Ghib Ojisan

Ghib Ojisan (ジブおじさん; born in 1990), known also as Ghibli Ojisan or Ken, is a Japanese travel YouTuber based in Singapore.

His name, Ghib Ojisan, is a pseudonym for his YouTube channel which he chose because he was inspired by Studio Ghibli's animations.

Born in Osaka Prefecture in Japan, Ghib Ojisan lived in California between the ages of two and 19 as his parents worked in the state.

After graduating from Keio University's Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, he had brief stints at a manufacturing company's personnel and sales departments.

Ghibli Ojisan was born in 1990 in Osaka Prefecture in Japan.

Translated from Japanese to English, his name means "Uncle Ghib".

When he was a teenager, he really enjoyed the Japanese film Spirited Away and was inspired by Studio Ghibli's animations so chose Ghib Ojisan as his YouTube channel's name.

Ghib Ojisan goes by the name Ken.

As a fan of the Japanese rock group Bump of Chicken, Ghib Ojisan taught himself how to play the guitar using his brother's guitar.

Ghib Ojisan lived in California between the ages of two and 19 until he finished high school owing to his parents' having jobs in the state.

In high school, he participated in soccer and tennis tryouts but did not make the sports teams.

His parents enrolled him in Japanese language school, which he begrudgingly attended once a week, allowing him to keep up his Japanese language skills.

Ghib Ojisan subsequently attended Keio University in Minato, Tokyo in Japan where he joined a brass band and studied at the university's Faculty of Environment and Information Studies.

Upon his college graduation, Ghib Ojisan worked in Japan at a manufacturer in the personnel department, an experience he did not like, so he transferred to a sales role.

In 2017, he quit his job with the goal of traveling the world for a year on a budget of ¥1,000,000 (US$0).

Ghib Ojisan visited 27 countries and busked with his acoustic guitar, videos of which he uploaded to a YouTube channel he created in 2017.

While visiting Singapore, Ghib Ojisan met a Singaporean woman.

He later married her and decided to settle in the country.

Ghib Ojisan made videos of his experiences living as a Japanese person in Singapore.

He made a video about Yishun, which had media coverage indicating it was a dangerous place to live.

His video received a large amount of media attention and led to a large increase in YouTube subscribers from outside Japan, which had until then been his primary audience.

Ghib Ojisan speaks in Japanese and English in his videos, and includes captions in both languages, with occasional Singlish phrases that contains Mandarin and Malay.

He has mostly made videos over aspects of Singaporean culture and history such as hawker centres, the Sembawang Hot Spring Park, Sentosa and the Japanese occupation of Singapore during World War II.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ghib Ojisan's YouTube channel was among the 10 channels with the highest increase in Singaporean subscribers.

He worked there until 2017 when he quit his job with the aim of traveling the world for a year on a budget of ¥1,000,000 (US$0).

Prior to completing his university studies, Ghib Ojisan had not gone traveling but became inspired to after reading the Kotaro Sawaki book Midnight Express (Sawaki book) about a man who went on bus trip from New Delhi to London.

During his one-year stint of backpacking visits to 27 countries, he did street performances with his guitar of video game, anime, and movie song covers and uploaded YouTube videos of those performances.

Through his guitar performances, he was able to cover over half of his travel costs.

Ghib Ojisan makes YouTube videos in which he speaks in English and Japanese and includes subtitles in both languages.

In addition to his guitar videos, he makes videos sharing his thoughts on Singaporean eateries and discussing where Japan and Singapore are different and the same.

Uploaded in July 2017, Ghib Ojisan's first YouTube video featured him playing the Final Fantasy X theme song "To Zanarkand" on his acoustic guitar in Uzbekistan.

At the beginning of 2018, Ghib Ojisan returned to Japan and began uploading to YouTube the videos of his travels.

His videos received few views at the beginning but in June 2018, the number of views increased substantially and he was named a YouTube "Creator on the Rise".

In two weeks, his subscriber count grew from 100 to 20,000.

In December 2018, Ghib Ojisan visited Singapore to make travel videos.

He met and married to a Singaporean woman in 2019 and decided to stay in the country.

He began working at a Singaporean company but resigned after half a year as he became concerned that he was uploading fewer YouTube videos.

He continued to upload videos of guitar covers and began producing content about Singapore.

When he transitioned to a channel centered on Singapore's sights and experiences, he initially received pushback from his subscribers who wanted him to post more guitar playing or travel content.

Ghib Ojisan initially posted videos in which he visited the Merlion Park, Marina Bay Sands, and Chinatown.