But that doesn't mean we can't celebrate, right?!

Done *heehee*

That's what I wanted this video to be about

But the more I thought about it, the harder it seemed to put my experiences into little boxes

and tie them up neatly with a ribbon.

I've shared so many of my experiences here in Japan with you guys

whether through video, or pictures on Twitter and Instagram

and back when I used Facebook

and the thing is I don't like boxes, I don't like labels, and experiences can easily become generalisations.

or even play up to stereotypes.

So I turned to Google to check in on what exactly Japan....is.

"What is Japan?"

Okay so that didn't really help. So I tried Japanese as well,

and what struck me was that many of the searches that showed pages about how Japan was perceived over-seas

and through the eyes of non-Japanese.

Eureka! Here it is!

Everybody is interested in everybody else,

and generalisations are the framework that helps us to understand things that would otherwise be strange or weird and foreign to us!

Maybe it's not such a bad thing to put things in boxes once in a while...

Even if I'm really bad at it.

I turned to Twitter and I asked you guys to ask me questions

specifically about my life in Japan

and you guys turned out!

So I'm going to do my best to answer these questions

and there might be a few Q&As that come out after this video because it's a lot to cover.

"How were your first three months in Japan" "Did you miss your family and home?"

and "was it hard to adjust to living in Japan?"

So the first six months here were super-duper hard, and partly that was due to working in a really horrible job!

And the company just was *uugghhhhh* so bad!

So bad.

Food was really hard to figure out at first

I had to learn *so* many kanji

I felt a lot of culture shock just walking through the super market and not knowing what the best brand for this or that was

and not being familiar with anything

and having to read these things really carefully like,

I didn't have, like, Google Translate app on an iPhone. I didn't even have an iPhone!

So I couldn't just take a picture and like translate stuff.

I had to learn a lot of kanji and I would just like avoid stuff if I didn't understand it

so there was a huge steep learning curve and it was a very tough time for me

You know, my Japanese wasn't great and I was super shy, like just horribly shy!

So it was really hard for me to even use the Japanese that I had.

So the situation I was in was very bad, and um...

just a bunch of things added together to make for a very toxic situation

where I was quite depressed and I would ring my mum every night and I would basically just cry every single day

and yeah, but I got through that

It wasn't like I was hating Japan, it was just like a really rough situation for me.

Thanks to that terrible situation I learnt so much!

I overcame so much and I moved on and up!

Like that really helped me to never get in a bad bad job situation again

and to not be afraid to quit if things get really bad.

So like, I've always been like a stickler for rules and contracts and stuff

but like, at the end of the day if you're in a really crappy work situation or housing situation

and you can see a way out, take it! You won't regret it!

I got out of that situation and it was honestly the best thing I could have done for myself

and I moved onward and upwards! Yaaaaay!

So yeah, the first six months were super hard though.

I was asked 'what are the differences between Japan and New Zealand?' but that's going to be a separate video

because it got loong.

"What do I miss about New Zealand?"

Mostly I miss the beaches, I miss family, and I miss my friends

and I feel like I've lost a lot of my friends because I've just lost touch with them

like, people can just watch my videos and know what's going on with me

but like, I can't do that to any of my friends

so I really don't know what's going on with most of them

it's, you know, it's really sad!

'cause I still love them! But I feel like I've lost them.

I've been here a long time.

Tove asks; "how welcoming is Japan towards people from other countries? Did you feel accepted or stared at when you came there?"

So first of all I stick out, I mean I have blue hair, I have tattoos, I have...I'm white!

So I stick out. So people do look at me.

and they do look at me curiously and sometimes they stare.

When it comes to feeling like an outsider, being able to understand Japanese culture and language helps a lot

being able to speak Japanese will break down a lot of those walls

and I find that generally people are very kind, and very very curious

and sometimes people will be frustrated by the kinds of questions people ask

and they'll ask the same questions over and over again, and they'll make certain assumptions

but I actually just think of that as a like 'small talk', and especially after spending seven years here

it's just, you know, it's just small talk, getting to know you

and they're just showing an interest most of the time.

What has helped me a lot is making videos in Japanese on YouTube means that people who watch my videos

will often come up to me and just talk to me in Japanese very naturally

Maybe I'm not the best representation of what a 'foreigner in Japan' is

but I feel like we need to break down some of those stereotypes

especially that TV really loves to portray a very certain image of what a foreigner in Japan is and what they like

and kind of sometimes plays to stereotypes

whereas I think on YouTube we have this opportunity to kind of break that down a little bit

Making videos in Japanese has a really great side to it and a really dark side to it

like some of the stuff that people have said to me has been absolutely horrible

and like, really out there, and not nice and has made me, you know, feel kind of like

I really hope that, you know, that when I'm walking down the street people aren't thinking this about me

but at the end of the day, mean people exist everywhere

like I don't think I've experienced any level of negativity higher than what I would have experience in New Zealand

except online, and that's just a whole, a whole other thing.

Okay, if I had lipstick on my teeth for any of those questions I'm really sorry

Kittycat mob asks; "has it gotten easier to be vegetarian/vegan in Japan or is it still difficult to find restaurants/cafes?"

I think yes if you live in Tokyo, I still think it's quite limited and that it helps a lot if you can read Japanese.

One question I really like was; "If you could put all those seven years into one kanji, what kanji would it be?"

And the kanji I would choose is 'ai' or 'love'

When it comes to taking on a new adventure, you really have to go in to it with love

and you will find love!

"Funniest experience with a foreigner?" this got a lot of favourites.

Okay, I've got two!

So there used to be this Indian restaurant me and Duncan would go to a lot because it was like *amazing*

we love Indian food

and I would take a lot of friends and family members there

and then one time I took my friend from New Zealand there.

The waiter came up to me and pointed at my friend and was like 'mama?'

*cringe* oh my god! It was so embarrassing! We're like the same age!

I felt so bad but it was hilarious!

There's this guy I knew when I first came to Japan

and he'd come to Japan because he'd really wanted to see in real life

scenes from the movie 'Life of a Geisha'

and that was the reason, that was it...

Kenji asks; "Did your JLPT level help you get jobs in Japan preYouTube?"

I like the assumption that like I don't need a job because I do YouTube, but...

I've never been asked to show anyone a JLPT score

I don't think that anyone in like the fashion and make up industries really thinks to ask 'hey, do you have JLPT level one?!'

Whereas if you're doing something very very like 'professional' where a language is very very important

like a slip up can cause big trouble

like for instance law, I'm pretty sure someone would ask 'hey! show me your JLPT score!' but, yeah!

Bronwyn asks; "what is your happiest moment ever whilst in Japan?"

When we got Latte and when we got Cinnamon. Those were super happy moments.

The birthday party that my friends threw for me this year was very special to me

Meeting Duncan. Obviously! Because, I mean, you guys know what he means to me.

Doing free hugs. I think the feeling that I get after I do free hugs is the most special feeling in the world and I really need to do it again soon.

Being able to show my friends and family around Tokyo has been a really happy thing

You know that happy feeling you get when you discover a nice cafe?

I get this feeling, it might not be happiness, but just such love when I look down on Tokyo from a high place.

The feeling I get after I release a video. That's usually a really happy feeling.

When someone on the internet says 'I love you Mimei!' ....it's pretty happy!

The world is not an easy place, it's tough! It's tough to deal with it.

But there is so many happy moments, and I'm so grateful for all of them

And remembering them, it's giving me warm fuzzies.

Oh and the moment I decided to move to Tokyo, and I made the leap and move to Tokyo.

A lot of you guys might not even know this but I've actually lived in several different places in Japan

and it took me a while to work myself up to living in Tokyo. Like I kind of worked my way up to Tokyo.

and I'm so glad I did! This city is just like endless, gorgeous, crazy, beautiful, wonderful, lovely!

"Did you have a difficult time making friends when you first moved to Japan? What did you do to meet people?"

Short answer: yes I did have a difficult time making friends when I moved to Japan

and doing YouTube has brought me together with a lot of people.

"How do you battle the fear of speaking Japanese? and the fear of possibly messing up?"

"I get anxious and forget basic stuff"

Oh, I still get anxious and forget basic stuff!

Like, even in English! If you guys could see this video without jump cuts it would sound like a mess!

A very big mess. See I just did it there.

So basically you just have to keep doing it.

That anxiety isn't necessarily going to go away

I know, it's not fun! But it might not go away. You just have to keep doing the thing.

So no matter how scared you are, keep doing the thing and laugh at your own mistakes.

and don't take it too personally if people laugh at your mistakes

just let go of that, let go of that! Be a little bit shameless

and like, just laugh at yourself because mistakes are funny!

Mami asks; "There are many earthquakes in Japan, what are you gonna do if the big one happens in Tokyo? Back to New Zealand or stay?"

So I wanted to talk about this because when I was thinking about this video

one of the major events that's happened in my life in Japan was the 3/11 earthquake here which was huge

It was when I'd just moved from Gifu to Tokyo and I was in my apartment alone

and it was very scary

Let's face it! If a big quake hits the Kantō area, I could die!

I mean, it's a possibility, and every time there's even a small quake here I get a bit scared

my little fur babies could be in danger, and I worry about Duncan's safety

and I worry about being separated in a disaster, and I worry about what would happen to the cats

and I also got asked 'do I feel like Japan is a foreign country?'

I mean, Japan is different from New Zealand but it is my home right now

and I have- you know, everything I have here I've built up over the last seven years, and that's a big deal!

Like if I went back to New Zealand I would be starting from zilch!

I don't imagine myself like running back to New Zealand the moment there's a quake

I don't like to speculate about the future because like anything could happen

I don't know what that situation might be, like

you know, what if I was badly injured in a quake

maybe I would decide to go back to a place where I have family

because I don't have any family aside from Duncan in Japan

like, his family won't have anything to do with us, so you know...

There's so many factors and a lot of them are very specific to my situation, I think

and what would happen in that situation, which we can't really speculate about

let's just hope that we all live long, healthy, safe lives!

That was friggin' depressing!

Okay I'm not answering anymore earthquake questions because they don't put me in a very good state of mind.

"What is your favourite place in Tokyo?" or "What is your favourite place in Japan?"

and I've answered the Japan question before, and Tokyo- I show you guys everything in my videos

Literally if you want to know all my favourite places in Japan they're all here

I show them to you guys and also on my Mimei channel

my 'day in the life' videos, I make sure to pack as much good stuff in to them as possible!

"What is the weirdest thing, your interpretation of weird, that you've experienced while in Japan?"

"How many things did you know about Japan before you moved there?"