here
and I get lots of offers for stuff.
I mainly do YouTube now because it's enjoyable and I love it
but if I want to quit YouTube,
I could easily get a job doing translation full-time.
I like that.
I think I'd be worried to go back to Canada.
I wouldn't know what I would do there. (laughs)
- I have to say though.
I think with that kind of experience
like coming to Japan and becoming bilingual
in English and Japanese, it's a super valuable skill
even if you go back to Canada
because the west coast in Canada has such a big--
- It's very multicultural.
- I think once you come here for a while
and you've built up both languages and the skills
to communicate between cultures
like even if you went back to Canada,
I think you'd find something.
- I hope so 'cause I am planning to in the future. (laughs)
I like it being exciting.
There's something new to explore.
I come from a relatively small town in Canada.
Micaela's is an even smaller town.
(Micaela laughs)
- Yeah.
- And we know it like the back of our hands.
We've seen every little corner
but even just Tokyo, it's so freaking huge.
There's so many cool side streets to go down
and shops to see.
People-watching is fun.
There's so many people here, cool fashion,
stuff like that.
I don't know.
It's just really interesting.
- It's stimulating.
- Yeah, that's the word.
You never get bored.
You could never be bored living in Japan.
You could wake up at four a.m.
and stores would still be open.
You could go to karaoke.
Even if there weren't shops here,
I live out in the countryside now.
I was in Tokyo for a few years
but I moved out to the countryside
and even just like exploring around my town.
You always find like cute little temples
and there's pretty mountains
and there's just so much to see,
and I really like that.
I think that's really what kept me.
It's just so many new things to see.
- I think with my experience, it's a little bit different
because I live in southern Japan down south
in a place called Fukuoka,
which is slowly, slowly gaining more worldwide attention
and popularity because of its startup culture.
We have tons of young people coming to Fukuoka
'cause it's cheap and it's not as expensive as Tokyo
but there's still a lot of things to do there.
We even have a startup visa for--
- No way.
- Yeah, for foreigners who want--
- That want to start a business.
- Yeah, in Fukuoka, you can get a startup visa
where they give you a visa for a year
to try to make a business happen
in Fukuoka. - That's really cool.
- Yeah, for Fukuoka for me,
it's not so much about the fashion
but there is a lot of energy with young people
trying to create things and make new things happen
and put new things into the world.
It's just really exciting to be with people,
a lot of people like me
who are kind of in this gray zone now
where it's like we're not working a nine-to-five
but we're still making money doing the things
that we have expertise in.
It's just a really exciting time to be alive.
It's an exciting time to be in Fukuoka too.
I really like it because it's very stimulating.
There's lots of things going on
in comparison to countryside in Canada.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, it is very exciting
but for me also the thing that I really like
about living in Japan is that it is so close
to so many other
really interesting countries. - That's so true.
- You can visit so easily.
- Yeah, even in the past two or three years,
I've been to Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea.
We've been to Seoul.
We took the ferry to Busan.
I love traveling and it's so easy to just hop on a plane
to a neighboring country and in each country,
everyone has their own different culture
even though it's like the same general proximity.
- It's so different.
- Canada is huge but like whether you're in Vancouver
or Calgary or Toronto--
- It doesn't differ very much.
- People speak the same language.
They have the same moral values
but you can hop on a plane from Japan to Korea,
and be stunned by--
- Completely different worlds. (laughs)
- Yeah, the difference in politeness.
Yeah, it's really, really interesting,
and that's really exciting for me.
- I think another thing I like
is just being constantly challenged.
Even though we both speak decent Japanese,
I would say that, I don't have that much trouble
with my day-to-day life.
I never feel like, "Ah I can't speak well enough,"
but stuff like renting your own house or like doing taxes--
- Oh my God.
- It's a learning experience
every time we need to do something like that.
I don't know.
I like that challenge.
I get bored if I'm not learning something new,
and even if I'm not picking up a new hobby,
I'm always learning something new with the language
and having to interact with people
and work with Japanese every day.
I really like that.
Even if you don't force yourself to study at home,
you'll just be learning it
by going out and doing things and living here
so you always feel like you're improving yourself.
- I don't think there will ever be a point in my life
where I'm like, "I know all the Japanese there is to know.
"There is no more learning.
"Close the books.
"We're done."
It's never gonna happen.
I was just at Miyazaki for a month
doing a, I don't know how to say it, like a tanki taizai.
- Short-term stay.
- Yeah, like short-term stay for tourism and stuff
in a small town in Miyazaki prefecture.
- A really small farming town.
- I loved it.
I remember the first day I was there.
Everyone was talking to me about,
they kept saying words like munouyaku,
which means no pesticides.
It's like pesticide-free.
- Oh munouyaku, yeah yeah.
- Yeah, munouyaku or then they have for organic vegetables,
they're saying yuuki nougyou for organic farming,
and I thought they were talking about like snow.
I was like, "What are you farming?"
- Snow farming. (laughs)
- They're like, "Yeah,
"we're really into that yuuki nougyou,"
and I'm like, "So like snow farming?"
(Sharla laughs)
And they're like, "No."
Yeah, the kanji is totally different
but the first day I was there,
I had no idea what anybody was saying to me.
I'm like, "Yeah, yuki nougyou.
"Wow, cool."
After the month,
I can tell you all about organic farming and pesticides.
- Yeah, you picked up all these new vocabulary.
- Yeah and it's like if I had never gotten there,
I would never have a chance to learn all these words
that I don't use just living in the city so. (laughs)
- And also the culture,
even though we've been here for 10 years,
I'm always learning new stuff about Japanese culture,
new celebrations they do,
and there's always something cool going on outside
like festivals or like a little parade.
They don't call them parades here.
- [Micaela] That's the word I want.
- Kinda like Matsuriya.
They're like carrying stuff down the street.
In Canada, I feel like there's not enough of that.
We are very multicutural but I don't--
- Not a lot of public events.
- Yeah, yeah.
There's way more of that in Japan
where you don't really need to plan.
You don't need to search for stuff to do.
It's just always happening.
You can just walk outside and find something
and learn something new.
- I really like the food.
(Sharla laughs)
- That's definitely something that kept me here
is the food.
It's really great.
- I feel like it's something I love about Japan
but it's also something I miss about Canada
is like the multiculturalism
and like being able to eat like Greek food.
- Right.
That's something we don't have very much of here
is Greek food.
- Yes, I really miss Greek food.
- Mexican food is also not--
- It's growing but yeah.
- There's not enough of it here.
- I love my burritos.
Japanese food culture is something
that I'm really interested in now more than ever as a hobby.
- Cooking yourself.
- Yeah, it's so delicate and intricate and precise,
and there is like so much,
you can put so much filling into Japanese food
like the washoku culture.
There's things like junky foods like tempura and sushi.
- Udon.
- You can find that anywhere
and those are delicious too if you go to the right places
but just even like bento-zukuri, like making a bento.
I've been to so many restaurants
that put so much effort into their presentation.
- Oh yeah, man.
That's something different than Canada.
The presentation is amazing.
- It's not about how much food you get on a plate,
it's how it's prepared and how it's presented
and why these vegetables were chosen
and how the flavor of this fish
matches the other things that are chosen.
I don't know.
It feels like there's so much thought and effort
that goes into like really, really good Japanese food
that I kinda want to learn from that.
- All right.
Well, if you guys have any question for us,
leave them in the comments.
I'll be reading them all.
We've both been here for quite a long time
so (laughs) I'm sure there's lots of things
you guys might be interested to ask us
so please leave comments.
Thank you so much for watching
and do check out Micaela's channel.
She has a couple.
I will link them both down below.
She makes really lovely videos about Fukuoka,
which is something I've never done
'cause I've never been there.
- You have to come visit.
- I really love to.
I keep saying it.
I gotta go make it happen.
I will do it.
- If she comes and visits,
we will make tons of food videos.
- Yes.
Thank you so much for watching
and I will see you soon.
Bye.
- Bye.
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