“Nampa, or nanpa is Japan’s most visible courtship ritual. Although it also takes place online and via Telefone clubs, the most famous form of nampa is “suto-nan“ (street nampa). Every weekend, across urban Japan, young men (”nanpashi“) hang around busy streets or shopping arcades, trying to pick up passing girls. Sometimes the girl does the hard work – this is known as “gyaku nampa“ (reverse nampa) – but it’s much less common. Approaches vary from the cliched “Ocha demo shinai?“ (Won’t you have a tea with me?“) to more sophisticated tactics, but it’s generally pretty obvious what the guy is really after. For serious nanpashi, the aim is to get the young lady into a love hotel by the end of the night, but a (genuine) cell phone number is a decent consolation. The word “nampa“ was used in the Meiji period to refer to young men who spent too much time around women. Literally meaning “soft group“ as opposed to the more self-disciplined hard group, it carried a derogatory nuance which survives today. Since then, nampa has come to replace the loan phrase “garu hanto“ to refer to skirt chasing.” (From “Japan For The Uninvited”)
I am an entrepreneur in pharma retailing and have the privilege to travel around 3 months per year with a focus on Thailand and South East Asia in general. Among other achievements I bought a medium-sized pharmacy early 2009 and built it up within 4 years to become Berlin’s most frequented pharmacy store (until end of 2012). Before becoming self-employed in January 2009, I worked in the pharma industry (Bayer-Schering). I studied pharmaceutical sciences in Germany and biomedical engineering at MIT, Cambridge, USA, as a visiting scholar. I quitted my Ph.D. program at MIT to become an entrepreneur faster.
This website, which started in January 2008, is not only about nanpa, I only liked the term. I focus on travelling especially to Thailand because I regard that area as the most fitting one. I am creating entertaining and guidance videos of my trips, such as reviews of hotels, restaurants, bars/clubs and of spa/massage parlors. I believe my videos transport feelings well and the whole fun of being there.
Global Nanpa is an entertainment, lifestyle and travel brand. It was the first travel site worldwide which rigorously integrated self-made videos into its guides to give you the most authentic impression of places, people and events.
Global Nanpa dares to bridge the 2 worlds : the very visible, political correct one and the dark truth beneath it.
Most people like the combination of sexy girls and travelling as often seen in the videos. What I am doing and showing here is the real world as you rarely know it from TV. I criticize lies society tries to brainwash you with, I break with common rules and most important I enjoy my life to the fullest, maximizing happiness and not profit, willing to take the risk not to accept the fears our society tries to inflict on its citizens. Global Nanpa has the potential to change the lifestyle of millions of people, letting them reconsider their goals/dreams and how they manage their free time.
Before I started my “world tour”, I was believing what I got educated with. There are lots of places I saw in the beginning where I didn’t had a camera with me, but nothing struck me like South East Asia. I would say my real journey didn’t begin before my first Thailand trip in 2005. It was actually a Boston girl with whom I spent some time in Paris who recommended me to go to Thailand to get more relaxed. I didn’t expect that this would become life-changing : I started to look behind the curtain, questioned things and got to know how people behave in extreme situations. The lies of the people in power got more obvious to me : Exploitation, manipulation and corruption used for controlling the mass. Therefore a primary goal of this site is to encourage people to go out and to look at places outside of their own country/power structure. Once they had been away from their used system, they will significantly less believe the lies they get told and it might initiate a change of their former lifestyle. My Youtube video account which got opened in August 2006 had reached 13.5 million total views until 20th of June 2012. I deleted my entire video library of 533 videos (those days) from Youtube. Further video media is only released on Global Nanpa’s own video platform which got established in January 2012. Currently I have around 660 videos which are about 3600 minutes long (60 hours) in total. The 3-D mascot “Nana” got created mid of 2012. The video account reached 0.9 million total video views in its first year until end of December, 2012.
In addition Global Nanpa is an independent travel website/video channel refusing ads and/or paid/sponsored reviews. My writing and communication skills are not great, but it’s honest at least. I believe to be a pretty good judge of character, being decent in evaluation as well. Reviewing as an authority became a better choice, because : First, too much manipulation is going on if you allow all people to have the same vote, second, lots of people with no expertise mix things up and third, people get overflooded with info being unable to filter it. Unlike most other travel sites who are forced to generate profits, I am financing this hobby out of my own pocket. I gladly have enough money and I continue making more.
Global Nanpa is my hobby, passion and it’s truly independent. I don’t care about loyalty programs and special deals. I just go and do whatever I feel like, not limiting myself in any direction.
I am probably the only person worldwide who totaled stays in 50 different Bangkok hotels within 24 months (December 2010 til December 2012). I am not only building up a self-made, rigorous video guide, I get to know key people of those places personally, shaping/influencing future trends and recommending staff people. Global Nanpa is a fearless pioneer.
