Sharla Katalin Hinskens, also known as Sharmeleon (evolved from Sharmander upon receiving 500,000 subscribers in March 2020) and Sharla in Japan, (born April 23, 1986) is a Canadian

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

who has been vlogging about her experiences in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

since 2011.

Biography

Sharla, who goes only by her first name, grew up in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

. She had Dutch grandparents on one side and a Hungarian grandfather on the other side. She was brought up in a

vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism m ...

household but did occasionally eat meat at her grandparents' house. Over her life, she had followed

pescatarian Pescetarianism (; sometimes spelled pescatarianism) is the practice of incorporating seafood into an otherwise vegetarian diet. Pescetarians may or may not consume other animal products such as eggs and dairy products. Approximately 3% of adul ...

and

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

diets but is currently following a flexible diet. Her first visit to Japan was when she was 17 years old, as an exchange student between the

sister cities A sister city or a twin town relationship is a form of legal or social agreement between two geographically and politically distinct localities for the purpose of promoting cultural and commercial ties. While there are early examples of inter ...

Victoria and

Morioka is the capital city of Iwate Prefecture located in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan. On 1 February 2021, the city had an estimated population of 290,700 in 132,719 households, and a population density of . The total area of the city is . ...

. She worked in Tokyo at age 19 as an English teacher, and went back to Canada in 2010. When the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake hit, she moved back to Japan, due to stress from being in Canada and far away from her friends. Around this time she started

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...

ging her daily life. Her videos, including topics where she discusses what she likes about Japan, were well received with foreign viewers interested in the country. On June 18, 2018, she announced her marriage to a Korean man, who wished to remain anonymous on YouTube, who had been an alumnus of Japan university after a seven-year relationship. They moved to his native

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

where Sharla continued to vlog about her life there although she did continue to visit Japan. On March 5, 2019, Sharla announced her separation from her husband, eventually divorcing, and her intention to move back to Japan citing difficulties in living in an environment where she did not speak enough of the language in her current mental state and Canada not being exciting enough in this stage of her life. In September 2020, she started "Neko Neko Post", a service to sell fancy Japanese stationery, of which she herself is a fan, to overseas customers in collaboration with friends. In August 2022 she and the English YouTuber Chris Broad announced their relationship in two separate videos on their respective channels. As of February 14th, 2023, Chris and Sharla announced their engagement, with the proposal happening at the Durdle Door limestone arch located in Dorset, England. She has translated the films ''

Shin Godzilla is a 2016 Japanese ''kaiju'' film directed by Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, with a screenplay by Anno and visual effects by Higuchi. Produced by Toho Pictures and Cine Bazar and distributed by Toho Co., Ltd., it is the 31st film in the '' ...

'' (2016) and ''

Terra Formars is a Japanese manga series written by Yū Sasuga and illustrated by Kenichi Tachibana. It was originally serialized in Shueisha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Miracle Jump'' from January to December 2011, and was transferred to ...

'' (2016) for the English subtitles, and also served as a dialogue coach assistant. Since 2018, she has collaborated with Chris Broad and participated in his series ''Journey Across Japan''. She has also partnered with local governments and organizations to promote local specialities.

References

External links

* {{YouTube, user=sharlainjapan, title=Sharmeleon
Neko Neko Post official website
Living people YouTube channels Canadian YouTubers People from Victoria, British Columbia Canadian expatriates in Japan 1986 births