Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles - 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.