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20 YouTubers to Watch Before Going to Japan

One of the best things about traveling is the fun you have while preparing your trip by reading and watching media about your destination. YouTube has a wealth of channels with amazing travel content, and videos that show you more about daily life in all kinds of places in the world. We compiled a list of Youtube channels that all do a great job in introducing Japanese life, its culture, and its attractions to viewers all over the world. Check out these 20 YouTube channels about Japan!

1. Abroad in Japan

2. sharla in japan, 3. ryotaro’s japan, 4. rachel and jun, 6. tokyo lens, 7. ramen adventures, 8. tokidoki traveller, 9. paolo from tokyo, 10. only in japan, 11. tokyo diaries, 12. bontenmaru, 13. life where i’m from, 14. currently hannah, 15. yuki japanfries, 16. texan in tokyo, 17. eatyourkimchi studio, 18. tokyo creative travel, 19. tabieats, 20. japan wonder travel, other articles you might enjoy.

This is one of YouTube’s most popular Japan-related channels with over 2 million subscribers. Abroad in Japan is made by a frank and funny British man who lives in Japan, and (almost) nothing is taboo. He goes over all kinds of Japanese quirks, visits places where regular people don’t come, and talks about things you have always wondered about but never dared to ask. You will have a great time watching this treasure trove of Japan-related videos!

Sharla has lived in Japan for many years starting out as a university exchange student, and she loves to wander the streets of Japan. She lets her viewers join in on her walks and experiences through live streams that you can watch as videos at a later moment. As she has been streaming videos for many years, there is a great video library that shows many parts of Japan and all kinds of experiences. 

Unlike the 2 channels mentioned above, Ryotaro’s channel is relatively new as he only started his channel in 2020. In the space of one year, however, he managed to create a host of videos that are entertaining to watch while showing some quintessentially Japanese places and experiences.

This Japanese/American couple likes to show you their daily life as an intercultural couple in Japan. They have been around for a while, and have an impressive video catalogue of daily life in Japan, typical Japanese culture, social issues, interesting intercultural things, and their cats. They also have videos about the trips they take to famous and lesser-known Japanese cities.

Micaela is a young Canadian woman who has lived on Japan’s southern Kyushu island for more than 15 years. With her experience in the media and entertainment industry she makes fun videos about her various experiences with daily life in Japan, the entertainment industry in Japan, and the trips she takes around the country. Cultural differences between western countries and Japan are also a favorite subject, which she brings up in a funny and frank way.

Norm of Tokyo Lens is a creative guy who is also a photographer and shamisen player (traditional Japanese string instrument) besides being a productive YouTuber with more than 20 million views on his channel. Join him on his walks in and around Tokyo and listen to his often humorous commentary on all kinds of Japan-related subjects. He’s also been on some cool outdoor adventures in the last few months so if you’d be interested in doing the same, it is worth checking out Norm’s channel!

As this channel’s name suggests, Brian from Ramen Adventures travels all over Japan to find the very best ramen wherever he goes. You will be surprised by the many varieties of ramen that exist, and any foodie will enjoy seeing all the delectable goodness that you’ll see in Brian’s captivating videos. You will also get to see a bit of the environment where the restaurants are located, that usually have a very local vibe.

Young Australian Emma moved to Japan in 2016 and started documenting her daily life including many ups and downs in her new home country. It is fun to follow her as she learns about life in Japan, as you really get to see the journey as it is experienced by a newcomer. She’s just as curious about quintessential Japanese things like karaoke for 1, animal cafes, and tiny Japanese apartments as you are.

Filipino Paolo has lived in Tokyo for a long time and knows the city like the back of his hand. He enjoys sharing his experiences in Tokyo as well as his day trips with his viewers. Paolo’s channel is incredibly varied with subjects ranging from 200USD/month apartments to street food and a day in the life of an average university student. He also doesn’t shy away from slightly more difficult topics like discrimination. But some of his best videos are the ones about hidden spots in the city, which are especially interesting for those traveling to Japan.

If you’re looking for a wealth of recent videos of what Tokyo has recently been like, YouTube channel Only in Japan is the place to look. John is on the road around Tokyo all the time, and he likes to share his trips with you. Videos often revolve around popular and lesser known locations in Tokyo and newly opened events or shops. He uploads new videos frequently, so if you want to know about the current situation in Japan, Only in Japan is a great channel to follow.

Tina grew up in Germany and started living her dream in Tokyo a few years ago after devouring Japanese manga as a child. She does fun stuff around Tokyo that many (young) travelers would also enjoy and she sometimes travels outside of the capital as well to show you other famous and lesser-known attractions in Japan. Because Tina likes fashion, Tokyo Diaries also gives you a look at what is currently fashionable in Tokyo.

Sanna is a young German woman who moved to Japan in 2016 and started sharing her adventures on her bilingual German/English YouTube channel. Her travels in Tokyo and vicinity are fun to watch for future tourists, and as a bonus you will also get a look at the life of a pregnant woman and young mom in her later videos.

Canadian Greg gives a peek into his life with his Japanese wife and bi-national kids. You will see special events but also ordinary life, all presented in an entertaining and enlightening way. Subjects are incredibly varied and there are videos about housing in Japan, cultural quirks, school life in Japan, and much more. Of course, trips are also documented extensively and interesting to watch for those who are going to be traveling in Japan.

Hannah now lives in Osaka, and she loves to travel. Currently Hannah boasts well-paced videos on many destinations within Japan. The best part is that she is not afraid to show when things don’t go as planned, so you get an honest view on how things really are. There are also videos about daily life in Japan and interesting things you run into while living here. Besides content from Japan, you can also see videos about Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and other countries.

This is a more rare kind of Japan-related YouTube channel, as Yuki JapanFries is an English-language channel by a Japanese guy instead of a foreigner who moved to Japan at a later age. That fact makes this a very interesting channel to follow as you will get a slightly different perspective on Japan compared to the other channels that are mentioned in this article. Yuki likes to have fun and isn’t always too serious, but he speaks frankly about many fascinating subjects as well, some of them relating to foreigners (in Japan).

While Grace and Ryosuke stopped making videos for YouTube in 2016 to concentrate on starting a family, their channel Texan in Tokyo is still worth watching for the superb content they created for 2 years. This lovable couple shares their views on intercultural relationships, goes about their daily life on video, talks about learning Japanese, and takes fun, active trips around the country. Once you start watching, you won’t be able to stop!

Extremely productive YouTubing expats Martina and Simon from Canada first started making videos for YouTube when they lived in South Korea. When they moved to Japan in 2016, being the foodies they continued creating content that is often about the delicious food that can be enjoyed in Tokyo. But the videos also cover cultural differences and cool places to visit in and outside of Tokyo.

Tokyo Creative is a bit different from most other YouTubers as they work closely with local governments in Japan who are looking to promote their municipality to foreign tourists. This means that their content is always high-quality and that you get to see the spots in larger and smaller cities and villages in Japan that are interesting for travelers, and that you may not have thought of yourself. Also if you’re looking for some quick Japanese language lessons, this channel is a great one to check out.

Go to TabiEats for everything related to (mainly) Japanese food. You get to see food reviews for dishes ranging from high end beef to noodles and cheap but delicious fast food and Japanese food recipes. You will also find videos related to the regions they travel to, so TabiEats is also a good channel for some good travel inspiration.

And finally, we also have our own channel! We introduce some of our tours we can offer you if you travel to Japan, and you can also get a quick sneak peek of some of Japan’s most famous and impressive destinations.

We hope you will have fun watching the YouTube videos created and uploaded by the channels we introduced above. Watching a (short) movie about the place you want to visit is always a great way to familiarize yourself with the spot and get some sneak previews.

Follow us on  Instagram ,  Facebook  and  Twitter  for more travel inspiration. Or tag us to get featured! 

Happy travelling!

Stefanie Akkerman moved from the Netherlands to Japan in 2013 with her Japanese husband and son. She jumped into the niche of Dutch tour guiding in Tokyo and Kamakura in 2015 and occasionally writes articles about all the great sights and activities Japan has to offer. She loves (Japanese) food, and to work that all off she goes diving, snorkeling, cycling, or hiking.

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News & Opinion Travel

Currently Hannah: Life Through a Lens

Currently Hannah has become a hugely successful YouTube channel thanks to creator Hannah Price’s determination to show Japan and herself

June 10, 2022

To  step in front of a camera involves elements of performance. It takes guts to share yourself, physically and mentally, be it on TikTok or YouTube. There’s a side to social media that exposes participants and can put them in awkward situations where they can be open to abuse or worse. When I sit down, over Zoom, and talk with Hannah Price and her partner Chris Kihara, the duo behind the YouTube channel Currently Hannah , they talk candidly about their journey from humble travelog to global success story with nearly 30 million views on the platform to date.  

Based in Osaka, the pair travel Japan exploring prefectures and off-the-beaten-track locations which, they hope, pique the interest of their ever-expanding following. From exploring the stunning hues of Nara’s autumn leaves to hiking in the Japanese Alps, the channel’s content has, perhaps unsurprisingly, become a huge success with many viewers living their Japanese travel dreams vicariously through Price and Kihara. However, Currently Hannah is more than a travel channel. Price also occasionally shares more personal videos like “Moving into My New Japanese Apartment” which shows a more intimate and realistic side to her life.  

Price explains that having a career as a performer has, perhaps, helped her in her work as a YouTuber. “I’m a performer by trade,” says Price. “Singing, acting and dancing. I was working at Universal Studios Singapore and had already lived in Japan for a bit. At that time I was really inspired by Casey Neistat and I thought I was going to a lot of cool places, which I wanted to share. I also saw that social media and YouTube was becoming a prominent part of people’s lives. So, I thought this could be a good thing for me to work on now.”

In only six years of making videos, the number of viewers has grown exponentially, something which she and Kihara are surprised and touched by. “It’s hard to fathom [that we have nearly 30 million views]. I can’t really imagine 30 million people. I am reminded, however, when I meet one of my viewers. It brings it home a little bit more. If they get some kind of value from my videos, if it helps them or affects them in some way or another, it’s a really awesome experience.”

Kihara’s skills at drone filming (Price calls Kihara the best FPV drone pilot in Japan) has given the channel an extra air of Hollywood production to the content they create. Price adds, “We try to focus on the visuals of the videos to make them as high quality as possible, using Chris’ drone shots and 4K footage.”  

The pair acknowledge the effect that the pandemic has had on their viewers and themselves. Stuck in Japan for the last few years, they have concentrated on finding less well-known locations that their viewers will appreciate and, perhaps, be comforted by. “Because of the last few years and the pandemic I’ve been forced to find things in Japan,” says Price. “I craved the outdoors, camping and hiking. Because we can’t travel outside of Japan, we found a lot of really incredible places here that I didn’t think were even in Japan. That’s one thing I’m thankful for — due to the pandemic. I’m getting a much deeper experience of what Japan has to offer. I think people like that I have a lot of outdoor content that perhaps isn’t generally recommended by tourism promotion and stuff you don’t normally see on YouTube.”  

I wondered, before meeting Price, what the normal routine for a social media content creator is like in terms of managing time and balancing schedules for YouTube and Instagram. She perfectly encapsulates her usual working week:  

“It’s a lot about balancing my day job with the social media stuff. I work probably two or three days a week at my job. All of the other days I sit at this very computer doing videos and on the weekends or two days a week Chris and I will drive somewhere and go for a hike or something like that depending on the weather. Before we go on a trip I have to decide whether or not I’m going to make a full video and then I prioritize videos the entire time. Trying to make sure I get enough shots and that’s when I ask Chris to take a bunch of photos for me. These photos usually end up on my Instagram page . And then later I edit the footage into videos and so on and put photos on my Instagram. So, I’m also getting a lot of help from Chris with photography and drone flying.”

When we move the interview towards speaking about sustainable travel and her own experiences in Kansai and being based not far from one of Japan’s major tourist attractions (before the pandemic), Kyoto, Price confirms her concern over the crowds, “It can make it very difficult to enjoy the scenery when it’s so crowded. There are constant bottle-necks because everyone is going to the same five shrines so the fact that the Japanese government wants to double the amount of tourists [is worrying].”  

“If they want to do that sustainably and in a way that is not going to harm the environment and become detrimental to the people living there, then they need to promote places that are off the beaten track to loosen up the traffic a little bit,” adds Price. “Yes, it makes natural places busier, of course, but at the same time the more people visit these more nature-focused places the more your passion for these spots grows and makes you want to preserve it even longer.”  

She has lived in Japan for seven years now and — apart from one year spent in Tokyo, — has always been in Osaka , a city that Kihara and Price seem to adore. Currently Hannah is still growing alongside the content on other associated social media platforms and it’s admirable that she and Kihara still plan to keep their day jobs, considering more and more content creators seem to be aiming to make YouTube and Instagram their full-time career.  

I ask about the near future and their general plans. They intend to buy a large car, probably a Jeep, so they can easily explore the more out-of-the-way locations, the nooks and crannies of a country that seems to hold a fascination for so many. With the Jeep, they hope to add a rooftop tent and open the car out at the rear so they can include camping and cooking gear. They look genuinely excited at the prospect and viewers can expect some brilliant new content in the coming year when the pair explores towns and villages and nature escapes that don’t usually pop up on social media feeds.  

More outlets and content creators are changing the landscape of Japan-related travel content, pointing visitors away from the usual suspects of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. There’s more to Japan, and it doesn’t really matter what you think of YouTubers and other content creators, if they, like Price and Kihara, are showcasing the best of the country and promoting less popular destinations. Travel and tourism are evolving and with trailblazers like Price and Kihara at the helm, the future looks bright.  

Photos courtesy of Hannah Price and Chris Kihara

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with Currently Hannah

Kirishima Massif, Kinkowan Bay, Sakurajima Volcano—Hot Springs Created by Giant Calderas and Bountiful Seas

Imagine living across the water from a volcano that erupts 150-200 times a year! Coming from Australia, I literally cannot imagine this lol but for the people living in Kirishima Kinkowan National Park, they get this stunning view everyday!

@kihara_chris and I spent time together in Kagoshima checking out Kirishima Kinkowan National Park. The whole area of Kirishima Kinkowan National Park somehow feels… tropical? It’s all mountains right by the ocean, the trees are lush and the breeze is fresh! It’s definitely my favorite kind of vibe. Sakurajima itself is a stunning active volcano that adds so much variety and landscape to its surrounding areas and towns. It also provides heat and energy to all the onsens in the area which you can see in the 2nd photo at Sakurajima Yogan Nagisa Park. It’s a beautiful volcano to view from up close (like in the 3rd photo) or if you’d prefer to keep your distance, Sendanen (1st photo) might be better for you.

Autumn makes everything come alive.

I visited Kirishima Jingu Shrine years ago in summer and it was beautiful… but autumn brings out a much more special side.

On the last day of our trip, Chris and I got to do a couple of hikes in the area, first to Lake Onami-ike  (2nd and 3rd photo) and then Kirishima Shinsuikyo Gorge (14th photo). With good lighting, a hike in autumn is next level. If you’re not really into hiking that much, I highly recommend going somewhere in autumn. You can take your mind off how tired you are by marvelling at the beautiful leaves and looking for the perfect leaf to take home as a momento. There’s a lot of different hikes that are possible in Kirishima Kinkowan National Park and they all look vastly different in each season. I’m keen to come back someday to hike some of the others because National Parks in Japan always deliver the goods.

Not Fuji but still makes for a wonderful backdrop! Actually this mountain, Kaimondake, is also known as Sastuma Fuji, so I guess I wasn’t the only one thinking it. Everywhere we went in this area, Kaimondake finds its way into your view making it perfect for photography! Kirishima Kinkowan National Park is the kind of place I could see myself going to again and again to see at different times of the day/year.

Please take a look at our trip video and social media

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