{"id":75295,"date":"2012-06-25T14:42:01","date_gmt":"2012-06-25T05:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=feature&p=24839"},"modified":"2017-06-13T12:34:36","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T03:34:36","slug":"micaela-braithwaite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/micaela-braithwaite\/","title":{"rendered":"Micaela Braithwaite"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Micaela Braithwaite
\nHometown:<\/strong> Kamloops, B.C., Canada
\nIn Japan: <\/strong>7 years
\nIdentity:<\/strong> Freelance new media specialist, video blogger
\nWeb: <\/strong>youtube.com\/ciaela<\/a> ciaela.wordpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Micaela first started making YouTube videos to assure her concerned parents of their teenage daughter\u2019s safety in Japan. \u201cI was living in Kumamoto and I was 18 years old. The intention was to just show them where I live\u2014it\u2019s clean, the weather\u2019s beautiful, here are my friends, they\u2019re not crazy.\u201d Six years, countless more videos and eleven million views later, the entrepreneurial young Canadian is making a comfortable living from her original online content. Dealing in short, sweet snippets of insight into everyday life, Micaela\u2019s success can be attributed to hard work, open-mindedness and an insistent focus on the more humorous side of the Japanese experience. \u201cI made a video about toilets\u2014y\u2019know the ones in the ground\u2014and how they freak me out. The foreign reaction was \u2018Ew, that\u2019s gross,\u2019 and the Japanese reaction was \u2018Actually, I hate those too!\u2019 I think we can bond over squat toilets, y\u2019know!?\u201d With modelling, advertising and voice-over work also under her belt, there\u2019s no telling what interesting turn Micaela\u2019s career might take next, but one thing\u2019s for sure: she\u2019ll keep us updated on YouTube. We chatted with Micaela about blogging, dealing with trolls and navigating the Japanese media as a foreigner. Read the full interview below.<\/p>\n

\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013\u2013<\/p>\n

Hi Micaela. So what does \u201cfreelance new media specialist\u201d mean?<\/strong>
\nMy main thing is blogging. I have a little bit of a popular YouTube following.<\/p>\n

What kind of numbers are we talking here?<\/strong>
\nI believe about 64,000 subscribers and over 11 million views. That\u2019s where the majority of my income comes from now.<\/p>\n

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That\u2019s quite impressive, but how do you make money from that?<\/strong>
\nFirst you become a YouTube partner. Then you\u2019re able to put advertisements on all the videos that you own the rights to. They can\u2019t have any copyrighted material or any background music that you don\u2019t own. So, as long as it\u2019s 100% original content, and it\u2019s getting a consistent amount of views, when you monetise it, you can make a good amount of money.<\/p>\n

So you can make a reasonably comfortable living from that?<\/strong>
\nYes, but I think I\u2019m kind of lucky in the sense that it took a really long time \u2013 five years \u2013 to build up a following. And then only about 3 years ago, I started making money from it. So the first 2 years, I was just doing it because I enjoyed it. And then, the partner programme came into play and they were like, \u201cHey, you wanna make some money?\u201d And I thought, \u201cOh, yeah, I\u2019m going to be rich!\u201d But for the first 6 months, I didn\u2019t make anything. From there, it gradually started to grow.<\/p>\n

And, if you don\u2019t mind me asking, how much money DO you make?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m not really supposed to talk about how much we make but it\u2019s enough that I don\u2019t have to teach English anymore. I used to teach English, but then I quit. Blogging is my main thing but then on the side, people will see that and give me job opportunities like modelling or sponsorship.<\/p>\n

Last year I went to Canada for ten days. That was paid for by the Canadian Tourism Commission in Tokyo. They said, \u201cWe\u2019ll send you to Canada for 10 days and we\u2019re going to pay you a lot of money \u2013 more than I make in two or three months of work \u2013 and all you have to do is continuously tweet and upload pictures, write one blog and make five videos during the 10 days.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Yeah, I saw that on your blog. You went to places in Canada you had never been to before, right?<\/strong>
\nI had never been to these places but they were tourist attractions, like, we went to the north for two days and both nights we had to go out at two in the morning, in minus thirty degree weather, with our camera equipment and we had to take pictures of the northern lights. Which was absolutely gorgeous, but they were like, \u201cWe don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll show up to tonight, so you guys have to go out until you get it.\u201d And so, we were all jet-lagged and exhausted but in the end it was a really awesome experience.<\/p>\n

And you went with Japanese video blogger Jet Daisuke?<\/strong>
\nYeah.<\/p>\n

Did you feel like a tourist?<\/strong>
\nYeah! People would say, \u201cWho are you? Why are you here? You don\u2019t look Japanese!\u201d They were waiting for two bloggers from Japan and I was like, \u201cHi!\u201d<\/p>\n

What attracted you to blogging in the first place?<\/strong>
\nI started blogging because I was living in Kumamoto and I was 18 years old and my parents missed me terribly \u2013 my mom especially. She was always worried. She was was like, \u201cI don\u2019t know what Kumamoto is like. I don\u2019t know what Japan is like. Are you OK? Is it dangerous?\u201d and so the first video I ever made, I just got on my bicycle with my camera and rode around and kind of just recorded people on the street \u2013 like what people were doing, what I was doing, some shots of me and my friends. It was really amateur but the intention was to just show my parents where I live \u2013 it\u2019s clean, the weather\u2019s beautiful, here are my friends \u2013 they\u2019re not crazy.<\/p>\n

That video got featured on a blogging website and it got 20,000 hits overnight and I was really shocked. People were saying \u201cPlease make more\u201d because at the time, YouTube wasn\u2019t popular; it was a year old and there weren\u2019t that many creators, especially in Japan. It didn\u2019t even pick up in Japan until smart phones were introduced.<\/p>\n

So, I started planning things and I had so much fun. Everything was new and exciting and then to share it and for people to enjoy it was really rewarding. So I just kept doing it and I kept improving how I was making them and I think the quality has gone up a lot.<\/p>\n

Who is your audience?<\/strong>
\nThe audience has really shifted. It used to be North Americans mostly \u2013 and I was making videos for a North American audience. But last month, I was checking my stats and in the past 30 days, I had 400,000 hits from inside Japan. And the second most viewed country was America with 60,000. So, I\u2019m now being viewed more in Japan than anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n

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Have you started catering your videos accordingly?<\/strong>
\nOriginally, I made Japanese videos because people in foreign countries were interested in Japan and learning Japanese. I always thought that if I was speaking Japanese, they\u2019d be impressed. But now that more Japanese people are watching, I get requests like, \u201cCan you make more videos in English \u2013 I like listening to you speaking English.\u201d So, I try to keep it balanced.<\/p>\n

Is it difficult to think of video topics that will engage both your Japanese and non-Japanese viewers?<\/strong>
\nOriginally, my videos were for people overseas who were interested in Japan and still, for the most part, I try to aim my content towards them. But now it\u2019s centred around things I find weird or things that happen in my daily life that I like to share because I guess I have the unique perspective of being a foreigner and there are some things I\u2019m not used to. I made a video about toilets \u2013 y\u2019know the ones in the ground \u2013 and how they freak me out. The foreign reaction was like, \u201cEw, that\u2019s gross,\u201d and the Japanese reaction was like, \u201cActually, I hate those too!\u201d People like hearing people say something that they feel the same way about. I think we can bond over squat toilets, y\u2019know!?<\/p>\n

Absolutely. Sometimes your videos are a little more personal too, right?<\/strong>
\nSometimes I\u2019ll make more personal videos, like when I graduated from university, because if I didn\u2019t have this group of people watching maybe I wouldn\u2019t have pushed myself as hard to pull through and finish school and do all these things.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a combination of personal stuff like that and the things that are meant to be entertaining. There\u2019ll be stories and important information about what I do and what life is like here but I always try to make it informative and interesting and kind of humourous. I never want to make anything negative because I don\u2019t want to spread negative information or negative energy, so I always try to keep it upbeat and keep it a little funny but still have a main point or a main message I\u2019m trying to convey.<\/p>\n

Do you ever have trouble with trolling?<\/strong>
\nI try my best not to look like someone who could take a beating with words. I try to be humble and not annoying [laughs]. It\u2019s the annoying people that others always want to tear down \u2013 people who put themselves above everyone else. Y\u2019know, I\u2019ll get things where people say bad things, like I\u2019ll get Japanese messages that say, \u201cKaere\u201d \u2013 go home \u2013 and stuff. But most of the feedback I get back is really positive.<\/p>\n

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Because your material can sometimes be quite personal, is it ever difficult to draw the privacy boundary with viewers?<\/strong>
\nThere are things I don\u2019t like to talk about. Some people will ask what visa I\u2019m on or they\u2019ll be like, \u201cHow much money do you make?\u201d Questions like that about money or personal things I\u2019ll never say yes or no because it doesn\u2019t really matter. But other than that, I don\u2019t really mind if people know I went to Hiroshima last year. Things that I put up on YouTube, I\u2019m usually OK with.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve collaborated with other bloggers and in a number of your videos. Is there a significant scene in Japan?<\/strong>
\nOh yes, in Tokyo especially. Most of them are Japanese. Everyone who\u2019s doing it as a job \u2013 we\u2019re all kind of close-knit. When I go to Tokyo, we get together and we\u2019ll meet and make plans to make videos together because it\u2019s a way to share audiences and expose ourselves to new people. It can be really inspiring to get together with other people and sometimes very therapeutic to get together with people who get the same amount of certain comments, like, \u201cGo home, white pig,\u201d and stuff like that.<\/p>\n

Is it really that bad?<\/strong>
\nSometimes. Not as much anymore. It\u2019s like 99% positive but then there\u2019s always the one jerk who says things. It\u2019s usually the same person. I\u2019ll say, \u201cThis user said this to me,\u201d and other people will be like, \u201cOh, they said that to me too!\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you deal with that?<\/strong>
\nIt depends. If they\u2019re really racist or they\u2019re saying really disturbing things, I can block them. But we have a tolerance to a certain degree \u2013 people are entitled to their opinions too. Plus, when those people come and they\u2019re looking for a fight, usually they\u2019re coming again and again and again and that, in the end, kind of helps us because we earn one or two yen a visit. So you have to consider that [smiles].<\/p>\n

How do you go about building up a following of 64,000?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s hard. Network. Basically be friendly. Don\u2019t burn bridges. I watch a lot of younger people who are blogging and making enemies. They\u2019ll start sending nasty messages to people who are doing better than them and, y\u2019know, those people are the ones who are going to help you out.<\/p>\n

It takes consistency and effort. Most of the time, I\u2019m very critical about the videos I post. When I finish something, I\u2019ll watch it back and if I feel like I\u2019m bored just watching it, I\u2019ll be like, \u201cOK, I\u2019ll just make something else tomorrow.\u201d If I can look at a completed project and be like, \u201cYeah, that\u2019s still kind of entertaining after seeing it so many times,\u201d then I figure it\u2019ll probably be interesting to people seeing it for the first time.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s good to be critical of your work, to upload consistently, to develop a relationship with the people who watch you. Try to not put yourself above people who watch your videos \u2013 because it\u2019s not TV. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter \u2013 you need to use all of them to build a connection with the people watching you and that\u2019s why they keep coming back. They\u2019ll be like, \u201cI wonder how she\u2019s doing?\u201d and they\u2019ll come and check.<\/p>\n

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That sounds like a significant time investment.<\/strong>
\nYes, that\u2019s why I do it full-time now. When I was in school, it was really, really hard and I was probably only making one or two videos every month.<\/p>\n

Career-wise, where are you going with this?<\/strong>
\nTo be honest, this year I\u2019ve been feeling that maybe it\u2019s time to get a little more ambitious, to start branching into new, exciting things. I\u2019ve been getting a few offers for TV. I don\u2019t really know if I\u2019m cut out for TV because I\u2019ve always been working by myself. I think the problem that I have with TV is that in the interviews, we always kind of clash because they\u2019ll be like, \u201cI want you to be like this\u201d and I\u2019ll say \u201cThat\u2019s not who I am, you\u2019re just making a new character for me. You\u2019re banking on my internet popularity but you\u2019re trying to create someone who isn\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, I\u2019ve had a tough time reaching an agreement with people. I\u2019m very thankful that they gave me opportunities \u2013 I just have to decide how I want to go forward.<\/p>\n

Do you think it\u2019s possible for a foreigner to be taken seriously as an entertainer in Japan?<\/strong>
\nNo, not yet but maybe it will change. Ultimately, the thing that I\u2019ve realised is that if you say, \u201cI\u2019m not going to be that foreigner \u2013 that kooky, wacky foreigner,\u201d there are thousands of people in Japan who will. And at the end of the day, they\u2019re getting the pay check and you\u2019re not because you were too stubborn to change. Obviously there\u2019s that inner struggle where it\u2019s like \u201cIs it OK to sell out?\u201d But, at the end of the day you have to remember that, OK, TV is entertainment, so it doesn\u2019t have to be me on that screen, but it\u2019s just it would be nice if people would understand that everything that they see on TV is designed to entertain and not really a reflection of who everyone is.<\/p>\n

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Do you feel that foreigners are portrayed as\u2026<\/strong>
\nAs idiots?<\/p>\n

Yeah.<\/strong>
\nAbsolutely. They\u2019re always the same character. In one audition I had for a major TV show, they told me, \u201cJapan\u2019s always looking for the next something that\u2019s already been done.\u201d So, they said, \u201cYou should sing enka, you should be an enka-singing gaijin, like Jero \u2013 you can be that, you can be the next Jero.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cWhy can\u2019t I be the first Micaela? Nobody knows what that is!\u201d<\/p>\n

What happened with that interview?<\/strong>
\nI said \u201cI\u2019ll call you\u201d and then never did. I just felt like it wasn\u2019t for me anyway because that show was designed for discovering people and if I\u2019d been discovered as the person they\u2019d created for me, then I never would have been able to be myself \u2013 I would never have been able to change that character. It\u2019s better to find people who have a better idea of who you are and who know how to present you.<\/p>\n

Beyond blogging and television, you dabble in a bit of modelling too, right?<\/strong>
\nYeah. I\u2019m not cut out to be a super model \u2013 I get told to lose weight and I\u2019m like, \u201cWhatever.\u201d I do running and stuff like that but I\u2019m not going to kill myself. I did some local stuff for a magazine in Fukuoka called E-mill that\u2019s coming out at the end of the month. We dressed up in kimonos. It was really fun.<\/p>\n

What will you be doing at the Fukuoka Canada Day Party<\/a>?<\/strong>
\nI believe we will be singing some Canadian songs and then, I guess, just having a good time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You made a video recently about how much you like Fukuoka.<\/strong>
\nYeah, that was because I was getting job offers and people were like, \u201cAre you going to move to Tokyo?\u201d Or people didn\u2019t realise I lived in Fukuoka and assumed I lived in Tokyo. Like, they\u2019d ask me to come by the office for a meeting. I thought I had to make a video that got those people\u2019s attention and say, \u201cHey, I live in Fukuoka.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are your favourite things about Fukuoka?<\/strong>
\nI love the summer here \u2013 people hate it because it\u2019s so humid but I absolutely love the beaches. The people here are so chill compared to Tokyo. I go to Tokyo about once a month for work and every time I come back it\u2019s like I can breathe a sigh of relief because everyone\u2019s just kind of at their own pace and doing their own thing.<\/p>\n

When I went to Tokyo before, I was always like, \u201cI\u2019m going to go shopping and I\u2019m going to buy all these clothes,\u201d but now Tenjin has H&M and Forever 21 and we have Hakata City, which has a million stores. There\u2019s just so much to do here that I don\u2019t feel the urge to go anywhere else.<\/p>\n

I just think it has the perfect balance of nature and countryside, plus the city which has everything you need. I love Fukuoka.<\/p>\n

Good \u2013 so does Fukuoka Now! Finally, do you have any advice for aspiring bloggers?<\/strong>
\nThe one thing I always say to people who want to blog or make videos on YouTube is don\u2019t do it because you want recognition, don\u2019t do it because you want money, don\u2019t do it because you think you\u2019re going to get famous on TV \u2013 do it because you enjoy it. Take the time to be critical of your work.<\/p>\n

Most people will do it and then they don\u2019t see results and they just give up, but if you enjoy it, keep at it and, as long as you\u2019re sure that the things you\u2019re making are interesting to other people, then an audience will come along. And if you\u2019re good at maintaining a relationship with that audience, it will grow.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Fukuoka Now Magazine (fn163, July 2012<\/a>)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2606\u2606\u2606UPDATE SEP. 12, 2013\u2606\u2606\u2606<\/strong>
\nCanadian blogger Micaela Braithwaite was appointed as the new figurehead of Fukuoka City\u2019s virtual district \u201cKawaii-ku<\/a>\u201d – taking up her role from Sep. 12. Fukuoka City selected the young Canadian on the basis of her popularity and power to dispatch information to a large online audience. Last August, Fukuoka City\u2019s local government established the virtual eighth ward for the city. Using Fukuoka\u2019s \u201cabundance of healthy foods, compact scale, cultural relations with Asia, history and location\u201d, the website explains, Kawaii-ku is an innovative use of technology to connect Fukuoka\u2019s vibrant youth with the city\u2019s cultural capital centred on all things \u201ckawaii\u201d. The original figurehead of Kawaii-ku Mariko Shinoda, AKB48 member and Fukuoka native, resigned from her position after claims of taxpayer\u2019s money being used to send the message that women should be cute. After a review conducted by the Gender Equality Promotion Council, Mayor Soichiro Takashima announced in March this year that Kawaii-ku would be \u201cmaintained and expanded\u201d as part of the city\u2019s public relations efforts. Following Mariko Shinoda\u2019s resignation, the position of Kawaii-ku leader was empty for almost half a year. Now – Micaela takes up the position in which she will share information about the City\u2019s events through her social network. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun 9\/11<\/p>\n

\"micaela-mayor\"<\/a><\/div>\n
Image source<\/a><\/em>.<\/div>\n
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 <\/p>\n

\u2022 Micaela has posted a message on the official Kawaii-ku website here:<\/strong><\/div>\n
http:\/\/kawaiiku.jp\/micaelaroom<\/a><\/div>\n