[Hikari's Izakaya Diary] Hitting 10K Subscribers & My Goals for 2024 (Jan 10, 2024)

It’s been exactly a year and a half since I debuted. Watching this channel grow from just 30 subscribers to finally hitting that five-digit milestone—10,000!—is still surreal. Honestly, I never imagined we'd reach this point so quickly.

I have to call myself out a bit—why does it feel like my weekly diaries since late November have just been me talking about hitting one milestone after another? So many incredible goals were checked off in such a short amount of time, carrying that surreal momentum from the end of 2023 right into the start of 2024. It really feels like this is going to be an amazing year!

I won't ramble too much with the thank-yous, but to everyone who has been here supporting me along this journey: thank you so much!

Let's talk about my new goals for 2024. Everything that happened in 2023, especially the Golden V Awards, really fired me up. Because of that, I’m planning to step out of my comfort zone and try a few things I hadn't originally planned on doing.

Beyond the usual goals for subscriber counts and concurrent viewers, I think the most important thing for me right now is my health. I know it sounds cliché, but looking back, I never actually made it an official goal. Honestly, after a year and a half of the streamer lifestyle, I can definitely feel the toll it’s taken on my body. This year, my absolute priority is to keep delivering great streams while actually taking care of myself!

Next up: Taiwanese songs. I’ve always gone back and forth on whether I should seriously study Japanese. My thought process was that since most of the ACG audience in Taiwan leans toward Japanese music, getting fluent enough to sing in Japanese would help bring in more viewers. But committing to learning an entirely new language just for that reason feels like way too much of a time sink right now.

Since a lot of you have been joking lately that my singing streams feel like we're at a wedding banquet, I’ve decided to lean into it and learn more Taiwanese songs this year. I already love the genre, and I think it’s a great way to carve out a unique vibe for myself in this space.

As for original music... honestly, I’m just starting to get a little bored with doing covers. If I’m going to spend money producing music, I might as well go all in and make an original track. Plus, I definitely got fired up by the Golden V Awards last year! I have a feeling this is going to be one of my biggest challenges this year.

Finally, let's talk about ASMR. I originally planned to do a ton of ASMR streams in the second half of 2023, but things got way too crazy and I had to shelve the idea. Right now, I’m only doing it for the members-only streams on the official site. But since I already bought all the gear, it feels like a total waste to just let it collect dust. So, expect to see a lot more ASMR projects coming your way soon—I hope you're excited!

And that’s a wrap! Sorry this weekly diary is a few days late. The next one will probably drop next Tuesday or Wednesday as well. I’m heading back to my hometown this weekend to vote, and I might crash in another city for a few days afterward, so the update will have to wait until then. Make sure you all exercise your right to vote, too—go home and vote!!!!!