New Zealand-born Hikosaemon (who prefers to go by his YouTube moniker) was raised an army brat. His father's overseas postings allowed him to see a bit of the world at an early age, and a two-year stay in Singapore when he was 7 years old helped spark his interest in Asian cultures. After returning to his home country he later decided to take the only Asian-language course offered at his school: Japanese. Hikosaemon took his first step on to Japanese soil in 1990 with a home-stay in Fukuoka. He returned for a working holiday years later and has been residing permanently in Japan since 1999. Not only has he become fluent in Japanese but he also takes his bilingual ability and applies it to his videos. Made with English and Japanese subtitles, they're aimed at both Eastern and Western audiences, and clearly illustrate that despite language or cultural differences, people are just people, no matter where they come from.
When did you start studying Japanese?
Japanese was offered as a new school subject in New Zealand when I was 13, and I took it through to university. I was not the most successful student of Japanese, and ended up not getting sufficient grades for third-year university Japanese. However, in an effort to turn things around, I began working at a Japanese-owned souvenir shop in Auckland part-time, which gave me the opportunity to use Japanese almost daily and to make Japanese friends. This experience caused my Japanese to improve dramatically through daily immersion and self-study.