Sharla Katalin Hinskens (born: April 23, 1986) is a Canadian YouTuber based in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. She is known for her channels Sharla in Japan and Sharmeleon. She was previously also known as Sharmander. She documents her time in Japan and also works as a translator.
She started uploading to what is now the Sharla in Japan channel in 2011 and Sharmander (now Sharmeleon) in 2013. She eventually switched them: currently, Sharmeleon is dedicated to edited videos while Sharla in Japan is dedicated to livestreams, and she considers the former to be her main channel and the latter to be her side channel despite it being older.
Personal life[]
Sharla is from in Victoria, British Columbia. Her paternal side is Dutch, while her maternal side is English and Hungarian. Sharla began learning Japanese at the age of 13. She has 2 degrees as well as a qualification in tourism. She first visited Japan as an exchange student at 17 in Morioka and later to teach English before officially moving to Tokyo.
She lived in Korea for a time but ended up moving back to Japan, this time back to Morioka. She was in a long term relationship with and married Keyboard San, but they separated in 2019.
She has vitiligo.
As of 2022, Sharla is engaged to fellow YouTuber Chris Broad (Abroad in Japan).