涩谷香穗（Kaho Shibuya）谈钟爱回合制 RPG、因直播接触《如龙》系列等

Last year, I interviewed Health's John Famiglietti as my first Branching Path interview for the site. Since then, I've been planning a few others and scheduling has made things harder than expected. With the launch of our sister site Respec, I thought I'd end up doing some of the interviews I had planned (including two more I'm working on right now) over there rather than under our Branching Path label here, but when I actually had my interview call with today's interviewee, I knew it was a perfect fit for RPG Site's Branching Path.

A few months ago, I interviewed Kaho Shibuya about how she ended up being in a Yakuza game as herself, but we also discussed her her career, when she started learning English, how the pandemic played a huge part in her career, retiring from the JAV (Japanese Adult Video) industry, cosplay, and I ended up finding out she loves turn-based RPGs. This interview was done on a call. It has been slightly edited for clarity. 

RPG Site: For those unaware, tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.

Kaho Shibuya:

So my name is Kaho Shibuya. I have been active as Kaho Shibuya for more than a decade now. I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. I'm still living there and based in Japan. After graduating from university, I started working as a newspaper reporter. I started learning everything, not just reporting, but editing and everything. Then I went on reporting. I guess that's what most people want to do working at a newspaper.

I've always loved writing. Eventually, I wanted to write a book. Not like a fiction book. I'm not good at writing fiction, but more about essays that show your perspectives. I want to be able to express a lot of things in so many ways even through words.

I'm happy about the fact I got some books published and I'm working on a new one. Regarding my work, I do voice acting, I do a little bit of everything. I like doing so many different things. I stream on Twitch regularly. I'm actually an ambassador of Twitch, but I stream for fun. I try not to think of it as work. I don't even like doing a lot of sponsored or promotional stuff. I like to just chat and play games. I've been actually playing Resident Evil from the very beginning, the 97 release so that I can catch up with nine because I feel like I'm mature enough to handle horror nowadays.

I'm just enjoying the change I'm going through. I also do cosplay, again for fun, but some people call me a professional cosplayer. Most of the things I do are just out of passion. It kind of worked as work. I feel very lucky actually.

RPG Site: You mentioned becoming a reporter. I'm curious about a few things about that. When did you start learning English?

Kaho Shibuya:

You kind of have to study English at school, but you know how schools are. Whatever you learn at school, it doesn't really stick. It's the same thing. Elementary school English was easy. You just remember 'dog' or know 'A for apple', 'B for ball', I don't know. Then it becomes way harder with grammar and syntax from middle school, which is so different from Japanese. It became so much harder, and I had to take a lot of extra tests because I couldn't really pass.

I got interested in it in high school because of all my favorite content that was in English like TV shows, movies and even professional wrestling like WWE. That's how I got into wanting to learn the language because I had no motivation before that. It worked out. I was not thinking about making the best use of it for my potential career, but it worked out in a way.

RPG Site: You became a teacher also, right?

Kaho Shibuya: It was a part-time job. I worked at a language school. I didn't work at a public school, not like elementary school, middle school, high school, it was more like a language school, where you go to become better at speaking English.

RPG Site: I recall you mentioned doing an English proficiency test and getting a perfect score in a past interview you did.

Kaho Shibuya:

Right it was TOEIC. A lot of Japanese people care about TOEIC score, but I guess it's not really known much outside of Japan, or maybe not outside of Asia. It's like an English test for people who speak or use English as a second or third language. So yes, I got 990, which is a perfect score. It is kind of weird. Everyone assumes a perfect score would be 1,000. A lot of people care about your TOEIC score in Japan, but they don't know what the perfect score is. They know more than 900 or 800 is high enough. So I wanted to be able to say, "Oh, I got the perfect score," making things easier.

RPG Site: What got you interested in baseball before becoming a baseball journalist?

Kaho Shibuya:

I didn't know anything about baseball. I actually hated my career back then. I know it looks nice on my resume, and because I was interviewing Shohei Ohtani, now he's a big name. People are so fascinated by it and that I was able to interview him. He is amazing, but it's not my accomplishment. It's just that I was at the newspaper company. That was my job.

I probably got chosen because I was younger. I was the youngest there, and because being female, corporates assume that if you're a girl, a young girl, maybe you can get to be more friendly with some of the clients. So that was their thinking. It's nothing to be proud of.

I went to an all girls school, so I didn't even grow up watching baseball. No one was playing baseball at school, because it was all girls. We had softball instead, but there was no club activity so I had to learn the rules first. I didn't know anything about the rules, so that was a little tough, like you don't have any passion or you don't have any knowledge about this genre, but you just get thrown into it, and be nice, and try to get exclusive topics, and I don't even know what's exclusive, like what's the basic information? I don't know what knowledge is basic, or more exclusive and rare? That was definitely one of the toughest experiences. I felt like I couldn't contribute much. They were like, "Oh, you can speak English," but it's like I don't know any baseball lingo. I don't even know how to talk about baseball in my own language, so I didn’t know what to do.

RPG Site: Do you still keep up with professional wrestling?

Kaho Shibuya:

No, not really. I think I grew up watching professional wrestling in Japan, like the New Japan wrestling. Around that time, Japanese wrestling kind of went down popularity wise, and then I found American wrestling more entertaining. It was kind of a natural shift for me at the time.

RPG Site: A lot of people know you from various places like social media, streaming on Twitch now, the JAV industry, and even events, cosplay, and the podcasts you do. A lot of people know you from the Trash Taste podcast. I have a few questions about your book about the JAV industry for English speaking audiences. When did you start planning it and did you think you'd get a lot of pushback from people in the industry in Japan?

Kaho Shibuya:

I definitely thought of the push back from the industry, but it's not like they can do anything about it. But yes, when you're writing a kind of expose-style book, you worry, but I was not really naming anybody in a bad way, and mostly it was about my experience, but I decided not to mention some of the the incidents in the industry just so that I could avoid dealing with drama, or how some people might react, or even that some girls might get hurt from remembering the stories. I try to talk mainly about myself so that I don't have to cause problems for anybody because it is, as you can guess, not a normal industry, and it can be quite shady because of that.

RPG Site: I think the pandemic has played a huge part in your career right now. It feels like you kind of exploded in popularity since the pandemic, with the Twitch channel and appearing in games as well. What made you want to start a Twitch channel?

Kaho Shibuya:

Definitely because of the pandemic, but I think a lot of streamers did, because there is no way of seeing your fans in person, like meeting your fans. I was actually going to more conventions outside of Japan around that time. I started going to conventions in 2018, when I retired from the JAV industry, and then I wanted to go more and more, and then suddenly I could not travel anymore.

It was kind of a natural decision despite the fact that streaming was definitely scary at first, because you cannot edit it out like a YouTube video. You can't say "oh can you just cut that," nothing like that. You know the chat can be quite rude, you cannot control that of course, you can put words into a ban list, but there is no control over it, so I was a little bit scared to start. I'm personally surprised that I liked it, and I continued it.

I feel very, not parasocial, but I like talking to chat. I feel like I can talk to them about anything, but at the same time, you don't have to actually meet them in person. It's like I don't have to be all ready with makeup and formal dress. It feels more homey and comfy and I love it.

I guess it works for my introverted personality. Like I don't drink, and I don't like going out much, It just exhausts me very much. My social battery is so low, and my immune system is not that strong, so I can always catch anything from going out. I can feel very easily sick after a lot of nights out, which I tried to do, and tried to blend in when I was in college but it didn't work. It never worked.

Even as a salarywoman in Japan, you kind of feel socially forced to go out and drink with your clients or with your bosses, and I never liked that. I don't have to do it when I'm streaming, and people assume that I'm working so I can be busy. I don't have to answer any emails and texts during live streams. It's just comfortable for me.

RPG Site: You do so many conventions and events like Evo. How do you manage all that with a weak immune system and so many flights back and forth across countries?

Kaho Shibuya:

You don't know how tired I am after each of them.

RPG Site: I think that your book was kind of a turning point for how a lot of people look at you, and you've been getting rid of that stigma from then.

Kaho Shibuya:

Yeah, because I wrote about it. So it's like if anyone wants to ask me questions about the industry, just read the book, and if you have further questions, maybe I can answer, but most of the time they didn't even try to even read the book. That's actually a good excuse to say no to some interviews mainly about that industry.

RPG Site: You said you retired in 2018. Obviously that was not an easy decision mentally for you. I'm curious how the first few months were and before you decided what to do next.

Kaho Shibuya:

It was definitely an easy decision, because I was not thinking about continuing any career. When I started working at a newspaper company, I was not thinking about staying there forever and going up the ladder. Not waking up at the same time and going to the office or just, I couldn't imagine continuing a 9 to 5 job. Changing careers is always a monumental decision, but everything came very naturally to me, very organic for me.

RPG Site: Right now, a lot of people know you as a professional cosplayer. You're at so many events. People know you at Evo and my friend even saw you in the Darkstalkers cosplay. He asked me if you played Darkstalkers and I told him to watch your Twitch channel since you stream games and you're even in games now, which I want to discuss. What do you want to do next that you haven't achieved yet?

Kaho Shibuya:

I like doing new things. I got to do more voice acting. It was like a dream. Growing up watching so many anime shows, I always wanted to voice act at some point in my life. I was like, "Yay!" and I got to be in two games. 3D, 2D, and even live action. Some of the parts are live action in the Yakuza game.

I have been to many anime conventions, but now I get to go to gaming conventions like Evo and I can use my ideas for collectible exhibits. I'm a manager of a collectible exhibit which is more about figurines and showing rare art items.

I think hosting has been new, and I'm loving it, because it embraces so many parts of my life. I get to be a presenter, and I get to wear something that represents Japan, or character cosplay, or because I also take kimono lessons, I can wear a kimono on my own. I can easily represent Japan by wearing a kimono. Because I have a journalism background, I like researching about the person I'm interviewing. I love interviewing so much. Because of voice acting, I guess I can probably enunciate better than a regular local speaker.

It's like a little bit of everything from my experiences. I feel like I can contribute more. I do appreciate that. Now, I guess I want to sharpen my skills in hosting and also organizing some exhibits or some shows. I don't know what's awaiting me now. I think I want to feel comfortable with this, like a new project, but at the same time I don't want to feel too comfortable. So in the future I want to explore newer things. It's definitely exciting. It depends on the world too. The world keeps changing. We keep getting new things like AI, and social media, so our job is to be able to adjust to new changes.

RPG Site: In 2022, In an interview you did with Tokyo Weekender, you said you were hoping to eventually create a scholarship to help bring people to Japan to study animation.

Kaho Shibuya:

I think I said something like I want to be able to, I haven't discussed with my bank yet, but I have actually talked to the bank about investing, or just taking care of assets, like when I die, how do I decide which charity, which organization, like how does it work? Inheritance and all. But she said I was too young to think about that.

Editor's note: I linked the interview in our chat while discussing this for context.

That was around the time I was thinking about how I can leave something for others. I wanted to pay back for others and like deciding on a charity to leave your money. I wanted to pick a charity that resonates with me the most, like it makes sense that I am investing in this project, and because I thought maybe it has to do with Japan, but also like foreign countries, it has to be more about bridging those two together. That's why I mentioned maybe a scholarship. I don't know if that probably might cost a monumental amount of money, so I don't know if I will accomplish that, but I will do my best for something similar. Like that's the grand dream.

So at the time, I was thinking about going back to school, and I did start going to kimono school, but thinking about maybe, what about animation school, and I can do art, but work got in the way. I guess that's very time consuming and needs a lot of dedication. I'm still thinking about it.

RPG Site: I mentioned the Trash Taste Podcast, but I think the only other interview I've seen you do on YouTube is with Unpacking Japan. I think everyone just knows you from Trash Taste now because you're a regular.

Kaho Shibuya:

Unpacking Japan initially wanted me to talk about the JAV industry. A lot of people assume that I'm an expert on the industry. I just wrote about my experience but I don't even talk to anyone in the industry anymore. Even when I get approached by an anime podcast, and that happens several times, they always say they cover Japan's pop culture, and then the questions end up becoming about JAV. Like what happened to pop culture? I don't think that JAV is like pop culture. It just makes things awkward. If they tell me beforehand, I can be prepared at least.

I'm regularly asked about how I moved from my past image or how you rebrand yourself, or how you like to move from the past area to another, and they always like to bring JAV in, but the key is not to even talk about it actually. If they found me from a YouTube video or a Twitch collab, then they don't even know because we don't even bother to talk about it. You don't even need to remind them every single time how you were before. Especially if your content is all ages. That's actually my answer. I try not to be ironic so I never talk back to them in this way.

The key to move on is never look behind. That's looking in the past. It's a little bit hypocritical that they're asking questions about rebranding, by talking about the past, like you're kind of dragging them into the past. I never try to hide my past, but at the same time I think it's very, uncool if somebody keeps talking about their past, whether it's accomplishment or embarrassment, like you don't have anything to talk about from your life right now? That's kind of sad. I like to definitely focus on what has been happening more recently.

RPG Site: You've been in two games so far. Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii and Phantom Breakers Battlegrounds. So, I want to talk about Pirate Yakuza first. How did you get involved in that project?

Kaho Shibuya: Well, they had an audition. I just started playing the Yakuza games from the beginning. I started actually from Yakuza 7 (Yakuza: Like a Dragon)  because I'm a sucker for turn-based RPGs, and I loved it so much. I played everything, and that was just like the right timing. I was a little bit hesitant about the audition at first, if they were actually going to do cabaret girl again, because that has been a traditional thing, cabaret girl audition, and cabaret girl image, is just not really something that resonated with me. They have a history of bringing a lot of currently active JAV women, so I didn't want to be thrown into the same category again because of my rebranding.

But they changed the name of the audition. It was no longer a cabaret girl. It was a Minato Ward girl. I went to school in Minato Ward from kindergarten to high school. So it's more than 12 years in total. Therefore it felt right. I was also thinking about going on a diet because I gained a lot from gaming ,mainly because of the Yakuza games, meaning I blame it on the Yakuza games, because of cut-scenes. I was watching cut-scenes while eating popcorn. I even bought popcorn from the theater despite the fact I was not watching movies. I just bought popcorn to bring back home and watch cut-scenes in and play Yakuza games. I gained a lot.

 I thought it was a good reason to audition, and I can say that I went on diet for this audition, and I lost more than 10 kilos, so I saw it could be a nice pitch.Then I got in. I was one of the five girls, Minato Ward girls. My character's name is Kaho. I'm actually myself in both games as Kaho. I feel great about them.

RPG Site: Was that something they pitched to you that they wanted you to play yourself in the game?

Kaho Shibuya:

I think they usually try to use their personality a lot. That's why they had an interview session for the last audition. There were three levels of the audition. One was submitting your application. So you don't actually go see them, but they see your profile. The second audition is a little bit of an interview, but a group interview, as you're in the same room with others, too.

The third one was more intensive, almost one on one, and you're by yourself. Oh, and then some voice acting and a facial capture.

RPG Site: I was going to ask about that. Did they scan your face?

Kaho Shibuya: I honestly don't like the way I look in the game that much. I guess it's better when the game looks worse and you look prettier in person in a way. I don't know.

RPG Site: I think in Yakuza games, it's always like the main characters who look amazing and then a few of the side characters will look like they are from a game from the last generation of consoles. They definitely put more effort into your design than other NPCs so it isn't bad.

Kaho Shibuya:

Yeah. They even talked about it on their own YouTube channel that they had a reputation of making not so good-looking women, but it's more about dudes in Yakuza games. They tried to capture the journalistic vibe with my suit outfit, and I like the fact I got the Morning Star. That was a cool weapon to carry. I get to actually fight in a game, too, and my status is quite good.

RPG Site: Since Yakuza 7, that's the one which they like started getting better with women because they're literally in your main party.

Kaho Shibuya:

Yes. Seonhee was such a hottie.

RPG Site: So for Phantom Breaker, did they approach you saying they wanted you in the game or how did that collaboration happen?

Kaho Shibuya:

I think initially I met them through some anime conventions in the US, and slowly started talking about it. The beginning was just networking, and maybe they were just looking for more influencers to work with, but then they brought up the DLC idea, and because I love 2D sprites and my favorite genre of games is actually beat ‘em up.

So I responded, "Oh yeah, sure." They asked for some ideas, which was fantastic. Such as "What kind of weapon do you want to use?" and I said bread. I want to fight with bread because I want to be unique. You see katanas, you see hammers, that's the usual. I wanted to be special in a way, so I had this magical girl with bread idea, with so many sweets for attacks. That was fun to brainstorm.

RPG Site: They also made you sing on the song, right?

Kaho Shibuya:

Yeah, I got to do so many things. That was exciting.

RPG Site: You also have done songs like on the side as well right? Some of them are on Spotify right now.

Kaho Shibuya:

Well, I have voiced for anime and done its ending song too, also I have my own original songs that I actually co-write, mainly it was for streaming,because you don't want to worry about copyright strikes.

RPG Site: I was just thinking when I saw those songs and wondered how you even have time for all the things you work on while traveling and streaming.

Kaho Shibuya:

Thank you. Well I am eager to do more but at the same time I like sleeping too.

RPG Site: Sleeping is the best.

RPG Site: Since you're so heavily involved in online spaces with streaming and your social media accounts, I was curious how you balance your personal and professional life with how casual you are while streaming online.

Kaho Shibuya: I spend a lot of time by myself. That's my favorite time to recharge. I also love talking to people, but I get to do that for work. I think my business or public self is more active with a lot of people, working with people, as you get to do way more than just by yourself. Me time is more personal. Just going out to see a new movie, just lying down on bed. That kind of thing. I just try to have more me time personally. My private life is very private, just myself.

I guess that's the key for me to understand what you like and how you are. I'm not sure about my MTBI. I don't even know. I have never even taken the test because I don't have enough patience to do such a lengthy test. I know I'm a more introverted type. Finding out what you like to do, in your alone time, is the key to knowing how to make yourself happy.

RPG Site: What movies have you watched recently out of curiosity?

Kaho Shibuya:

Mandalorian and Grogu. That has been massively popular in Japan and people are just finding out about the Mandalorian and Grogu from the movie because not enough people have subscribed to Disney+. It's Japan, they didn't know anything about baby Yoda until recently. It's crazy how the revenue keeps piling up despite the fact that the Yen is so weak right now.

Even as a foreign country, we surpass any other country's revenues and maybe reach North America now. It's still in the theater now (Editor's note: as of this recording), and you see a lot of fan art on X drawn and written by Japanese fans, but yup, I'm just one of them. I went to that collab cafe even wearing this (Editor's note: Kaho was talking about a green t-shirt she was wearing on the call) because it's all green. I want to wear something green. There was a collaboration cafe in Shibuya, and I was not the only one who was there by herself? There were a lot of customers who brought their own Grogu and ate together with him.

RPG Site: I want to talk to you about games for a bit also, but for anime, you're a big anime fan. I think a lot of people don't know about that besides your cosplay. You also did voice acting for an anime. Are you planning on doing more anime voice acting?

Kaho Shibuya:

If I get offered, definitely. If it's on the table, I would definitely love to grab that opportunity. I'm more of a manga reader. Most of the time, anime is based on manga, or light novels. Except for some notable ones like Evangelion, which is an original anime, and then it grew into other adaptations and all.

I always read manga way more passionately than I watch anime. I'm incredibly happy that the original show is getting bigger because of animation and nowadays also growing into live action too. I've been actually binge watching a lot of Power Rangers because I grew up with the original Sentai series in Japan and I want to know what my fans experienced in their own childhood.

I don't have enough time to watch everything. That's my current problem. I want to watch more, but my brain cannot process enough, and you cannot really multiwatch and multitask all the time.

So yes, that's my biggest worry. Too many shows, not enough time.

RPG Site: I think that's where manga helps. You can read much more of that faster than watching any anime.

Kaho Shibuya:

Exactly.

RPG Site: Since you do a lot of Darkstalkers cosplay, I'm curious what fighting games you enjoy playing.

Kaho Shibuya:

Playing? Well, I'm not a good fighting game player.

RPG Site: You can still enjoy playing though right?

Kaho Shibuya:

True. There are a lot of anime adaptations or manga adaptations of each game, too. So, you can actually enjoy the lore, you can appreciate the characters in so many different ways, but I'm not skilled at any game actually. The Darkstalkers final at Evo was amazing and you could see a variety of characters in the top eight.

It's not really about which character is broken or which character is more menacing, because the champion is a two-time champion after Evo Japan, and he won as Lilith. Lilith is supposed to be a mid tier character at best, but he simply mastered the moves.

I think the beauty of Darkstalkers is that you can pick up any character. I'm actually thinking about casually playing it, and I know Darkstalkers became one of the main titles in Japan and Vegas this year, but probably not going to be, I mean it definitely is not going to be in France or Singapore. They haven't announced the main titles, but we know, given the size, it'll probably be a side tournament or something because there are massive and passionate fans.

Maybe I could try to take part in the side tournament  in the future. I'm going to the event anyway. My travels are covered by business so why not?

RPG Site: Speaking of your cosplay, you did Saeko cosplay from Yakuza 7 right?

Kaho Shibuya:

Seonhee too. I also did one character from Yakuza 6, Ono Michio. I got those Yakuza characters covered cosplay wise.

RPG Site: One last cosplay question. Where do you store all your cosplay items? Do you have some massive warehouse haha

Kaho Shibuya:

I have two places. This is a smaller place and I rent another place for storage. I was thinking about using it as a stream studio as well.

RPG Site: You said you love beat 'em ups and also turn-based RPGs. What controller do you use for beat 'em ups? A fight stick or a regular gamepad?

Kaho Shibuya:

I like fight sticks. I was a kid who was too afraid to go to arcades. Because back then, the arcade was too scary for me. Now, most of the places don't allow smoking, but at the time they reeked of cigarettes. I grew up in the girls only protestant Christian school and I didn't want to go anywhere with so many boys around. But, I was so fascinated, I wanted to play at a cabinet and touch the arcade stick. Therefore I have a fascination with arcade sticks. I definitely prefer the stick. I haven't tried a hitbox-style controller that much yet, but the pad is too much friction for my fingers. 

RPG Site: For turn-based RPGs, besides Yakuza 7 and 8, which RPGs do you like?

Kaho Shibuya:

My childhood favorite is Star Ocean: The Second Story. You can choose between two main characters and you get to enjoy both sides. The best thing was that you get to play both sides, and they have multiple endings. You can ship anybody. There's a lot of freedom in it. Of course, I grew up with classics like Dragon Quest. I mean, in Japan, Dragon Quest is the game you must know right? It could be bigger than Final Fantasy, which has more international appeal.

I grew up with all those things, but my personal favorite from old days remains Star Ocean: The Second Story and then my recent favorite after the pandemic, is Octopath Traveler II. Octopath Traveler is also developed by Square Enix. I am enamored with the second one a lot. I played Octopath Traveler and 0 too, but I think I still love the second one the most out of those three. It's just the story is fascinatingly deep, with perfect voice acting and mesmerizing music. 

RPG Site: A few years ago, when Square Enix used to sell autographed CDs at TGS, my friend got me the soundtrack signed by Yasunori Nishiki. It is one of my favorite soundtracks.

Kaho Shibuya:

Mine too.

RPG Site: Now that you've already been in a beat 'em up and you've already been in an action RPG with Pirate Yakuza, if you were ever in a fighting game, which one would you want to be in? Hypothetical question.

Kaho Shibuya:

Oh man. Well, because I'm not a monster, I guess I cannot fit into Darkstalkers. There's already BB Hood. She's amazing. We don't need any more humans. She should be the only human. I would definitely get overshadowed by BB Hood. One of the Capcom games or SNK would be great, for they collab often. But that's only a dream.

RPG Site: Besides all the events you are going to be at, what should we expect from you this year? Are you working on any more games that you can say? You don't need to name them, but are you just going to be in any games this year? If you can say

Kaho Shibuya:

Unfortunately not. But I'm having a wonderful time being a part of the gaming community right now. As a kid who was too afraid to go to an arcade and even talk about games, enjoying a game together with somebody at an event or something, that's very special for me. I get to talk to developers and companies to make some content together like Evo. Being able to plan something and connect people for that, I feel like I can contribute more nowadays because of all the contacts I have built up, plus the knowledge.  I'm enjoying hosting and planning more projects at events.

RPG Site: You mentioned you're working on another book. Can you say what it's about?

Kaho Shibuya:

It's about studying English or how to study and get better at English. It's more for Japanese people obviously, since I get that question a lot from Japanese followers. I didn’t grow up with English speaking parents. None of my family members speak English. So people want to know what the secret is, but there's really no easy way. 

RPG Site: It feels like you want to write more.

Kaho Shibuya:

I am fascinated to experience something new. I see people in general, who are afraid of change, but I believe change is the way to discover more about you. You try something new and you find out that it might not be for you, or you can contribute in a certain way. You never learn more about yourself if you feel too comfortable and stay in the same bubble.

Going back to the question about whether I was afraid of my decision to retire. Of course I was afraid that people might forget me. When something like that happens. When you change your industry or your workplace, and then people discover "Oh she's streaming on Twitch" as they didn't know I was active on a different platform or space. People said they didn't know I moved on and started doing different things.

It's absolutely comforting to know that you can still get discovered and even be liked even when it's not in the same genre or space that people remember you from.

RPG Site: How do you like your coffee? Go into as much detail as possible.

Kaho Shibuya:

I'm not much of a coffee drinker. I can drink coffee, meaning I'm not allergic to it. The flavor is so strong that I need to add a lot of milk. I have to crave coffee badly to have some, which doesn't happen very often. I'm more of a tea drinker. I'm more of an eater as well. I like to eat more and sometimes coffee is just too flavorful. That gets in the way of tasting any other food. That’s why I usually go with tea. Black tea or any herbal tea, not just green tea.

But coffee can be a replacement for dessert sometimes, but  I can't drink it black, I'm a baby. I’m afraid my food palette is not that mature. What about your coffee style?

RPG Site: I have black coffee in the morning. I grind my coffee and I make a double espresso in the morning. I also love iced coffee. I'm drinking one right now.

Kaho Shibuya:

I really like cappuccino. I love the milk foam. Also in Japan, we have coffee jelly. I know the concept is kind of weird in some countries to consume jellied coffee, but we love it and we usually put some whipped cream on top.

RPG Site: My friend keeps telling me to visit Japan for the coffee. I enjoy the virtual tourism aspect of the Yakuza games quite a bit with how realistic they are with Japan.

Kaho Shibuya:

Then you should come to Shinjuku.

RPG Site: Didn't you do some IRL tourism-like streams before?

Kaho Shibuya:

Back then IRL streams were huge and futuristic. Now the idea of an IRL stream has been more problematic in Japan. So not so much. You get frowned upon and considered a nuisance. Speaking of RPGs, when thinking of IRL streams earlier, the concept of IRL streaming and the fandom of it, is as if you get to travel vicariously through streamers, especially during pandemic because we couldn't travel, and it felt like an RPG for a lot of viewers. I think that's the reason why they attract many viewers.