Cheesie’s Instagram account

Interview Video

Interviews

Shunsuke Ochiai
Hi, I’m Shunsuke Ochi and this is World Insight Interview. And today we have Cheesie joining us for our interview. So welcome, Cheesie.

Cheesie
Hi. Nice to see you.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Nice to see you. First of all, I would like to learn about what you do actually, you know, and you live in Tokyo, and you’re originally from Malaysia.

Cheesie
Yes, that’s right.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So can you tell us about what you do in Tokyo and how, you know, what was the.

Cheesie
Okay. So basically, I was a blogger, but these days I guess they call me an influencer because of SNS, social media. And I’ve been blogging about 20 years now, this year. So initially I was based in Malaysia and Singapore.

Cheesie
And then I come to Japan on a monthly basis for the inbound projects. But due to the pandemic, I actually decided to move in one day before the lockdown of Malaysia. And you

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So, like Malaysia locked down the country because of the pandemic and day before that happened, you moved.

Cheesie
Exactly. It was one day before the lockdown I remember.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Was this planned move, or did it happen, spontaneously.

Cheesie
No, so I saw the news and they announced that they would be having the lockdown three days later. And I said, oh no, I got to get into Japan before it’s too late. So, I booked the last flight out and there I go.

Cheesie
Never turned back.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. But before moving to Japan, you’ve been traveling, you’ve traveled so many times, right?

Cheesie
Oh, that’s right. Yeah, I have traveled to Japan maybe more than 60, 70 times.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow.

Cheesie
pretty much. Yeah, it was a dream to live in Japan someday, but I just never thought of how and, you know, all the details and I thought it’s pretty comfortable to fly between two, three countries. I was based in Malaysia and Singapore.

Cheesie
So yeah, but it was sort of like the, you know, the Kikkake they say.

Shunsuke Ochiai
The trigger, I guess.

Cheesie
It was my final move to Japan and never regretted it at all.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So, talking, speaking about your blog, you started like 20 years ago, right? You don’t. So how did it start? Just, just, you know, you’re like a journal or.

Cheesie
Um, so I, okay, so I was, when I was a child, I started writing diary because, um, I was the only child and, you know, I needed someone to talk to and I don’t have siblings. So, diary was sort of like my best friend.

Cheesie
So, I started writing when I was nine. And when I went to UNI, I actually had, um, uh, a lecture called how to make a web blog back then. So, I made a so -called blog and then started, uh, moving my diary to an online diary.

Cheesie
That’s how I started my so -called blog. And somehow it got, you know, caught on and people started following reading and, and, you know, slowly, uh, it moved towards a social media. So that’s how every, everything turned out.

Shunsuke Ochiai
So, your profession, I guess, is like blogging and social media.

Cheesie
I say that people could see it that way. But for me, I’m just pretty much doing what I have been doing. And for some reason, yeah, that turned out well. And I’m living out of it. So yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, I mean, I think you have the dream job.

Cheesie
I think so. I think I’m like incredibly lucky to be doing. Yeah, I guess my lifelong dream to not just come to Japan, but experience all the beauty of Japan. And right now, my job is to actually share the, you know, the hidden gems of Japanese culture and attractions to the rest of the world.

Cheesie
So, you could say it’s pretty much living my life mission right now.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, so do you remember the first trip to Japan? What was it like?

Cheesie
Yes, of course. So, it was a homestay. I was freshly grabbed and there was like, because back then Malaysia was, you know, the expenses was lower and Japan was extremely expensive, it’s like four or five times more expensive and I couldn’t afford a trip but I could finally join a homestay program which is like a lot cheaper and I went to Nagano on my first trip in Matsumoto.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm -hmm.

Cheesie
Yeah, so that was my first trip with my host family. And I never, and after that, I came to Japan every single year, until the 2011 earthquake happened. So that was the only way I didn’t come back. But because of that, I sort of promised myself that I’ll go back to somehow help and, you know, do what I can to help Japan.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Well, thank you for that and yeah, what is what are your one of your favorite places in Japan?

Cheesie
Oh, oh, wow. Okay. I get asked all the time because I’ve been to all 47 prefectures in Japan. And this is like asking someone which one is your favorite child? It’s impossible to answer. But I really enjoy living in Tokyo, although a lot of experts don’t really agree with that.

Cheesie
Because I guess, because the nature of my work is very different. I don’t have to go on the mind and I don’t work like a nine to five job. So, Tokyo is really actually enjoyable for me because I get to use Tokyo as a base and travel easily to everywhere else in Japan.

Cheesie
Yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
It’s the biggest hub, you know, you can go you can basically go anywhere in Japan from Tokyo Like if you take a plane, you know

Cheesie
Yesterday I was in Takamatsu.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Oh.

Cheesie
Yeah, and I intentionally not use the flight and I took the marine liner to Okayama and took a transit and the Shinkansen back because I had so much work to do on the Pasokon (PC). And I was like, I was doing my calculations.

Cheesie
So, from Okayama back to Tokyo is about like three and a half hours. And I was like, that’s not enough. Maybe I should take the Hikari instead because I booked a Nozomi.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So, so you took time in the train to do.

Cheesie
I prefer the Shinkansen because I get a concentrated three hours or four hours to do my work instead of, you know, you go to the airport and you, you know, you get a lot of waiting time and stuff like that.

Shunsuke Ochiai
And you were talking about finding gems, secret gems about Japan. Could you share some of the stuff that you…

Cheesie
All right, so, okay, for a comprehensive list, you can go to my Instagram to check out all, literally almost all the places that I share are the undiscovered gems of Japan. I don’t really share mainstream attractions because you can usually find that on Google.

Cheesie
But I would say that one of the most special places that I’ve been recently is, well, there are so many. Okay, a village called Moriyoshi or Ani in Kita Akita, where I met a matagi hunter.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Okay.

Cheesie
So, those are some of the very deep places that usually people won’t venture to.

Shunsuke Ochiai
No, I’ve never been there. I’ve never been to Akita or never met Matagi Hunter.

Cheesie
Oh, yeah, it’s really cool because I feel that it’s really one of the truly sustainable lifestyles. They go into the woods, they hunt bear, and then they pick the sun side, the mountain vegetables in spring.

Cheesie
It’s just, it’s very inspiring to see how people actually live the way it was meant to be like hundreds of years ago.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Is that something that you found unique about Japan?

Cheesie
Um, definitely, definitely unique. There are so many things that the culture expects and how, wow. Um, okay. Let’s say for the concept of Shimbutsu Shugo (神仏習合), I’m not sure like the audience, but we’re not basically much Buddhism.

Cheesie
I think it is one of them.

Shunsuke Ochiai
You kind of broke up for a little, so could you start out with like Shinbutsu Shugo part?

Cheesie
So, I went to Kunisaki in Oita prefecture, and that is where Shinbutsu Shugo started in Japan, where they put it where the Buddha meets the Kami. So that’s really interesting for me, because at first, I thought, oh, it’s just, you know, Japan being Japan, being very harmonious and, you know, having different fates at the same time.

Cheesie
But when I think about it deeply, I think it contributes to how the root of Japanese people’s spirits. Like, I think one of the reasons why Japan is such a peaceful country is partly because of that, like the ability to merge things harmoniously.

Cheesie
Yeah. So, to me, that is one of a very interesting aspect for me to learn.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm hmm.

Cheesie
and, you know, delve deep into the spiritual side of Japanese people. You know, they say like you’re born a Shinto, married a Christian and die a Buddhist.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm -hmm

Cheesie
That is so interesting because I don’t think it can happen anywhere else in the world.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Hmm. Yeah, that’s very interesting because we do like, you know, especially if you come during the Christmas, you know, like, for 25th, you know, the city itself is like a Christian country and then like right after we’re ready for the New Year’s and we’re doing it the old school Japanese style, right.

Cheesie
So, I love that. I really love that. So, for someone who is born in Malaysia, we have many different religions and faiths. And I just find this so interesting, like you can celebrate so many things at the same time and believe in so many different faiths at the same time yet remain really peaceful and harmonious.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So, this is a question. This might be a tough question. But like, are there like anyone from Malaysia have like misunderstanding of Japan? Well, like, for instance, you know, about the nuclear problems that we have, or, you know,

Cheesie
Actually, I saw a really funny, no YouTube, TikTok video about a mother telling the son over a voice message, please don’t eat the seafood in Japan, I heard it’s very poisonous. And then the son was showing shots of him eating sushi and seafood and stuff like that.

Cheesie
So, I think older generations still have a, basically it’s not Japan’s problem, it is because our generation, we tend to usually err on the safe side, we would rather be safe than sorry kind, but I think that the younger generation is more adventurous.

Cheesie
So, you’re right, like when it comes to especially nuclear problem in Fukushima, a lot of people still have this stereotype about the stigma about it being where it is 13 years ago, the knowledge stops right there, but it is my job to show people that you know how safe it is.

Cheesie
And that’s exactly what I want to do. In fact, I really love traveling to Fukushima prefecture and think people have a misconception about it. And Fukushima is really big, you know, you can go to IT and it’s pretty much not that part of Fukushima.

Cheesie
So yeah.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. So, what are your goals for this year? What do you want to do? Like, are there anywhere that you’re planning to go that you still haven’t gone yet? It seems like a lot of places, you know.

Cheesie
I do, I actually have an app called the Shi Chou Son Sei Ha, literally to conquer, because I’ve done 47 prefectures, so right now I’m trying to do all of the city, town, villages. It’s a big ambition, but yeah, there are so many places I want to go, and one thing that I want to do is to island a bit, like Rito Meguri.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Rito Meguri. They’re islands.

Cheesie
Yeah, to explore something like Tokyo, I recently just been to Izu Oshima, and it was amazing. It’s just like people think that Tokyo is just wow, like Shibuya, Shinjuku, you know, Ginza, Asakusa, stuff like that, but there is a freaking desert in Izu Oshima, and that’s still Tokyo, so that to me is crazy.

Cheesie
I want to be introducing places like this to the world.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow, that’s great. That’s great. Yeah. Yeah, it is Tokyo, you know.

Cheesie
and there are 10 more islands I still have to go within Tokyo itself.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Mm -hmm. Yeah, Tokyo do have like islands like really far out

Cheesie
Yeah, so I always tell people that a lot of people ask me like don’t you want to travel overseas like don’t you want to see the world I’m like I have given up traveling the world because Japan itself is not in love with this lifetime alone.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Wow. So, what’s your favorite thing to do in Japan other than traveling on your daily life?

Cheesie
on my daily life. Um, I’m actually pretty much a home body when I’m don’t have like shoes. I would call that, uh, two interviews. I would just, okay. Like a typical day would be me strolling the neighborhood and then go to a neighborhood shrine.

Cheesie
If you watch the movie, Perfect Days by, oh no, not yet. Not yet.

Shunsuke Ochiai
We were just talking about that movie.

Cheesie
It is so cool because I live nearby one of the places that he frequents, and it’s just so nice to see that him visiting places that I actually go to and doing the exact same thing. It was like, this is the life that I want to live.

Cheesie
Yeah, the movie is so inspiring. I love it.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Oh, perfect days. Yeah, yeah.

Cheesie
Thank you so much.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Yes, yes, yes. Wow. And are there anything that you want to inform about yourself to our viewers?

Cheesie
So, oh, uh, like SNS account. Okay. So, if you want to, if you want to know all about the hidden gems in Japan, you can follow me on my Instagram, cheeserland. And I also have a blog where I detail my trips in a long form tax.

Cheesie
So, um, Instagram is mostly just videos. So yeah, hopefully you will find some inspiration for your next trip to Japan.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Definitely. I will find my, you know, next year. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. Thanks for joining us.

Cheesie
Thank you so much for having me here.

Shunsuke Ochiai
Thank you.