A trip down memory lane, Osaka

Most of us has good memories and times to adventure to look back on. For many of us collage would be one of those times. For me attending college in Japan was filled win good and sometimes strange memories. It was a great time that I've often looked back upon and enjoyed.
Coming back to Osaka truly hit my with some heavy duty nostalgia. The food, the friends, the places and adventures. なつかしい!

As so happens my good friend Rick joined me on this walk down memory lane as we relived the Osaka spirit. A place we had many a ramen, gyoza and beer was Kai ramen. Located only a block away from or old student dorm with the friendliest ramen master who knew almost no English is was our no1 old hangout. Boasting  highly irregular but customer friendly opening hours of until late or last costumer one could always go there for the 4am drink.

Since we left Kai ramen relocated and expanded. It's still not much bigger than a hole in the wall place and both the ramen and gyoza still tastes great. Viseting we all naturally went for the Taiwan ramen. Despite still being full In pretty much took a breath of ramen and exhaled delight. Think I finished my Ramen in not much more than 11 seconds according to Rick.

Prior to Our contingency of Handai (Osaka University) students invading the Kandai uni area and it's much more conveniently located bar streets there whern't any Osaka uni student's going there. Now many years later they still do the pilgrimage to Wood Village and the bar area. Filled with cheap and not so cheap bars it's a natural hang out for the Kandai Students (Kansai Dai Gaku or Kansai University). Sadly Osaka University which is a way higher rated school has nothing of the kind.

The old owner is still around but naturally most of the bar tenders aren't around any more. Grabbing a few classics like violet fizz while also mixing it up with a few new ones like the ハルク (Hulk) it was very remenicent of the old days. I remember the drunken bicycle rides home in the rain. And the funniest crashes some people had. Wierdly enough my 2 crashes in Japan where while very very sober haha.

Oh well. A night of nostalgia ends but next time I go to Osaka I'm meeting up with another OUSSEP buddy Patrik. I'm excited to see what new adventures Osaka has in store for me.

Burlesque le Paris

Burlesque has actually been around for a long long time. Early mentions in literature puts it roughly 350 years back or so. But this post is about Neo burlesque a remade romanticised upcomming of the glam and show days of the pre prehabition days of old America.

The feathers, the shoes and the glitter. It must be a titan of an upkeep. Was what I was thinking as I slipped away into darkness on the couch of one of the Burlesque dancers. But on the other hand that is kind of what makes the whole thing interesting. Like "Dita von Teese", famous burlesque dancer and former wife of Mr.Manson said. It's putting terse back into stip terse. To me its quite different from the stip teases or shows I've seen earlier. The version I enjoyed this night was more of a cabaret with tease elements. It was the show and the showmanship that the crowed enjoyed.

One thing that dawned upon me was something that was pre-shared to me by my girlfriend, was the mundanity of the girls physical, well health. While many premiere skilled strippers and pole dancers work hard on their physical attributes, often with the aid of artificial means these women where your very natural ordinary women. Well at least they looked like it.
Ranging from exotic, teasing to humorusly kitschy or uniquely inventive, they all put on a good show. Including the comedian/sexy hostess.

The crowd is in contrast to many other "sensual" shows around the world not all male and in fact there might have been more women occupying the plush seats of this illustriousness and elegantly simply little theater in the fancier districts of Paris. In Fact it was Stéphanie Portier who brought me here. Here is a clip with more info on French Neo Burlesque. Obs, it's in french.

Although the US was the birthplace of "Neo Burlesque" the French puts on a good show and shows some new and inventive styles too.  definitively recommend you to go see a show like this if your ever in Paris. Check out Burlesque Paris for more into.