Dreams Do Come True: Sharla Work With Yamapi!

Omg so I saw this last night and I just couldn't hold my excitement about it and had to give myself time to cool and calm down before I can write a blog post about it on my blog.

But man I was beyond excited and happy when I saw this video pop up on my YouTube subscribe feed last night that I almost had a heart attack. Sharla in Japan, a popular YouTuber who I have subscribed to and been watching for a few years now. (I've mentioned her before in another blog post here) She lives in Japan and she often post and make videos on YouTube about her life in Japan and places she goes to and visit in Japan. I love watching her videos, they're always so fun and entertaining to watch and I learn so much about Japan and Japanese culture through watching her videos. She's also a super sweet, genuine, friendly and just an amazing person to watch that she's one of my top favourite YouTubers. 

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I recall watching one of her vlog videos on her second channel (I believe it was there I saw it on, can't remember anymore lol) and she was shopping for a fancy formal outfit cuz she said she was going to a movie premier and at that time. I was already feeling suspicious that something was going on...cuz I was like, hmm...movie premier? What movie is she going to? Fastforward a week later, I was seeing tons and tons of tweets with videos and pictures of Yamapi along with other cast members attending the movie premier for his upcoming movie, Terraformars, which is set to release in Japan on April 29th. And guess who was also at the movie premier?! YES SHARLA WAS THERE! )"O"(

BUT! What's more of a complete shock and surprise to me was when she posted this video last night where she revealed about a new awesome job she got in Japan where she got to work with Yamapi! WHAT OMG! I couldn't believe it for myself and I was honestly so happy and excited when she said she met Yamapi in person and worked with him on a movie set. WHOA, is this not crazy or what? So apparently she found this job where she basically work with movie directors and producers in Japan where she help with translations for movie scripts and coaching actors/actresses on how to say and pronounce their English lines accurately so they sound as natural as possible. She was given the opportunity to coach Yamapi in his new movie Terraformars and worked with him on set filming the movie. I still can't digest all this information I'm hearing from her. It's too unbelievable and mind blowing to hear. I'm still shocked even as I am typing this post now. XD 

She also mentioned she used to be a big Johnny's fan when she was in high school and she loved NEWS and it was just sooooo mind blowing for her to meet Yamapi in person and teach him English and have him call her sensei. Omg, she is living the dream job of every Yamapi fangirl I tell you. Can I sign up for such a job too?! LOL. 

Anyway, what I liked hearing the most from her video and story was that she complimented and praised Yamapi for being the greatest person she has worked with in the world. He was so professional, sweet, kind and a really fun person to work with and he's really amazing at English. Omg, this so endearing to hear from a fan's point of view. To have someone like Sharla (who is merely just a normal person and non-Japanese as well) to speak so fondly and positive about Yamapi. It really goes to show that what all the people who have worked with or met Yamapi in real life have said that he's the most sweetest and kind person in the world to be true. Yamapi has always been known as the super polite and gentle man he is and I have never read or heard anyone speak negatively about him. I mean I hold no doubt of Yamapi being as amazing as people claim him to be. This is why I'm still a loyal hardcore fan of his even after 10 years and I can proudly say I'm grateful to be his fan and will continue to support him in any way. And I have to agree with Sharla that he is amazing at English for someone who isn't fluent in the language. His English has been improving a great deal over the years. His pronunciation, vocabulary and sentence structure has improved a lot! It's great to know a native speaker like Sharla also agrees on his skills and talent in that too. I'm pretty sure given proper training and learning, Yamapi can become very fluent in English and he may be able to make his dream come true one day to star in a Hollywood movie in the future. I have faith in him! Ganbatte Yamapi. You can do it! V(^___^)V

Watching this video was so so so surreal to me and it made me think that dreams and miracles do come true if you work hard for it. So never give up! It makes me feel I can accomplish something similar too if I continue to work hard towards my dreams and goals of traveling all over Japan one day and becoming a travel and tourism ambassador for Japan. Who knows. Anything can happen in this world and the number one big step is believing in yourself and having faith that it'll happen one day eventually if you continue to work hard and try. Yes, it may come a bit late and may take a bit of time to happen but time will pass anyway. When the time finally comes, I'll be glad I never gave up on it. 

To be honest, I was actually feeling really jealous and envious of Sharla who got the opportunity to not only meet Yamapi but work with him too! I won't lie, the little fangirl inside me kind of wished for such dream and miracle to happen to me too. But soon enough my jealousy and envy turned into happiness and I'm truthfully happy it was Sharla who got to meet him and work with him because she is just as a sweet and kind person as he is. And there's no use in being jealous or envious of others. It all ties in to fate and coincidences. I don't make meeting or working with Yamapi as a life dream goal but if it happens by pure luck and chances, I wouldn't hesitate for such opportunity lol. A fangirl can dream, right? But all in all, I don't make it a must accomplish goal. I'm happy to stay as a loyal fan and continue to support him even if he doesn't know of my existence. 

Anyway, what I really want to say in this post is it's important to stay true to yourself and be happy and do what makes you happy. Don't compare yourself to others and be jealous or envious of others for things you don't have for it only makes you feel less happy about yourself and more depressed with your own life. Focus on working on how to improve your life and continue working on doing the things you love. The sun will certainly shine in your way one day. It's all about believing and having faith in yourself. 

If you have time, please watch her video on youtube. It's quite an interesting and amazing experience to see and hear about even if you're not a fan of Yamapi. 

YOSH! I will work hard and stay motivated and positive to make my dreams come true as well. NEVER GIVE UP. Be patient. Good things take time to happen. =) 

Japan Dreams & Goals

Sorry I haven’t been blogging as consistently lately. I have been very busy lately doing a lot of things, testing out projects I want to work on, downloading new software and learning how to use them. 

Recently I have been wanting to start a YouTube channel again focusing on all things Japan related, traveling guide tips, food, fashion, shopping, makeup, skincare & beauty, TV, anime and dramas and recommendation tourist spots and etc. I started recording a few videos but I wasn’t satisfied with any of them and want to record them over and over again. To be honest, filming a video is such hard work that takes up so much time. There are so many things you need to consider, such as finding the right lighting, preparing a written script with what you are going to talk about in the video, editing it and not to mention uploading it on YouTube takes forever too depending on how big and long your video is. All of these things require a lot of time and effort. I truly respect people on YouTube who can spend so much time and dedication to recording and making videos as I know how much work is involved when I try to do it myself. 

Why do I want to start a YouTube channel again? 

Because of my undying love and passion for Japan that I want to share with the world. I have all these great and amazing ideas in my head that I want to do but putting them into a video seems like such a hard task. One I’m not a person who’s great at talking in front of a camera. I tried doing it for two weeks and I keep making mistakes which requires me to record a 5 minute dialogue 10 times until my camera battery died. (-___-") I don’t have a lot of time that I can spend to record videos as I do have to work as well and I live at home. The only time I can record videos is on the weekends and I have to pick a time when no one is home so I can record in complete peace and quiet as I don’t want any background noises to be recorded in my video. (Parents talking, TV, neighbour making noises etc) I can only squeeze in about 2-3 hours a day to record a video and that's not enough time to even make one single full video. I can only get 1/4 of the video content recorded. 

I don’t plan on becoming famous and making money from YouTube. I just want to be able to give my blog more exposure and hopefully get noticed by companies in Japan who will sponsor me to travel and promote Japan. I really really really want to make my dream to travel all of Japan to come true. I know this is possible as I have seen many popular YouTubers and bloggers get invited to Japan to promote tourism for the country. 

But lately another thing is pulling me back from creating videos and putting them up on YouTube. It is the strict policy rules that YouTube set that you cannot break. One of the biggest issues is copyrights for music and video content. I have been watching a few videos made by some famous/popular YouTubers complain about this and how their videos got flagged and have been put on penalty. In fact some of the videos that I have uploaded on YouTube also got flagged as well due to copyright issues and one of my videos is blocked for viewing from the United States and I don’t even know why as I don’t see anything wrong with the video. Another one of my videos got flagged because there was copyright issue with a song that was being played at the place I recorded in. I didn't even add that song in my video, it was originally in there and I cannot delete or remove it. Some famous and popular Youtubers even got their account suspended and deleted. So therefore, creating content for video can also be another big challenge as there are certain guidelines and rules I cannot break or my account will get suspended or deleted for the matter. As much as I want to use YouTube as a platform to help me get more exposure, there are some few issues that are holding me back to do so. 

This is when I want to revert back to just blogging instead. Because doing YouTube and blogging requires much more time and effort and I think I’d rather choose blogging. Why? Because it’s more convenient and I’m not time restricted. I can blog anytime I want and anywhere I want (at home or at work and even while on vacation). I can even do several blog posts at once and schedule them to be posted at a certain date. But most importantly, I don’t have to worry about having my blog posts get deleted or violate any rules or policies. Just imagine all that hard work and effort you have put in a blog post or video and it gets deleted for some unknown policy rules. I’d hate to have that happen. Also, I feel like blogging gives me more freedom to just create and blog about anything I want. There is no limitations and I don’t have to worry about anything. However, ever since my first domain expired 2 years ago and I wasn’t able to renew it (cuz I was locked out from my own google account) and I had to purchase a new domain for my website. That resulted me in losing a huge amount of visitors per day. Every time when I think about it, my heart is still hurting a bit knowing my current blog stats can be double the amount if I have had renewed my original domain. Sigh. 

Therefore I have been trying to find new ways to help me regain the blog stats that I used to have and grow my blog even bigger. A part of me feels like this won’t ever happen and I should just give up. But I just can’t give up because this is what I really want. To be able to travel to all of Japan and share my experiences with the world. This dream that I want to accomplish soooo badly and I will not give up no matter how long it takes because I truly feel like my life would be incomplete if I could not make this dream come true and I will die living my life in misery. If I keep on trying then there is still a possible chance but if I give up then it's over! 

I know I can probably afford to travel to Japan once per year if I work and save money for it. Which is not bad if I do end up going once per year. But I don’t want to go only just once per year. I know I’m being greedy and asking for more. But I believe if only I can get sponsored to travel to Japan (for work and travel leisure purposes) to help promote tourism for the country, I will be more than happy to do it. And not mention I can probably go to more places within Japan that I possibly can’t if I were to travel there myself. Or maybe I just need to marry a millionaire husband who will sponsor me to travel to Japan 3-5 times per year, lol. 

With that said, I want to try to blog more consistently now and blog even more about Japan. My travel experiences as I travel there and as well other helpful guide tips and anything Japan related that I can share with my readers who is looking to travel to Japan. I just want to be able to share the love and passion I have for Japan with people from all over the world on my blog. I don't know if this will ever get me anywhere in the future but all I know is that it makes me happy when I blog about Japan and I hope it can bring happiness to others who are reading and viewing my blog too. To give people a dream and vision of what Japan is like for those who have never visited Japan before.

However, I may still want to create videos for my own personal enjoyment of my travel adventures in Japan as I do like creating videos. In my next future trips to Japan, I would want to document my experience of places I go to in a video format and share it with other people as well as memory for myself to look back on when I'm older.