What's it like to own a love hotel in Japan?
It perhaps sounds on paper like a sleazy job, right? Or maybe one where you get to spy on all kinds of sexual antics.
The reality is, of course, most mundane (and discretion is the name of the game). In fact, running a love hotel is a tough, busy job because the emphasis is so much on amenities, convenience, and comfort -- and with a fast turnaround. Love hotels today offer a lot of extras, from video games and karaoke to meals.
This is revealed in another video by Abroad in Japan that we recently rediscovered. It's from summer 2019 -- ...
We recently showcased a podcast from Abroad in Japan about five ways to impress Japanese women.
It prompted us to revisit some of Abroad in Japan's other content and we found a gem that we had overlooked in October of last year.
The YouTuber took a visit to an abandoned love hotel -- a trope we have a fondness for, as regular readers will know.
The 4K, 20-minute video is pretty awesome, if a bit chilling. Despite countless guests and countless sessions of sex over the years, all that remains is dust and dirt (plus some graffiti-art and a message scrawled onto a bed).
There is a fair ...
We read a report in the UK's Guardian newspaper about the story of two gay men in Amagasaki, just west of Osaka, who were turned away from love hotels.
The male receptionist at one politely informed the couple that men were not allowed.
Not to be deterred from their tryst, the men tried another love hotel in the area, only to encounter an overtly homophobic attitude.
"Gay men don't use the facilities properly," they were told by the female receptionist without explanation.
The two men are in a civil partnership of the kind given de facto legal recognition by local governments in ...
Following Earthquake Bird and The Forest, the latest American movie set in Tokyo is the recently released Lost Girls and Love Hotels.
Here's the official blurb:
Margaret finds herself in the glittering labyrinth of Tokyo by night and as a respected English teacher of a Japanese flight attendant academy by day. With little life direction, She searches for meaning with fellow expat Ines in a Japanese dive bar, drinking to remember to forget and losing herself in love hotel encounters with men who satisfy a fleeting craving. When she crosses paths with Kazu, a dashing yakuza, she falls in love ...
If you have ever used a Japanese love hotel, you might have interacted with staff in the reception area. Usually they are hidden behind a screen and you get a glimpse of a hand and nothing much else.
But what is the staff area like? Where are the employees in the meantime? Perhaps hanging out in the operations/control room, which may well look something like this.
The photo was shared on Twitter user Onitsuchi last week and went viral (as in 8,000 retweets).
We say "control room" because the room evokes a Cold War-era control tower at a tiny airstrip somewhere, or perhaps the bunker of a ...
Too scared to go to love hotels with a partner right now in case you catch the dreaded virus?
Like a lot of people, we are holding back these days and not taking our usual trips to places. This might be the beach or the movie theater or museum, though our no-fly zone also currently includes nightclubs, bars, and love hotels. Life is dull indeed.
Fortunately, other people can go to these places for us and provide stunning photo shoots that offer a vicarious experience.
Such as Twitter user and photographer @room404nf, who posted a series of images from an incredible love hotel shoot. The ...
Have you ever seen (or stayed at) a love hotel like this?
Though the cyberpunk (is that the right descriptor?) style is like something out of a Neo Tokyo landscape or cut from the same cloth as the Robot Restaurant in Kabukicho, it is actually a room in an Okayama hotel with a retro fairground and amusement park theme.
As fans know, the most outrageous and unusual love hotels are to be found not in cities but deep in the countryside.
Saying that, if you are into BDSM and dungeons, there is this love hotel in Asabu, Minato ward, that has been running for four decades.
The ...
In the latest of our reports on how the coronavirus is affecting the adult industry in Japan, we highlight love hotels, the temporary accommodation that exist for couples to have sex.
Love hotels are enjoying a supposed boom due to the pandemic and semi-lockdown measures imposed by the government.
An article we saw recently claims that the "pandemic sees thriving demand at suburban love hotels."
The basis for the claim is largely a single Japanese-language media article, itself based on a single interview via Twitter with an employee at a love hotel in Kanagawa, the prefecture immediately ...
We spotted these photos on Twitter of a derelict former love hotel in the city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The hotel Nokyo (or Noukyou, のうきょう), whose name literally means "agricultural cooperative," had a brilliantly original farming theme.
When all its rooms were full, it would apparently display "Great Harvest" but "Crop Failure" when there were still rooms available. Of course, if you weren't planning on impregnating your partner during your visit, you might be put off by these names.
There were also vegetables in the refrigerators in each room.
Nokyo ...
Japanese love hotels, as we know, come in all shapes and sizes, with every manner of themed room imaginable seemingly available somewhere, though the most adventurous examples tend to be found out in the countryside rather than central Tokyo.
They also increasingly offer a wide range of amenities, especially bathing and food items, though also karaoke, video game consoles, WiFi, and tanning beds -- and even Dance Dance Revolution.
Twitter user Zoe recently spotted an interesting service available at a love hotel in Uguisudani, the east Tokyo neighborhood with a particularly high ...
