Name: Micaela Braithwaite

Age: 27

Nationality: Canadian

Occupation: Artist at Watanabe Entertainment, video creator at Yoshida Masaki Jimusho, video blogger on YouTube

Likes: Food, animals, movies

Dislikes: Visa applications

1. What first brought you to Japan? Every year we had students from Japan come and study at my high school in Canada. When Japanese was finally offered as a course, I thought it'd be an interesting change of pace and so I jumped at the chance to switch language courses. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was setting up meetings with my school guidance counsellor and we were looking online for opportunities to study in Japan.

2. What's keeping you here? For the time being, I'm enjoying where my career has taken me, and I'm being gifted with a ton of opportunities that I wouldn't get elsewhere. You can say a lot about the Japanese work ethic but I think that being here for 10 years has allowed me to benefit from the strict upbringing I've had in a Japanese work environment.

3. How did you become a YouTube personality? My first videos were uploaded to YouTube seven years ago, and were just musical montages — scenery from my life in Japan put against whatever music I was listening to at the moment. However, people were watching them and asking to see more of Japan.

4. Where do you go to escape Fukuoka? Nowhere — I never need to escape Fukuoka. Fukuoka is where I go to escape everywhere else, especially my co-workers in Tokyo! (Just kidding, don't fire me.)

5. What's your favorite Japanese word or phrase or kanji? It's not really my favorite, but I guess "人見知り" ("hitomishiri," or "shy") because people use it to describe me a lot.

6. What's your favorite phrase in any language? "It is what it is" — I like to keep it simple.

7. Describe your most embarrassing moment. I feel like being a "YouTuber" is my most embarrassing moment. When it first started becoming a "thing," it was pretty embarrassing to have people who knew me discover it and make fun of me for it. Right now it's flourishing into something trendy and marketable, but I have a feeling that in 40 years when I have grandchildren, it's going to revert to being embarrassing once again.

8. What's the strangest request you've ever been asked in your line of work? I was once "mayor" of the now-defunct "Cute Ward" in Fukuoka. That was a pretty interesting 1½ years of my life — and a difficult concept to explain to my parents and Canadian Border Services whenever I visited home.

9. Do you follow any other Japan-based bloggers online? What appeals to you about them? I'm into photography so I follow a lot of travel bloggers. I like seeing videos and photos from all over the world.

10. How much do you interact with your followers? How do you deal with trolls? I try to interact as much as I can, but I'm more likely to respond to usernames that I recognize, so the more comments someone leaves, the better chance I'll recognize their name and personality and warm up to them.

11. What's the best and worst thing about the Internet? Best? You can be anything you want on the Internet! Worst? Anyone can be anything on the Internet.

12. How much time do you spend online on a daily basis? Since I have a smartphone I'm pretty much connected at all times, aside from when I'm sleeping.

13. If you could make a YouTube video with anyone from history, who would it be? It'd probably be (Canadian songwriter) Billy Reid (aka "Very Tasteful"), although he doesn't make videos anymore. He was one of the first creators I was a genuine fan of.

14. What song best describes your work ethic? The Notorious B.I.G.'s "Mo Money Mo Problems."

15. What superhero would you most like to be? One that could fly.

16. If you won ¥1 million in the lottery, what would you do with the money? I'd probably go to Thailand to eat some mango and sticky rice, go to the beach and work remotely for a few months.

17. Tell us a quick joke! I can't — the only ones that are coming to mind now are wildly inappropriate.

18. Who would win a fight between a lion and tiger? The lion, obviously.

19. What do you want to be when you grow up? I feel like I'm kind of at an age where I wish I had some sort of security, but at the same time I feel like that fake shark analogy, where if you stop swimming, you'll die. I feel like things have been relatively fast-paced for me for the past five years, and when I stop moving I'll stop achieving. That's scary.

20. Do you have any words of advice for young people? Follow your intuition and it will lead you to the things you love. With a little effort, anything is possible.

See Micaela Braithwaite's video blog at www.youtube.com/ciaela, ciaela.wordpress.com.