Getting Naked in European Cities, Part I

   

Guys getting naked outdoors; it’s a liberating feeling ….

Hi, friends and readers:

Each morning, after my three-mile walk on the beach and my swim in the Gulf, I bathe under our outdoor shower, on our fenced-in patio. It feels so good to get naked under the open sky; I’m not sure why. There’s something about feeling sunshine and fresh air on your skin that’s . . . liberating.

In Europe, nudity’s not a big deal. In Berlin, for instance, there’s a section of the Tiergarten, a huge public park, where gay men sun themselves naked on blankets. It’s an area jokingly nicknamed the tunten wiese, or “faggots meadow.” Nobody cares about seeing all these gay men in their birthday suits. And that’s how it should be, in my book anyway. I don’t know why Americans are so modest about their bodies in the first place. I guess it’s our Pilgrim heritage.

I’ve just finished my writing for the day, and now it’s time to relax with a cup a coffee. My boyfriend and I like to do the daily L. A. Times crossword puzzle when he’s home in the morning, so that’s how we’ll spend the next half hour, before we prepare lunch.

I have an appointment in town this afternoon, and then I’ll visit a good friend who’s convalescing in a nursing home. He was my roommate during my law school days, and I don’t like having him lying around by himself all day.

Have a wonderful Tuesday, friends.

The article below was originally published online as "Getting Naked in Berlin"
  at http://travelsofadam.com/2012/07/getting-naked-in-berlin/
WHY DID I GET NAKED IN BERLIN?

Travel has done some tremendous things to my life. It’s pushed me out of so many shells and made me open to so many new and different experiences I never imagined for myself. Traveling for so long and to so many new places has certainly transformed me. It continues to push me to try new things—which keeps my life exciting and interesting. New things as simple as trying yoga for the first time or eating Sudanese food. Or, like I tried for the first time in Berlin, getting naked in public!

Though I may seem extroverted and interesting on this travel blog and my Twitter, in reality, I’m not. I’m often scared to death to try new things but with this blog at my back and a desire to see and do as much as possible during my life, “living” often wins over any irrational fears. Travel will always push me toward new things as I’m sure it hastransformed other travelers as well. It’s one of the things I enjoy most about living abroad and traveling frequently—the constant push to see and do more. And that’s how I ended up slipping off my boxer shorts and enjoying a sunny afternoon in Berlin’s Tiergarten park.

GETTING NEKKID!

Nudity in Germany isn’t much of a big deal for the Germans. In Germany, nudity is just a fact of life and men & women alike don’t bother about it. An article fromYoungGermany.de describes the German sauna/spa experience:

Germans prefer to be nude in the sauna. For them, it’s no big deal. It’s just a body. German culture as a whole has no problem with nudity. Nudity in the sauna is not about sex, but about relaxing and health.

I first got naked in Germany a few months ago when visiting a spa with my friend Cheryl who runs a European travel & expat blog. It was my first time getting naked in public but after the towel came off, I soon realized it wasn’t a big deal. Everyone else in the spa was naked and no one seemed to care. So after maybe 30 seconds of initial worry I was quickly over it. Not over it enough to frolic naked around the spa, but enough that I was comfortable.

So when sunshine finally reached Berlin this week I decided to test the water again…this time in an even more public place: Berlin’s Tiergarten. The central park is home to many of Berlin’s best monuments (including the gay holocaust memorial) but it’s also where many sunbathers choose to go nude.

See all those pale white folks sitting in the open lawn? Yeah, they’re not wearing any clothes…

I’d known about the naked sunbathers in Tiergarten for a while and was always more than a little curious what happened there behind the bushes. So feeling fresh off my nude spa experience, I took my bike and found a nice little corner in Tiergarten to disrobe. Without any hesitation I slipped off my clothes down to my boxers—and with plenty of other naked folks (mostly men) in the vicinity, I decided “Why not!” and took the final step.

BOOM! I was naked.

Easy.

It was quite comfortable. There were probably a few sketchy people around, but I was focused on reading my book and trying to look as sexy as possible without attracting any attention. And yes: I used sunscreen! Health is important, yo!

So that concludes my first naked experience in Berlin. There’s something completely freeing and relaxing about knowing it’s okay to be naked in public. Once you get over your initial fears you realize it’s no big deal. I’ll definitely be doing it again! I hear there’s a lake where most sunbathers go skinny-dipping just on the outskirts of the city…

 

  

These photos of amateur guys getting naked in public were forwarded in a Group Message From: Kevin on [PublicNakedGuys] a Yahoo group.

The urge to expose - the freeballer's dilemma

See-thru freeballing - Perv'd or Fashion Passion?
            

        Having spent the hottest part of the summer in the US mainland,  I wasn't prepared for the excruciatingly torrid temps and scorching sun  when I returned to Japan - and that was after it had 'cooled off'.  Actually, the heat isn't the problem -- it's the humidity that makes it  too muggy to wear underwear during the summers in Tokyo.

          Weather and climate aside, I find that once I've been out the  country, I get the urge to exhibit myself rather unobtrusively- sort of  strut my stuff - so to speak by freeballing in mesh shorts, torn jeans,  very tight and /or translucent board shorts, and even 'jinbei' ( a short  summer casual men's kimono-like mesh garment). I mentioned this before  on this board - but the urge overcomes my good sense sometimes. So until

 the fall rains and cooler weather rolls in, I tend to be about half  naked whenever I'm outside (not at work obviously), and then I  also  spend many lazy late summer-like afternoons being naked outdoors -  discretely sunbathing nude at the local river (a wide recreation area  long both sides of a shallow but wide river in Tokyo). The area is  frequented by cyclists, families and people walking their pets, but it  seems I'm just far enough out of sight to be cause for alarm or simply  believe cannot even imagine what they eyes would or should otherwise  report: there a naked white guy over there.

           It's probably worth exploring the WHY of why I do this. But I  think it has a great deal to do with three things:  1) it's an ultimate  statement of freedom. Being an American who is living in a socialistic  nation where individual wishes, rights and personal ambitions are so  repressed by the strict edicts of Japanese social fabric means that I  absolutely am constantly starved for personal liberty. 2)  I am an  extreme racial minority in this country. I don't just stick out like a  sore thumb; I AM the SORE THUMB, penis, ass, and every other part of the  body.  (Sorry too much to explain in a blog post), and finally 3) I am  gay living as supressed and hidden life, pretending to be a completely  straight, and upstanding non-citizen but one who has loved being close  to nature - especially being naked in the sunshine, wind and sea - since  he was a child.

           You can see a photo of the location where I go nude or semi-nude  sunbathing on my

Typepad blog (below). The mesh shorts not ones I would  wear on the street, (well, at least not in Japan - although I have done  so at night in Hawaii), but my other 'see-thru' freeballing shorts are  also pretty revealing).  By the way, those are people in the background  to the left of  and below my elbow.

           Someday I'm going to ask someone to take a photo of me from over  there so that I can get a sense of what people could actually see.  Of  course, I have other photos that show nudity, but that's just TOO  ludicrous to be exposing myself to you all on the Freeballing.com site  (Tongue-in-cheeks - (mouth, not my sunkissed butt,  Ha Ha!)


           I guess I have to be honest to stay that my cock swells a bit when I  think (or know) that another guy is watching or even just glancing at  my crotch. My 'former' target for such 'sightings' was a 25-ish blue  collar worker who passed by me many mornings on the way to his work.  Perhaps because of the economy, he no longer does. So I've taken a  different tact and am now wearing an assortment of the above clothes to  see which one draws more attention (i.e. straying eyes that shoot  straight to my crotch), and also to see who seems to actually notice or  who can't help himself from 'repeatedly' noticing. So far there aren't  many onlookers; however, one guy seems to have realized that he's

likely  going to be tempted to look and he obviously thinks that's  embarrassing. So if I see him coming now on his bicycle, I find that he  manages to look the other way or to feign fidgeting with something in  his basket (no, the one on the front of his bicycle) Smirk!

           Pervert, am I. Probably, yes. But it's fun trying to mildly shock  the Japanese men. I actually pay little attention to whether the women  give me a glance or not.

           So.. why is it that men are so 'visually' stimulated? I'm sure there  is an evolutionary and also psycho-sexual explanation. But what the  hell, it's fun being 'mean' (and Kermit used to say - Oh, that was  'green'). Well, it was probably Cookie Monster who thought that, anyway.

Sayonara,

Kelly

Hostel Hotness (from discussions on Dudesnude, DickFlash & JUB)

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Innocent Exhibitionism -- cross-cultural male camarderie in Japan

While living in Japan, I found it kind of amazing that the otherwise polite and docile Japanese could be so rowdy and get so raunchy in the right circumstances. Most of these centered around group events where drinking was involved. I guess it happens everywhere with young people -- like any college parties and fraternities, etc. But still is a bit of a paradox when the seemingly shy Japanese get plastered (or maybe that's just an excuse or front) and start stripping and performing what Puritanical Americans would think of as "lewd" acts.

While Japanese are modest about nudity in general, there are times when you can catch a

glimpse of guys showing pubic hair or asses -- and sometimes a cock. I used to go cycling along some of the rivers around Tokyo. The city uses the flood banks for public sports fields or you can also see similar activities in public parks too. When stopping for a break, I could often get glimpses of guys changing clothes in broad daylight - I mean -  from street clothes -- stripping down to nothing or fleeting glimpse of ass and cock, and change into their team uniform or sports clothes right there in front of everyone -- especially when they were surrounded by the hunky teammates. Teams of intramural sports -- soccer, rugby, American football, baseball play on these fields usually during the weekends and holidays. Invariably, because there are no dressing rooms, the guys have to strip and change out of and back into their street clothes.This kind of CMNM scene has always been a turn-on -- it is like seeing one naked guys in a locker room full of clothed athletes, but it is out in public -- an open field.


It's kind of cool to see this kind of "innocent" exhibitionism among team members. But

there is another type of flashing among Japanese men that seems to happen a lot but is not really so innocent -- maybe not really sexual or sensual -- but more like playful machismo, I guess, but it is still a turn on.

I never got invited to participate to such a degree but I have been in the room -- usually at a overnight retreat at an inn or hot springs resort where similar male stripping occurs. Without fail, some of the guys get (supposedly) too drunk to stop themselves, and end up pulling all kinds of stunts. They seem to start out as party games and end up with somebody getting undressed -- sort of voluntary (or sometimes forced) flashing for the rest of the group.
I never got any photos -- but I found these photos on the net by a group of Japanese

college students . They seem pretty typical for the kind of drunken playfulness that leads to somebody getting pantsed or just flashing the group. I used a Japanese language search engine and found these.


Japanese sometimes call this "skinship"

What is so cool about it? Has anybody else experienced this kind of male-male "bonding" rituals between straight guys or in mixed gender groups -- in North America, Asia, or Europe? I don't have a fetish about it , but think it is kind of cool. While these guys are sort of playing around with "sexy" homoerotic behaviors -- maybe even identifying a bit with the homoerotic nature of what they doing. it seems to me a kind of healthy way to de-sexualize nudity between men. Yes, there are some women at the party too -- although none of them usually get nude or show much if anything at all.

Share any thoughts or photos you have in the subject on this topic....