Je suis pas du genre enthousiaste de Shinjuku : j’ai du mal à ne pas trouver ça malsain, mal foutu, bordélique. Paradoxalement, c’est ce qui rend le quartier attractif pour le tourisme.

Qu’est ce qu’il y a à voir ici, si ce n’est des filles maquillées comme des camions volés partant travailler en nuisettes ?

On arrive trop tard pour voir Shinjukugyoen, on se rabat donc sur Golden Gai. En route, le temple tout bidon (remarquez les efforts que je fais pour avoir des commentaires… je SAIS qu’un temple est pas fait pour être sexy, mais j’imagine que dire que c’est bidon devrait tirer une larme à tous ceux qui transpirent chaud du fion devant chaque portique peint en vermillon) ne nous laisse qu’un vague souvenir de corbeau s’envolant dans les rayons poussiéreux du soleil blanc cassé.

Par contre, la brigade de répression du grand banditisme qui s’active dans la ruelle de derrière, avec tous ces mecs en costumes légèrement surtaillés qui bourdonnent autour tandis que les stroumpfs sont scotchés autour d’une voiture visiblement précieusement occupée pour eux, c’est plus excitant.

Golden Gai, c’est de la porte et du bric-à-brac, mais je ne vous apprends rien.

Derrière, les Hosts se donnent du coeur au ventre dans leurs cages à perruches en poussant des grands haka de rugbymen néozélandais, la virilité et au moins 2/3 des kilos en moins, mais c’est la motivation qui compte pour aller affronter…euh…les refouls des meufs qu’ils accostent, sans doute.

Ce qui est intéressant, c’est d’arriver dans la zone frontière (vague) entre le quartier des mectons à poupoules et celui des nénettes à rapport plus ou moins approfondis et toujours tarifiés. Le kombini comme le saloon, on fume devant, prend des energy drink et du ukon no chikara (pour boire sans repeindre les murs), les hosts saluent les hôtesses, voire les habituées, ça échange un mot, une salutation. C’est presque émouvant, ce retour de l’humanité dans un quartier phantasmé comme une usine à plaisirs.

Pour les explications techniques, voir absolument ce film.

Pendant ce temps, à la gare…

“Come in lovers,” Numazu’s Jump Hotel beckons. This post is a photo essay on the over-the-top “rabu hoterus” (love hotels) that surround the Numazu bizen ceramics studio. On one side of the studio is a large forested hillside, populated by birds including the lovely uguisu.

The other three sides are dozens of short-term stay hotels, with garish neon, absurd names, columns, statuary, fountains, tikki lights, plastic palm trees, free Wii, and abundant car parking. All of this looks worse in daylight.

Here’s one of the many reasons why Japanese people are considered crazy. A sex chair. You have to check it out, cause it’s this chair where all you have to do is sit in the chair, slide into each other and just press play. You can fastforward, you can rewind, you can pause.. Absurd.. Unheard of. I was told Japan has used these sex chairs in love hotels for a while now, but never have I actually seen the chair itself. I think the Japanese misunderstood the expression “turn me on” by taking it too literal. Rather disturbing if you ask me. But maybe that’s just me.. Maybe I’m too much of a romantic to be enjoying this.

In the 1920s, love hotels were called tsurekomi yado, which literally means “bring along inn.”  They evolved from tea houses called deiai chaya that allowed men to bring prostitutes or lovers onto the premises and rent a room upstairs for a liason.

There are none of these operating as love hotels anymore, but there is one in Osaka that has been converted into a restaurant. It’s called Hyakuban and is in Tennoji.

This elegant old building has so much character that you’re intstantly taken back in time to a simpler, more graceful time. Pull aside the sliding doors to reveal the elgant wooden bridge in the front hall, and walk past traidtional woodcarvings and woodblock prints on your way to your own little room. They serve traditional Japanese foods like sukiyaki, shabu shabu, and chanko nabe. I wouldn’t go there just for the food because it was good but not spectacular, but it certainly is a unique, atmospheric dining experience.

Here’s the Hyakuban homepage (Japanese only): http://r.gnavi.co.jp/k069800/

Address: 3-5-25 Sanno, Nishinari-ku, Tel. (06) 6632-0050. Reservations required. Dinner costs an average of 5000 yen per person.

There’s more information about   love hotels in my new book, Love Hotels: An Inside Look at Japan’s Sexual Playgrounds. I spent years visiting love hotels around Japan, interviewing love hotel designers, owners and staff, and wading through Japanese books on sex and love hotels to bring you this book.

It’s 182 pages of information about their history, the people who design and operate them, their place in Japanese society, crime, and much, much more. There’s also a love hotel guide with information on how to get to the best hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Yokohama, Sapporo, and Fukuoka.

For more information about love hotels, please visit my newly updated love hotel page at: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotels.html

To order or find out more about the book, please visit: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelbookintro.htm. There’s also a smaller guidebook, with just the hotel information for 500 yen: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelguide.html.

There are more love hotel-related posts
here.

This guest post is by Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories contributor Donna George Storey, whose story, “Room Service,” closes the book. Look for an upcoming interview with her here about the inspiration for her story, and an excerpt. Thanks, Donna, for such an interesting post!

“Love Hotel Madness”
by Donna George Storey

Once a land of inscrutable mystery, Japan is no longer especially exotic to Westerners with sushi bars, manga, and Nintendo now familiar fixtures in our culture.

But there is one Japanese institution the West has yet to import–one that still retains an aura of glittering allure and forbidden pleasure. I’m talking, of course, about the love hotel, where a couple can rent a scrupulously clean and fancifully decorated room designed primarily for a few hours of steaming hot sex.

In a country where housing is expensive, the walls paper thin, and many adult children live with their parents until they marry, it’s hard to find a time and a place for no-holds-barred, thrash-and-scream erotic encounters. Enter the love hotel, which truly fills an aching need in Japanese culture. Researchers estimate that one half of all sexual encounters in Japan take place in a love hotel.

Curious? But your schedule won’t allow a quick trip to Japan for an amorous encounter in a room decorated with large Hello Kitty dolls in S&M gear? Then come join me for the next best thing: Love Hotel Madness, a timeless game of afternoon delights where everyone’s a winner!

First, of course, you have to pick your game pieces. Will you be the married couple, desperate to get away from grandma and the kids on a Sunday afternoon? Two college students who lodge in dorms where your mates see and hear everything? Or maybe an American businesswoman who forms a very special connection with her Japanese client as in Isabelle Gray’s “So Simple a Place” in Do Not Disturb?

Next you need to find your love hotel. The best hunting ground is near the train tracks, along the highway, or in the entertainment districts of cities. In Tokyo, Shibuya’s “Love Hotel Hill” has perhaps the most concentrated selection of love hotels in the country. Will it be “Hotel Rich Inn”? Or “Hotel Monaco”? How about “New Seeds”? Or “Blue Roses”? Pick a card and proceed.

Once you choose, step through the discreet hanging curtain into the lobby. There is no check-in clerk, merely a wall of computer screens, each advertising a particular room, with price and amenities. The lit-up screens indicate unoccupied rooms, and you can shop for the theme of your choice. For the purposes of Love Hotel Madness, roll the dice and find the room with that number. Tap the button on the screen for “rest” (one to three hours) or “stay” (the all-night option) and follow the blinking lights to the door of your room, which has been unlocked automatically.

Although we’ve all heard about the laugh-out-loud humorous theme rooms involving paper mache igloos or beds fitted out as boxing rings, more common these days is a well-appointed love den that resembles a baroque Western hotel, although creative touches may be included like a cave bath or a black-light ocean mural. One reason for the decline of all-out kitsch is that women now have more say in the particulars of rendezvous locales. In fact, the word “love hotel” is seldom used by the Japanese anymore. They prefer softer, euphemistic names like couples’ hotel, fashion hotel or boutique hotel.

Another blow to the fun was the 1985 change to the Law Regulating Businesses Affecting Public Morals. That sorry moment in legislative history banished mirrors on the ceilings and rotating beds and restricted exuberant architectural expression. Thus the Cinderella castles and Moorish palaces I remember so well from my first stay in Japan became unremarkable, anonymous facades, and many owners reregistered their establishments as “business hotels” to avoid fines.

However, bright spots do remain in the love hotel landscape. If you’re lucky enough to have rolled for the Hotel Adonis in Osaka, you might find yourself in the Hello Kitty S& M room, the bed equipped with manacles and a cute Hello Kitty quilt. Osaka’s Hotel Loire is a classic—here you can rent a train car to act out subway sex fantasies, the Olympic room with Ionic columns and faux marble floors, or the Pirate room, with a bed right on deck and a view of an approaching ship flying the skull-and-crossbones.

One final preparation: a bit of fiddling with the fancy console on the headboard of your bed. Here you can adjust the room temperature or set the mood with music, the soothing sound of waves or a train conductor’s announcements, perfect for sex-in-the-train fantasies.

Now it’s time to move on to the climax of Love Hotel Madness. You are about to embark on the ultimate Japanese experience—a quick trip to the yume no kuni, the Land of Dreams. In a country where context rules everything, from the pronoun you use to describe yourself to the angle of your bow, the love hotel is the one place where sensual indulgence is allowed and, if you’re in a dungeon room, strictly required by your Master’s orders. If you’re looking for inspiration for some taboo-busting hotel sex, Do Not Disturb has plenty of stories to get your imagination wet and slippery. So I’ll leave you for an hour or two to add your own special touch to the game….

Ahem, sorry to intrude, but your time is up and if you don’t want to pay a surcharge, it’s best to check out now. Paying for your pleasure might involve tucking your cash in a container that goes speeding to the clerk through a pneumatic tube. Other hotels ask you pay with a credit card via computer. Some will actually lock you in until payment is received!

In any case you will eventually find yourself back in the real world, blinking at the grim, fully-clothed people bustling about on the street around you. Yes, perhaps it was all just a dream. But what’s this in your hand? A coupon informing you that if you “rest” four times at Hotel New Seeds, your fifth romp between the sheets is free. Plus you’ve already earned one stamp. See, I told you, in Love Hotel Madness, everyone’s a winner.

Donna George Storey has taught English in Japan and Japanese in the US. She’s very honored to be part of the contributors’ register of Do Not Disturb. Her first novel, Amorous Woman, a semi-autobiographical tale of an American woman’s love affair with Japan has many sex scenes set in hotels throughout Japan. Read more of her work at her very amorous Web site, www.DonnaGeorgeStorey.com.

This is the Meguro Emperor, Japan’s all-time most famous love hotel. When it opened in 1973, it was the Cadillac of love hotels. Designed by the famous architect Yasuhisa Kurosaka, it was a monument to 1970s kitsch, and its fairy tale castle exterior became something of a touists attraction. The hotel’s 30 rooms featured a gondola, playground slides, and all manner of vibrating, rotating, and gyrating beds.

The boom quickly ended, though, and it was bought out by another company, and renamed the Meguro Club Sekitei. I was surprised to see that it has changed its name back to the Meguro Emperor. Unfortunately, they haven’t brought back the gondola beds.

There’s more information about the Meguro Emperor and other love hotels in my new book, Love Hotels: An Inside Look at Japan’s Sexual Playgrounds. I spent years visiting love hotels around Japan, interviewing love hotel designers, owners and staff, and wading through Japanese books on sex and love hotels to bring you this book.

It’s 182 pages of information about their history, the people who design and operate them, their place in Japanese society, crime, and much, much more. There’s also a love hotel guide with information on how to get to the best hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Yokohama, Sapporo, and Fukuoka.

For more information about love hotels, please visit my newly updated love hotel page at: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotels.html

To order or find out more about the book, please visit: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelbookintro.htm. There’s also a smaller guidebook, with just the hotel information for 500 yen: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelguide.html.

There are more love hotel-related posts here.

In a country so populous that entire families share the same bedroom and youngsters live with their parents well into their twenties, it must be quite a mammoth challenge to have a good shag in privacy. That’s why love hotels are so successful in Japan. These gaudy sex palaces, where randy couples can go for uninhibited nookie, can be easily spotted in the backstreets and roadsides of Japan, and are a source of fascination and amusement to westerners like me. To cater for this curiosity, Ed Jacob has lovingly written an entire book about the places, and the titillating tome makes for an entertaining read.

In “Love Hotels”, Jacob traces the history of the love hotel from its roots in the discreet backrooms of the tearooms and noodle shops of the Edo and Meiji Eras, before beds and lockable doors had made it to Japan (prior to the tea-rooms, people used to openly rut in parks like wild beasts. Sadly, the pesky white folks put a stop to this charming ancient custom when they arrived in their black ships and disapproved of the al-fresco action); all the way up to the hi-tech Disneyland-influenced pleasure pits of today, with their 50-inch flatscreen TVs, playstations, mind-boggling sex toys, and karaoke machines.
Ed Jacob lets us know the social context, fads and fashions of the times, and he fills us in on the hoteliers’ battles with the law, as well as prevailing Japanese attitudes to sex and romance. And there are plenty of pictures (which makes reading the book on the train difficult, as I discovered!)

One voyeuristic pleasure is the translation of the hotel guestbook comments, with thrilling confessions like “my husband doesn’t know I’m here,” “I love my 60 year old sugar daddy,” and “I’m going to to kill myself.”

Equally entertaining, are the lists of inexplicable and un-sexy love-hotel names, such as “The Hippo Doctor”, “Hello Clown”, “Penguin Town”, “Love Monster’s Room” and “Banana and Donuts”.

Ed clearly has an encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese weirdness, and can now lay claim to the dubious honour of being the English speaking world’s leading authority on love hotels.
The book is so well researched that the guy has either really done his homework, or gets laid more often than Gene Simmons.

We even learn about the poor bastards who have to clean the rooms after the guests leave.
Indeed, the love hotel business is not all fun and games, as we learn from dark news reports of prostitution, adultery, murder and blackmail.
How would you feel if you discovered a rotting corpse under the mattress you’d just made sweet love on?; or if you walked into a video shop, only to discover a DVD on the adult shelf, featuring secretly filmed footage of you shagging somebody in a love hotel? These things have actually happened. Yikes!

Nevertheless, any adventurous couple traveling to Japan should definitely add a trip to a love hotel to their “to do” list.
The most useful part of Ed’s book is the listings and reviews of love hotels, ranging from the romantic to the totally bat-shit bonkers.
Among some of the more demented destinations that I’m keen to investigate (for a laugh, honest!) are a “Hello Kitty S & M”-themed room (?!), and an entire hotel themed around Yakuza-Snowmen (which can surely be erotic for no-one but the criminally insane).

“Love Hotels” is certainly an education, even for the most jaded of Japanophiles. You might, however, need to take a shower after reading it!

You can order the book or read samples at Ed’s site, Quirky Japan.

I spent years visiting love hotels around Japan, interviewing love hotel designers, owners and staff, and wading through Japanese books on sex and love hotels to bring you this book.

It’s 182 pages of information about love hotels – their history, the people who design and operate them, their place in Japanese society, crime, and much, much more. There’s also a love hotel guide with information on how to get to the best hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Yokohama, Sapporo, and Fukuoka.

For more information about love hotels, please visit my newly updated love hotel page at: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotels.html

To order or find out more about the book, please visit: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelbookintro.htm. There’s also a smaller guidebook, with just the hotel information for just 500 yen: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelguide.html

In places like Tokyo, lack of privacy stems naturally from lack of living space. Even well-to-do families shack up in small apartments to reap the benefits of the bustling metropolis. What happens when mommy and daddy need some alone time? They stop at their local “Love Hotel.”

From a westerner’s point of view, concepts like the Love Hotel may conjure up images like Dennis Hof’s Bunny Ranch in Reno, while some of us may be reminded of a great spot, say in lovely East Haven, that provides a similar service.

Love Hotels are not only used by 15 year-olds and cheating spouses. In fact, Love Hotels are most often frequented by married couples. In Tokyo, where it is typical for a family of five to share 750 square feet of living space, a Love Hotel may be just the answer for couples who want to get away. Love Hotels offer not only a fun and unconventional way to have sex, but exist as a way to provide privacy to couples who want to spend some intimate time together without the bother (or within earshot) of their children.

A room in a Love Hotel can be rented for a period of “rest” ranging from one to three hours, and some provide overnight stays. The hotels feature discrete entrances and automated payment machines. The rooms themselves provide everything from snacks and drinks to sex toys, movies and karaoke machines.

On its face, the idea of renting a room out to have sex is seemingly frivolous; or, depending on your motivations, absolutely brilliant. However, before we go criticizing, lets take a look at our own society: one in which privacy and intimacy is engulfed by take-out, long hours at the office and weekend soccer tournaments. What is so wrong with a couple renting out a room for a few hours to reconnect and be alone? Is it really all that different from spending a weekend at a bed and breakfast in the Berkshires?

The concept of the “bathhouse” in New York grew out of similar efficiency concerns. In the early 1900′s, apartments were being built with no bathrooms as a way to fit more people into quickly developing areas, forcing inhabitants in places like the Lower East Side to grab their razors and head down the block for a scrub up. For an interesting history as well as pictures of the remaining bathhouses in New York City, please see MichaelMinn.net.

For a list of the top ten Love Hotels please check out the Tokyo Journal.

In places like Tokyo, lack of privacy stems naturally from lack of living space. Even well-to-do families shack up in small apartments to reap the benefits of the bustling metropolis. What happens when mommy and daddy need some alone time? They stop at their local “Love Hotel.”

From a westerner’s point of view, concepts like the Love Hotel may conjure up images like Dennis Hof’s Bunny Ranch in Reno, while some of us may be reminded of a great spot, say in lovely East Haven, that provides a similar service.

Love Hotels are not only used by 15 year-olds and cheating spouses. In fact, Love Hotels are most often frequented by married couples. In Tokyo, where it is typical for a family of five to share 750 square feet of living space, a Love Hotel may be just the answer for couples who want to get away. Love Hotels offer not only a fun and unconventional way to have sex, but exist as a way to provide privacy to couples who want to spend some intimate time together without the bother (or within earshot) of their children.

A room in a Love Hotel can be rented for a period of “rest” ranging from one to three hours, and some provide overnight stays. The hotels feature discrete entrances and automated payment machines. The rooms themselves provide everything from snacks and drinks to sex toys, movies and karaoke machines.

On its face, the idea of renting a room out to have sex is seemingly frivolous; or, depending on your motivations, absolutely brilliant. However, before we go criticizing, lets take a look at our own society: one in which privacy and intimacy is engulfed by take-out, long hours at the office and weekend soccer tournaments. What is so wrong with a couple renting out a room for a few hours to reconnect and be alone? Is it really all that different from spending a weekend at a bed and breakfast in the Berkshires?

The concept of the “bathhouse” in New York grew out of similar efficiency concerns. In the early 1900′s, apartments were being built with no bathrooms as a way to fit more people into quickly developing areas, forcing inhabitants in places like the Lower East Side to grab their razors and head down the block for a scrub up. For an interesting history as well as pictures of the remaining bathhouses in New York City, please see MichaelMinn.net.

For a list of the top ten Love Hotels please check out the Tokyo Journal.

Over the past days, small and large displays of bamboo, pine, basket, konbu and baskets have appeared on residential doors and in front of businesses. It’s called kadomatsu.

They symbolize longevity and the purity with which one prepares to bring in the new year. Some of the most elaborate ones are in front of the pachinko parlors and love hotels. Ours will be humbler.

"think we can remember this?" "better take a picture"

Actually I think this was still Akasaka - not in Roppongi yet

a"love" hotel..heh

looks like the Seattle Art Museum building

"over the hills and through the woods..."

we went to the temple in this park and bought fortunes for 100yen each but couldn't read them (rrr kanji). then we tied them to the tree (assuming we were supposed to) in hopes that they will come true--hopefully they weren't bad fortunes!

wahhhhh so cool. Tokyo Midtown.

an art(?) exhibition outside of Tokyo Midtown

After this we went home and rested for a few hours then walked into town, had a snack and then did some serious karaoke for an hour. Hahaha, living here is too much fun.

In recent years, Japan has issued a crack-down on love hotel establishments. It’s becoming increasingly hard to maintain one of these hotels, especially when not in a red light district or love hotel ‘area’ like Love Hotel Hill in Shibuya. Tokyo’s a special victim to this; I believe the scene in Oosaka is still comparatively alive and well. As a result of this, a lot of the more elaborate and shifty hotels – including a great deal of the themed hotels – are being slowly killed off. I keep reading about an elusive dungeon-themed love hotel somewhere, but despite my various efforts have yet to find one and so I can only assume that it was among those to go.

Of course, with the ‘clean’ image the new generation of love hotels are trying to promote (partially to please the ladies with a ‘romantic’ atmosphere as opposed to seedy), the majority of them are no longer just for hot-blooded couples. A lot of them now offer video games and karaoke in the rooms to entertain the kiddies if you and your family are caught out without a place to stay one night. My only reservation is that the check-out times can be quite early, ie. from 10am, and after a sleepless night talking (or focking, whatever it is you’re into) the last thing you want is to be kicked out the moment your eyes finally shut. Of course, if the need be you can always check promptly into another hotel during the day on ‘free time’, or non peak time rates.

Tokyo is a lot like New York. You’re oftentimes relegated to public transportation and your bed is never around for a nap. So what you do is trudge through the city morning-to-night, shopping bags digging into your arms, until you finally collapse from exhaustion. Believe me, it’s great for losing weight — I lost five pounds in last year’s two-day shopping spree — but if you want to enjoy the city it’s a miserable way to go.

So I was excited to hear about ‘rental dressing rooms’ springing up across town. The brainchild of a company called COS-Pa, you pay between $5 to $7 for 30 minutes to sit down, wash your face and powder your nose. It’s originally designed for cosplay girls to spruce up before a night on the town, but I figure they wouldn’t mind me sneaking 40 winks, so as long as I pay them. Each room comes with all the necessary amenities: a mirror, tissues, electrical outlet, hair brushes, and an all-you-can-drink bar. Non-alcoholic, of course. Bobby pins, hair spray and nail polish are an added cost.

Japan’s heat gets pretty nasty during the summer. By mid-afternoon your shirt is drenched, your hair is frizzled beyond repair and your makeup has all but melted away. It’s hard to believe no one thought of rental rooms earlier. Well, that’s aside from love hotels, of course. And that’s a whole ‘nother kind of rental space. (^o<)

Himawari

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It’s finished! After three years of hard work, I’ve finally finished my love hotel book. It’s filled with information about the kinkiest, wildest love hotels in Japan. There’s behind the scenes looks, detailed descriptions of the best hotels all over Japan, history, interviews with owners and staff, area guides, and much, much more. It should be available in a couple of months.

This photo is of an S&M room in at the Kamen Kanibaru (formerly Gang Snowmans) love hotel in Osaka. The theme of this truly strange hotel is Yakuza Snowmen, and every room has obviously been created with a great amount of TLC. There are interesting little touches everywhere, like the little igloos in the lobby where couples can sit and wait for a room to become available, a cool snowman shaped TV, and free ice cream bars in the lobby. The artwork is truly amazing, especially the black light pictures of Snowmen in flying convertibles, flying through space or getting ready for a gangland hit with icy machine guns in their hands. Kamen Kanibaru specializes in S&M rooms, with a wide variety of things to hold on or be tied to.

From exit #3 of Tanimachi 9-chome Station on the Tanimachi subway line, turn right and walk south, down Tanimachi-suji. Walk six blocks and turn right. Then take an immediate left, and you’ll see Gang Snowmans on the right side.
Avrg. Sat. rest: 4,520 | Avrg. Sat stay: 8,400
Address: Tennoji-ku, Ikutamadera-machi 4-4, Tel. (06) 6772-1415

The hotel Aine Resort in Shibuya’s Love Hotel Hill district. By the way, I’m working on a book about love hotels. Stay tuned for more details.

For those who don wanna read about this post, you can always stop reading. I already warn you.

Definition from wiki.
A love hotel (ラブホテル, rabu hoteru) is a type of short-stay hotel found in Japan operated primarily for the purpose of allowing couples privacy to have sexual intercourse. Love hotels usually offer a room rate for a “rest” kyūkei (休憩, kyūkei), as well as for an overnight stay. The period of a “rest” varies, typically ranging from one to three hours. Cheaper daytime off-peak rates are common. In general, reservations are not possible, leaving the hotel will forfeit access to the room, and overnight stay rates only become available after 10pm. They are often used by young couples, since many young Japanese people live with their parents. They are also commonly used for prostitution. Entrances are discreet and interaction with staff is minimized, with rooms often selected from a panel of buttons and the bill settled by pneumatic tube, automatic cash machines, or a pair of hands behind a pane of frosted glass. While cheaper hotels are utilitarian, higher-end hotels may feature fanciful rooms decorated with cartoon characters, equipped with rotating beds, ceiling mirrors, karaoke machines or decked out like dungeons complete with S&M gear. Love hotel architecture is sometimes garish, with buildings shaped like castles, boats or UFOs and lit with lurid pink and purple neon lighting. However, many love hotels are very ordinary looking buildings, distinguished mainly by having small or covered windows.

Just now i already warn you all so if you wanna continue reading, go ahead and enjoy but don go nuts. XD Mentioned from the definition, basically love hotels are hotels where you make love. There are around 35,000 love hotels in Japan. Love hotels can be found all over japan and they are easily recognized because of their strange looks. In Tokyo exist some districts where you can find many love hotels located side by side. Plenty of choices for you. LOL! They are almost used by most couples and mostly not married. Mostly are usually always after a dinner or happy hour during the late night and yea they go do their stuffs in a love hotel. A stay overnight cost about 8000yen which is around $105 SGD. The room fee for two hours during the day is usually a bit lower, while on weekends the prices will be much higher. Well! Im sure the girl couple will be embarrassed of walking together with a guy into a love hotel. And yea the reception in a hotel hotel is very anonymous. The guests usually gets to choose their kind of room from a board with a variety of choices by pressing a button and then pay at a little window where the receptionist behind cannot be seen.

Some love hotels don have windows. XD privacy eh? So anyways rooms in love hotels are way way different from normal hotels. The rooms are equipped according to their purpose with large beds, a television offering adult programs, a nice bathroom and much more. Ok. well im gonna use this word once only! Sex is divided into many categories. Obviously hell no im gonna explain all of them one by one. Different people have different fetishes and they don have to worry about anything because everything in the love hotel in already prepared. Im not saying that all love hotels provide the same service. Some only or maybe All? I dono, i never been to one before although i wanna see what is it like =P HEHE. OK anyways about the services. Well sometimes we guys wan to see girls in cute, sexy costumes right? lol and they do provide services for that problem. Its known as “The Cosplayer”. Each uniform has a numbers attached to them. A quick call to the front desk, and they will deliver your attire of choice to your door. Wanna take a peek of how the costumes look like? here is it.

Omg omg omg. 2 more years till 18! HAHAHAHAHA LOL. Those costumes are pretty cute and sexy. =D Fetishes eh? Anyways some love hotels do provide a MINI VENDING MACHINE in their rooms. GUESS? LOL. Vending machines selling adult toys. They are 100% prepared for the customers eh? XD Anyways after a few hours of their private exercise, surely they will get hungry eh? Well i did mention that love hotels are way way different than normal hotels but surely they still provide room service. And their food selection. woah. A lot of choices. BUT! some hotels provide a microwave in their room. What for? Obviously to heat your food! LOL HAHA YES! they do offer a variety of food but i aint done talking! frozen or instant foods! HEHE =P They do include beers too priced at around 500+yen. Well maybe some luxurious love hotels provide high class room service. I duno? cuz i never been to any before =P ehehehe.

Look pretty delicious eh?

People im gonna end this post with pictures. Part 6 will be less words because if i add in more. This will turn into a porn blog. LOL ahahaha the pictures will be enough already. Oh dear god, sorry for posting pictures of these. XD

CAUTION CAUTION!
DON SEE IF YOU DON WAN TO!
SORRY!
THOSE WHO WAN. GO AHEAD. Chamber With Adult ToysSexy X

Gulliver’s Fridge

Bondage Kitty and Piano Hello Kitty S&M Room

Hallways with trees.

Subway Room

Beaver Bath

Gulliver’s Bathroom

High School Room

Japanese S&M Room

Sitting Area

Party Room XXX Chair.

Mini Vending Machines selling adult toys

Japanese Room

Jungle Room

Floral Bathroom

Library Room

Hello Kitty Toilet

=) Hope you look foward to part 7. XD And Many thanks to PDNB for these photos and the captions for the picture above are taken from PDNB too. For more info of their site, check out at http://www.pdnbgallery.com

Yes folks, the Japanese are indeed having sex, and lots of it. The industry is making money hands over…Use your imagination for that one. Now, I have to admit in the guise of full disclosure that my wife and I have used a love hotel. And with that – it was great! Not just the sex part which was of course great, but the room itself was something we couldn’t have created in our own home, and we don’t have children (yet). Think about what it would be like to have the kids one day come home and see mom and dad’s room looking like something out of Moulin Rouge? The explanation might be worth the effort, or not. Anyway, love hotels are being used and in a country with 99% Japanese people, it’s safe to say that Japanese people are filling those lovely love hotel rooms.

Now, one might think that the good rooms are expensive, while the vast majority are cheap and crappy. Maybe in some other countries that don’t take safety in this realm seriously, but in Japan, trust me when I say, no worries mate. Anyone can afford a nice, clean room complete with complimentary protection. So throw out that notion that the Japanese don’t know things about protection and that they don’t like using condoms. Bottomline is, the choice is yours, the hotel people can’t put the fuckin’ thing on for you. If you pay to play use the equipment provided I say. Anyway, the rooms are great. There are big screen TVs, plush couches, cool paintings on the ceiliings, and of course karaoke machines (this is Japan of course). On top of all that they are accessible and inexpensive, and most of all – safe.

So, drop the kids off with grandma and grandpa and take your mate out on a love hotel date. Get away from the rat race and slow down the pace – use a love hotel. Duck out from that meeting, meet your honeybunny down at the love hotel for a long lunch and some good times. Go back to that meeting with a smile (In Japan the meeting will still be going on and you probably wouldn’t have been missed anyway).

Lastly, as you might have guessed I am married. This isn’t a thing just for the singles. Married couples can use them as well, and I don’t mean to cheat and have affairs. I am happily married and very satisfied. If I’m going to a love hotel it’s going to be with my wife whom I love and want to get freaky with. I think if more couples went to love hotels and broke out in the safe and sensual surroundings they will find reasons not to cheat. I’ll just say that the atmosphere lends to a different sexual attitude being released, and one that you might find will follow you out of the room and into your “regular” life. Like I said, I love the love hotel deal because it allowed me and my wife a place to get really freaky (not that we had or have a problem with that anywhere else). I wish people would use them responsibly but alas I can’t control that.

So, when you hear and read that Japanese people aren’t having sex and leading these stressful lives ask the researchers of these studies, “Did you do any background data checking into sex at love hotels?” Maybe the statistic would change, who knows?

Peace ya’ll.

Unfortunately, I actually had to work while they were here, so I let them to visit Tsutenkaku and Osaka-jo on their own and I met back up with them after work for some wanderings in the Dotombori. We ate okonomiyaki at my favorite okonomiyaki stand and took photos of the fiberglass mascots and marveled at the Donki Wonder Wheel. We also wandered around America-mura for awhile, and through the love hotel alleys. My favorite new love hotel name? The Hotel Otoboke Beaver, of course.

It’s funny how kind of familiar it was to hang out with Billy and Pete — I guess perhaps there’s a certain kind of ‘photographer personality’ that makes itself apparent as a certain kind of inquisitiveness and openness to chance, and it was this aspect of Billy and Pete that I felt right at home with. Thanks for the visit guys!

Here’s Pete’s amazing photo of Edo-period Japan.

And one of the images from Billy’s latest gallery exhibition.

You can check out Billy’s photostream here.

And here’s Pete’s photostream.

It’s Billy’s blog!

And Billy’s other photostream!

Well, it was a dark and gloomy day in Ueno Koen, as I’m sure you can tell from the photographs, and somehow while I was looking for Kaneiji I managed to get lost in the incredibly enormous Yanaka Cemetary. I’m not sure, but I also kind of got the feeling that maybe I wasn’t supposed to be there, since there was nobody else there, and since I had to cross a “do not enter” type sign on my way out. It was raining lightly and I was in a field of tombstones and, rising into the skyline from across the Keisei-line tracks, there was a field of love hotels. Including one called “Sweet Heavens,” or something else deeply ironic like that. I finally made my way to the Kaneiji Komponchudo hall only to find that it was closed for the day.

Red-bibbed jizos at Kaneiji.

Way back a million years ago in December, on the last day of Hsuan’s visit in Japan, Hsuan and I decided to have a night out on the town since he still hadn’t had a chance to see much of Osaka. Osakans tend to divide Osaka into two zones, Kita (“North”) and Minami (“South”). Kita Osaka, essentially the Umeda area, is primarily one giant shopping district with some office buildings, bars, restaurants, and a sex entertainment district thrown in on the side. Minami Osaka is also a shopping district, but it’s historically linked to the pleasures of eating and entertainment and it has a nightlife second to none if you’re ready to stay up for the five o’clock train. The phrase “Kuidaore,” which roughly translates as ‘going bankrupt by spending all your money on good food,’ is associated with the Minami area, and indeed, even the Daimaru department store in Minami traces its origins to sometime in the 17th century (unless it was the 1700s, I can’t really be sure). In contrast, Umeda is a relatively new area of Osaka, probably about 100 years old. The kanji for 梅田 basically means “plum field,” but the original kanji for Umeda (same pronunciation, different ‘spelling’) meant “reclaimed field,” or something close to that. In effect, Umeda was originally swampland with a few islets poking through the surface of the murk, and now its a metaphorical “plum field” of shopping arcades and highrises.

In any event, our night out started with dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the Chaya-machi area of Umeda. The name of the restaurant is Koi no Shizuku, which translates roughly as “tears of love.” The name comes from the famous tale of the love suicides at Ohatsu Tenjin shrine, a shrine that, incidentally, used to be located on an island but is now located in the center of Umeda’s more risqué entertainment zone. Koi no Shizuku is, as far as I can tell, a three-story restaurant, but the first story doesn’t begin until you’re already on the third floor of an elevator ride. The restaurant itself is designed in such a way that it feels like you’re outside, walking through the small side-paths of some closely knit cityscape. Part of this effect (in addition to the black paint that creates a network of shadow) is generated by the fact that there are absolutely no windows in Koi no Shizuka. Another part of this effect is generated by the paving stones that lie in the center of the paths that wind between individual private rooms that are raised above floor level and sealed off from the outside world with sliding doors and wagashi covered windows. When you eat a meal in Koi no Shizuku, you are in a room within a room, completely dislocated from the streets below. Each room is also decorated slightly differently. Our room this time around was dominated by a floating golden pagoda that presided meticulously over what was an absolutely delicious meal. In fact, aside from dinner, the only thing that makes it inside your room from outside is the J-Pop. Lots and lots of J-Pop. Mercifully, the volume is not overwhelming.

After our dinner we walked over to the Christon Café for some desert and more drinks. I’ve written about this Christ-themed establishment before, but things have changed at the Christon. The first time I went to the Christon the chandeliers were low and the place was in a deep night of gothic gloom. The altar to the Virgin Mary hovered in space over what could have been the set of many a cinematic vampire rave sequence. Imagine my surprise when, instead of walking onto the set of Blade II, I found myself walking into the brightly lit maw of LA baroque. Gone is the gloom at the Christon, replaced instead with cream-colored walls, paintings of cherubs dripping from the clouds, and enormous stands of brightly-colored, arm-sized candles. They’ve even added jewels to the Jesus diorama.

After our drinks, Hsuan and I walked around Umeda’s red light district, which is located just across the overpass from the Christon. What’s interesting about Japan is that, unlike the United States, there’s a strange lack of sleaze about sex districts (though there’s definitely more of a sense of the fetishistic). They feel much more like entertainment districts than like places where lonely men in dark overcoats go to sit alone in movie theatres and get off. Sure there are tons of signs advertising ‘naughty nurses’ in white vinyl, or lacy maids, or bunnies, or whatever you might like — but these places sit right next door to hugely popular restaurants and karaoke boxes and the entire area is jam-packed with people who aren’t there for the sex trade. In fact, some of the best places to go in Umeda can be found in the red light district including my favoritly named bar, Bar Trash, and a bar that advertises itself with a (real) stuffed tanuki. There’s also the fabulous Santa-themed Hotel Chapel Christmas, which is a love hotel that’s festooned with life-sized glowing plastic Santas. For those of you who aren’t in the know, love hotels are a ubiquitous institution in Japan and they’re just what they sound like — places to go where you can rent a room for an hour (or a night) in complete privacy. The biggest reason that love hotels exist is that most young Japanese people tend to live at home with their parents until they get married, which, these days, can mean that you’re living at home until you’re in your mid-thirties. Rather than waking your parents up by going bump in the night, why not just pay for a couple of hours at a clean, comfortable, and well-appointed love hotel?

And, said Hsuan and I, why not take a clean, comfortable, and well-appointed subway car down to Minami for a walk along the neon-lit Dotombori arcade, and a few drinks at one of the many small bars in the Shinsaibashi area? Like the red light district in Umeda, Osaka’s Shinsaibashi area (the entertainment area, not the shopping area) is a mixture of risqué entertainment, popular restaurants, shot bars, and hostess bars. It also borders a bluer area of town (or ‘pink,’ to use the Japanese terminology) that’s dotted with love hotels and soaplands. Shinsaibashi is an incredibly popular area for entertainment on the weekends, and it’s also a prime location for Yakuza spotting, since the Yakuza are deeply involved in Osaka’s ‘entertainment’ business. In fact, the Yakuza are deeply involved in business in general, to the point where the line between legitimate and illegitimate Yakuza activity is heavily blurred. On any given night in Shinsaibashi you can watch Mercedes after Mercedes with deeply tinted windows driving slowly down the streets. Sometimes they’ll stop and you can watch a group of four or five younger men get out, often wearing suits and sunglasses, followed by an older man who demonstrates his importance by NOT bothering to look around because the underlings have already done the looking for him. I think Hsuan may have been a little doubtful about the heavy Yakuza presence at first, but then I pointed out the parking garage filled with Hummers, Mercedes, three white (!!!) Ferraris, and a couple of Countaches.

We ended up at Bar Friendly, or Friendly Bar, or something like that, which turns out to be run by a group of Ghanaian ex-pats who were nice to talk to. There are a huge variety of ex-pat communities in Japan, and often you can find concentrations of ex-pats of a particular nationality at one or the other small bar in Shinsaibashi. Of course, you find all the Americans and Brits at the Pig and Whistle, but in smaller bars you may find a Ghanaian community, an Indian community, or, as is the case with Bar Freetown, a Sierra Leonean community. Most of these bars are really small by American standards — some can be as small as three square meters — but the upside of this is that they feel full with only five or so people crammed inside.

Since Hsuan was getting on a plane the next day we opted not to stay out until the first train, and so we took the last train home and back to my place, where we slipped into a deep, flâneurie-induced slumber.

Damn, that Christ has some bling! White and blue diamonds accent a Jesus diorama at the Criston Café.

A pair of Santas, perched precariously above the entrance to the Hotel Chapel Christmas.