Haya Tikaze (疾風), pronounced as "はやちかぜ", is an independent Japanese virtual content creator, focusing on VRChat world development, Japanese education, and video content creation. She is also a singer and former Twitch streamer, whose part of Team UMS (Universal Mischievous Squad). She can speak Japanese, English and Korean.
Introduction Video[]
HayaTikaze 紹介動画!!
Haya's introduction.
Personality[]
Haya is very energetic, curious and positive. She adores laughing and making people laugh, hence why her motto is "Everyone's smile is my power!". She likes to play games (especially VRChat), sing, make funny voices, watch anime, and share her passion for teaching and learning languages with her community.
Furthermore, she's actively learning English, Korean and other languages, while creating Japanese learning content and study materials through various platforms including her website, YouTube channel, discord server and VRChat Worlds.
History[]
Earlier Work[]
Haya has been active online under that name since around 2013.
2017[]
In 2017, Haya initiated her online career by focusing on creating music covers[1] and gaming content alongside her friends and the Team UMS. This period marked the beginning of her journey as a virtual content creator, exploring various themes such as gaming, education, singing, and virtual reality (VR) experiences. Her content during this time was produced in both Japanese and Korean languages, catering to a diverse audience. This foundational year set the stage for her future endeavors in the digital content creation space, highlighting her interest in language learning and instruction, which would become a hallmark of her work.
2019[]
In 2019, Haya discovered VRChat and began playing a lot and interacting with lots of people. Her engagement with VRChat led to her appearance in multiple VRChat videos[2] online from this point.
In March, she started streaming a wide variety of game, from Minecraft to PUBG, on her now Korean/Japanese channel, 하야츄 (hayatikaze), after almost 2 years since the creation of that channel.[3]
August 7, her Discord server was created by Haya for her community under the "HiTs" branding.
On November 20, her English/Japanese Twitch channel, haya_tikaze, was created, and start being active immediately.
2020[]
Around April, the nicknamed "Hayakuza" (a mix of her name and "Yakuza") was first used to name her community. It is now also use as the twitter hashtag for fan art and other related posts.
Since mid-October, she saw an unprecedented increase of followers on Twitch, matching with the publication of KorewaEden's video titled "THE BEST OF "INDEPENDENT" VTUBERS" (posted the October 18), where one of his guests called Haya "The best VTuber", referencing her unmatched enthusiasm and cute "japanglish". In 2 months, her follower count past from 4k to 7k, and continue growing at rapid speed.
In November, she quickly became Twitch Partner on her English/Japanese Twitch account.
2021[]
In January, she became a certified streamer to broadcast the Virtual Market 5 (VKet5)[4], the world's largest virtual event, hold yearly in VRChat.
In February, after months of learning Unity and 3D modelling, she publishes her first VrChat world dedicated to learning Japanese, Study Japanese【HiTs】 (No longer accessible since mid-2022), which continue to be updated to this day.
In April, she was invited by Twitch Japan to the official "Twitch Streamer Battle"[5], where she competed in a Witch It game tournament. She ended up in 19th place against 31 other players.
In May, Haya created her blog to regroup all her projects and channels at the same place, and create some articles to help learn Japanese.
On the same month, she published a second VrChat World, dedicated to Karuta and Japanese language studies : かるた KARUTA【HiTs】
In July, she publishes 2 more VRChat world : Study Japanese 2 【 HiTs 】, also dedicated to the teaching of Japanese, and Star Festival 【 HiTs 】, to celebrate Tanabata, a Japanese star festival, with her community.
In October, Haya post her first video on a new channel (JapaNichijou) dedicated to English and Korean people learning Japanese. In 2 months, she already posted 15 videos on that channel.
In the end of November, her sixth first VrChat World (No longer accessible since mid-2022) exceeded 10,000 visits & 800 favorites.
2022[]
On 9 January, Haya unveils her fifth VrChat World around learning Japanese. This world is built with the new VrChat SDK 3, and is a direct response to her other words being in SDK 2, a version deprecated since October 2021 that doesn't allow any migration to SDK 3[6]. The new world contains numerous interactive elements now possible with Udon, available in SDK 3.
In mid-January, her new VrChat world became public.
In February, after about a month of being public, her most recent VrChat World reached over 3,000 visits and 400 favorites.
In mid-March, the same world surpasses 5,700 visits and 650 favorites, making it her fastest growing VrChat world, and her second most visited VrChat world after her first studies world (12,200 visits & 900 favorites, and no longer accessible since mid-2022). Since the launch in January 2022, the world has been updated several times, bringing lots of new features and fixes.
In the start of April, Haya deployed a new optimized version of the VrChat world. It's now 20% lighter and compatible with Quest user.[7] It quickly gained more than 1000 total favorites.
By the end of Mai, Haya reached 10 000 followers on Twitch.[8]
During August, she became a VKet ambassador for the Summer Virtual Market 2022[9] in VRChat.
At the start of September, her Japanese learning VrChat world was already at over 30,000 visits and 2,800 favorites. To facilitate the interaction between users in this VrChat world, a core time has been set to every Sunday at around 11PM~12AM JST (14PM~15PM UTC).
In October, all the VKet ambassador (including Haya) have created a TikTok account, she's been appearing in those TikTok regularly since then.
On November 7th, she's done her first charity stream for the Extra-Life fundraising program, and managed to collect at least $280.[10]
At the end of November, Haya appeared in the official VKet stream for Vket Winter 2022.[11] She also streamed the event multiple time as an ambassador.
2023[]
In mid-January, she released her fifth podcast on her blog to help with Japanese studies.[12] She also managed a 600-day streak on Duolingo, in her quest to master English.[13]
On 25 February, she streamed ComicVket 3 as a Vket ambassador, and introduced the works of many exhibitors in the ComicVket VrChat worlds.[14]
On the first of March, Haya's Japanese learning VrChat world reach 4,000 favorites and 43,600 visits, and her newer Japanese study Discord server reached 100 members.[15]
In April, she worked at the first VR Japan Tours event as an animator and script writer[16]. This new organization offers immersive VR experiences that allow anyone to explore Japanese culture, experience daily life, and enjoy virtual performances, all without leaving home via VrChat.
At the end of May, she once again was part of the animation and script writing team for the second VR Japan Tours event[17], this time focusing on the theme of "train stations" in Japan, and presenting the one near Inokashira Park.
The 3rd of June, she presented a new form of VR Japan Tours, the Japan School Mini tour[18], which focused on the reenactment of Japanese school presentation. During that tour, a real earthquake occurred in Japan[19], allowing the staff to teach the participants how to react in such situation.
On June 24th, she was part of the staff for the presentation of the third VR Japan Tours event[20], this time focusing on the theme of "Japan's rainy season", and presenting the actual Miyashita Park in Shibuya, via a VrChat world. The event ended with performances from some amazing Japanese performers from Breath Actors, the Virtual Dancers Association and independent performers. The performers present were Yoikami, SeINC, Kotoko, Lu-nyan, Mikeneko, OllyKay, yoyo, Raylin, Nekotan and tomohisa.
At the start of July, the second VR Japan Tours mini tour was presented by Haya[21] and the VR Japan Tours staff, with a Rakugo performance, followed by the explanation of the culture of Rakugo and Tanabata.
From mid-July until the end of the month, Haya participated in the VKet Summer 2023 event as an ambassador. She streamed her visit to the market on her Twitch multiple times during the month. During VKet, she collaborated with multiple people like Chyado-Sensei[22], Hat Kid[23], Megan-san[24] and the official Vket-chan[25].
Also in July, during Vket Summer 2023, she worked at Vket's First Real Event in Akihabara[26].
On July 29th, she was in charge of a presentation about "swimming pools" in Japan, during the fourth instance of VR Japan Tours[27], where she also gave a brief presentation about Japanese summer festivals & Obon Festival.
On August 4th, she was part of the official Vket's after party stream in VrChat[28].
In October 2023, the VR Japan Tours project, to which Haya contributed as a scriptwriter and presenter, was nominated for "Best Immersive Experience" at the 2023 Raindance Film Festival[29].
2024[]
In April 2024, VrChat Official account published a video about VR Japan Tours for their Community Spotlight, where Haya and her colleague LambSun present the project. The spotlight was shared with the hashtags #VRChat, #VRJapanTours, and #VRChatCommunitySpotlight. Alongside the video, VrChat shared the VrChat Group and Discord server, which both blow up in popularity after the publication.
On July 30, 2024, Haya collaborated with UzuriMia during a live stream as a VKet ambassador. This collaboration was broadcast on Twitch and is available to watch on YouTube.
In August 2024, Haya released a cover of "花の塔" (Hana no Tou/Flower Tower) on her YouTube channel, demonstrating her continued engagement in musical content creation.
During 2024, Haya can be seen continuing to work on her VrChat worlds, streaming, and participating in various events and collaborations like VKet, VR Japan Tours, and more.
On December 26, 2024, JapaNichijou was nominated for the Social Impact Award at The VR Community Awards, marking another milestone for Haya's Japanese learning community project.
On December 30, 2024, Haya announced her plans to step back from streaming activities in 2025. In her announcement, she expressed gratitude to her supporters and revealed her decision to focus on video production and nurturing her Japanese learning community. She announced that her final stream would be a New Year's countdown stream scheduled for December 31, 2024 (EST 9:00 AM / GMT 2:00 PM).
External Links[]
Media[]
- YouTube ENG/JP
- YouTube KR/JP
- JapaNichijou YouTube channel
- @HayaTikaze Twitter ENG/JP
- @Haya_Tikaze Twitter KR/JP
- @Booth_HiTs Twitter for her 3D modeling (world, avatar, etc.) JP
- @JapaNichijou Twitter ENG/JP
- @hayatikaze Bluesky ENG/JP
- @japanichijou Bluesky ENG/JP
- HiTs Community Discord server
- HiTs Study Discord server
- VRChat Worlds
- HiTs blog
- Primary BiliBili
- Second BiliBili
- TikTok
- Twitch ENG/JP (Inactive since December 31, 2024)
- Twitch KR/JP (Inactive since December 31, 2024)
Twitter hashtags[]
- #Hayakuza - Principal Hashtag
References[]
- ↑ https://youtu.be/riaGS_d_nWc
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1tNM1OI5ZQ&t=63s
- ↑ https://sullygnome.com/channel/hayatikaze/365/longtermstats
- ↑ https://www.store.vket.com/v5/collab_streaming
- ↑ https://smash.gg/tournament/twitch-streamer-battle-witch-it/details
- ↑ https://docs.vrchat.com/docs/choosing-your-sdk#migration-between-vrchat-sdk2-and-vrchat-sdk3-is-unsupported
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Booth_HiTs/status/1509944084303323136?s=20&t=AWashJY4ZH-thE-2Xr82Ag
- ↑ https://www.twitch.tv/haya_tikaze/clip/SlickViscousSalsifyImGlitch-O5kubk-XPaZ-oP8Z
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1558023977108664321
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1589574709410398210
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1596810109736595456
- ↑ https://twitter.com/JapaNichijou/status/1613901848225910785
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Booth_HiTs/status/1618177760534593542
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ComicVket/status/1629501263116402688
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Booth_HiTs/status/1630957208883298304
- ↑ https://metacul-frontier.com/?p=5207
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1660139675565146112
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1665196125069144066
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1665198396121190400
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1672818802915168256
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1678193566353608704
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1681352942606245888
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1683454777978658817
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1684239327176589312
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1684600847886675968
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1685893952963330048
- ↑ https://twitter.com/HayaTikaze/status/1685905795622518784
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Virtual_Market_/status/1687396470876708864
- ↑ https://www.raindanceimmersive.com/#/vr-japan-tours/