Experiences of Asia (Gay-Related) to While Away These Difficult Times

[PeterRS]

It's clear we all have stories to tell about our times in Asia. Not necessarily with the boys of our dreams or the times of our lives. Often just general observations that strike us for one reason or another. Since few of us can travel and our time at home has not only already extended for the better part of 15 months but there is no end in sight, this little series (hopefully more will contribute) may help to while away the time - as well as raise a smile or two. As mentioned in another thread about Gay Icons, about 5 years ago I used to write for a blog run by an Ozzie guy. I kept much of the material and it's easy to bring it more up to date. So I'll start the ball rolling with an experience centred on two cute late teens Japanese guys.

Dedicated Followers of Fashion

I guess it must have been about 20 years or so ago. I had just spent a fun evening at the Ueno branch of Tokyo's 24 Sauna (the more popular branch in Shinjuku ni-chome had not yet opened) and was close to Ueno station for the train back to my hotel. It was then that I saw them. Two youngish Japanese guys chatting and laughing and turning right to the stairs taking them up towards the platforms. They looked cute - as most Japanese in their late teens do. Not unnaturally I followed, staying three or four steps behind so that my eyes would be in line with what I assumed had to a pair of lovely, lightly muscled Japanese derrières!

Not that I had failed to see any in the sauna a little earlier. Far from it! Being a Saturday evening, 24 had been busy. The communal bathing area, the more personal showers and the rain shower room had all been full of a variety of tempting naked bodies. Even the darker communal rooms upstairs where coupling took place either on large mattresses on the floor or bunk beds with bodies only occasionally covered by duvets, had been witness to some lovely pounding flesh.

But as I climbed those steps, assumption was as far as I would get that evening. Japanese youngsters are mostly slaves to the latest fashion craze. In my enthusiasm I had totally forgotten that the fashion of the day was a sort of grunge, loose-fitting look - in the case of my two boys, so loose that the crotch of their pants was as low as their knees. What a terrible shame, I thought!

And then I remembered those days when skin-tight jeans had been all the rage. A bit before my time, but I had heard tales and seen photos of the mods and rockers and the skinhead motorcycle gangs. Drainpipe jeans, as they were called, had been all the rage then. Yet somehow for a growing boy who had never seen an Asian in his life, they held absolutely no appeal for me

My youth coincided with the most inappropriately named bell-bottoms, for they had absolutely nothing to do with "bottoms" as I then associated the word. Cut rather tightly over the hips and thighs, these then flared out from the knee so that the bottom of the pants would be almost as wide as the length of the boots most commonly worn with them. Why on earth anyone thought these were fashionable beats me. But for a while they were immensely popular.

The 1980s and 1990s seemed to flash by as I paid little attention to fashion trends. My work demanded suits or at least jacket and slacks, with jeans rarely figuring in my day-to-day existence. In those days before the Internet when hook ups took place mostly in bars and clubs, at first glance faces were more interesting than the lower part of guys' anatomies.

By around the mid-2000s quite suddenly, or so it seemed to me, a merciful revolution took place. Around the world, designers decided that slim and skin-tight would return as the new 'look'. Young guys in Tokyo and all around Asia got rid of those low crotch garments in favour of increasingly hip-hugging, crotch-hugging, thigh-hugging, lower leg-hugging pants. Fashion now dictated that the precise contours of the lower body, every shape and every muscle, henceforth be visible in all their glory! 

All? Well, not quite all! Whilst derrières may now be proudly displayed leaving precious little to a fertile imagination, a certain degree of modesty extends to the slightly more loose-fitting front. No doubt some will suggest that in their quiescent state, few Asians have much to boast about in that department. And as a habitue of saunas and hot springs around parts of Asia in those days, I agree that is not entirely untrue. But then, who walks around with a permanent erection? And I can guarantee that once standing tall I have seen many young Asians with equipment that is more than merely satisfactory - in a few cases even humungous! But then, that's another story.

In the meantime, I am just thrilled that every day I am able to see dozens of perfectly lovely slim young Asian guys showing me how they will look once those pants have been pulled off. Now if only someone would come up with a way of getting them off in a flash rather than the inelegant and constant tugging now required, many of us would be in seventh heaven.

[a-447]

Did you ever go to the gay cinema in Ueno, Peter? 

We all knew how to get each others' pants down in record time, regardless of the fashion!

[PeterRS]

1 minute ago, a-447 said:

Did you ever go to the gay cinema in Ueno, Peter? 

We all knew how to get each others' pants down in record time, regardless of the fashion!

I walked past it quite a few times but never went in. I'm not into that particular scene. But I loved the saunas. Oban was a revelation when I first visited around 1982 several years before its closure to combat HIV - well after the cat was out of the bag. Once saw a handsome tall porn star there. My favourite sauna experience, though, was in one in Shibuya probably around 1984. I now have no idea of its name or exactly where it was located, but I met a guy there who was just amazing. Three hours of heaven including a session on the roof. It seemed to me that there were some blocks where people could see what was going on on the roof. but i was far more concerned with the guy on my lap than any voyeurs 

[Vessey]

8 hours ago, PeterRS said:

 

In the meantime, I am just thrilled that every day I am able to see dozens of perfectly lovely slim young Asian guys showing me how they will look once those pants have been pulled off. Now if only someone would come up with a way of getting them off in a flash rather than the inelegant and constant tugging now required, many of us would be in seventh heaven.

Haha so true, my favourite 'husband' of many years, Vit from Scandic Massage, is a bit of a fashion victim and loves his skin-tight jeans over his skinny legs. But frankly I could go and make a cup of hot tea and drink it, the time it takes for him to remove them. But usually I just stand and watch and tease him, especially (for a supposedly straight boy) when his cock is already hard and visibly clamouring for release from his undies as he battles with his jeans.

But it is always worth the wait of course; god how I miss that boy!

[TotallyOz]

8 hours ago, PeterRS said:

My youth coincided with the most inappropriately named bell-bottoms, for they had absolutely nothing to do with "bottoms" as I then associated the word. Cut rather tightly over the hips and thighs, these then flared out from the knee so that the bottom of the pants would be almost as wide as the length of the boots most commonly worn with them. Why on earth anyone thought these were fashionable beats me. But for a while they were immensely popular.

My goodness. I loved the feel of those bell bottoms swishing around on my ankles. I just adored them and wish they were in style today.

 

[PeterRS]

An Appendix to Dedicated Followers of Fashion

The Long and the Short

With the European Football Championship and the South American Copa America Championship now down to their semi-final stages, I willingly admit that in my youth I was a dedicated follower of football. ‘Real’ football, that is. Not the American corruption which to this uninitiated observer always seems much more a mixture of a dash of rugby in an outright war – with each stop/start play gaining one side merely a few yards before the head-butting and shoulder-charging relentlessly resume. It all does seem a bit like trench warfare in World War 1, one step forward – two steps back. Only the battle-dress is less depressing! Mind you, I don’t like rugby either!   Most of the players are built too much like refugees from Bangkok’s Tawan bar for my liking. 

Now the beautiful game has conquered the world. Not even the USA is immune to soccer’s charms. I remember in my youth watching my local team in the UK. It was often frustrating, if only because they lost far more often then they won. But sometimes it was utterly magical. I particularly recall when a Hungarian was purchased by my team, the only foreigner in a team of Brits. He played at Inside Right. This was long before the days of football managers adopting various pitch formations with their 10 outfield players more like mathematical formulae: 4-2-4; 4-3-3; 1-4-2-3 and other such seeming nonsense. This player moved around the pitch like a gazelle. His deft swift passing threaded the ball past several defenders of the opposing team as though through a needle, and his goals frequently wondrous. Of course it could not last. He was just too good. Soon he was sold to another continental team. What a sad day!

There was, though, another reason for my interest in these supremely fit and talented players. Their shorts were more like mini-skirts for men! They might not have been skin-tight, but you could see all the detail of the players’ thigh muscles below. Even better, when those wearing white shorts were running, the muscles in their bum were deliciously clear. And just occasionally a player would tug at his opponent’s shorts pulling them ever so tightly so that the outline of dick and balls were equally clear.

Two English soccer players 38 years ago: Photo Getty Images

Although as remarked earlier I was no fan of rugby, when living in Japan I would often be transfixed watching the game on television on a Saturday afternoon. There should have been another word for the shorts these guys wore. Short they were not. Ultra-shorts? These Japanese teams wore mere slips of cloth. Best of all was watching the scrums, those parts of the game where the eight forwards in each team grab hold of each other, face the other team and then bend down low to try and push the incoming ball to their back line. Imagine! To stick together, you need to grab hold of something down there, and most hands latched on to those slips. Inevitably with all the pushing and shoving, the shorts frequently rose up to expose an alabaster coloured butt.  Not once! Not twice! Throughout the whole 80 minutes!  

So why did all this change? Somehow, somewhere, the football authorities – in fact many sports authorities – decided that shorts had to fall. Not off, alas. Just down. And so over a period of years their length at least doubled. Then they got even longer. By the turn of the century, describing a basketball players’ shorts was a complete misnomer. ‘Longs’ are now hardly appropriate. A glimpse of a thigh these days is often like trying to spot a tiny slice of chipolata in large loaf of bread. And don’t get me off on swimming shorts when all decent young slim Asian guys should only consider the skimpiest Speedos.

Jeremy Lin the Taiwanese-American who inspired 'Linsanity' was a basketball sensation who fell from hero to zero. With those white 'longs' looking hideous over longer black leggings (true, I don't like them!), perhaps not surprising. 

Photo: Getty Images

Ah well! Progress cannot satisfy everyone. I ‘long’ for the old days when soccer players’ shorts were akin to those worn today by the many cute Asian gymnasts today when doing their floor exercises. Will they ever return? I still watch soccer occasionally. But the beautiful game has lost a little of its temptation for me.

Photo: Tiebreaker Times

[reader]