Directed by Ryuichi Hiroki, Kabukicho Love Hotel (Sayonara Kabukicho) came in 2014, promising to be a dark romance.
Okay, let's get something straight.
As you might expect, star Atsuko Maeda may have left her AKB48 days behind her but unsurprisingly she does NOT strip off in this movie. (Apparently after Maeda was cast the script was radically changed.)
Instead we have to make do with modest nude scenes and sex scenes starring members of the supporting cast.
As the title suggests, the film is set in a love hotel in Tokyo's sex capital, Kabukicho.
Actually, the main (and best) sex scene ...
Is this the most amazing love hotel ever?
All right, that's a pretty bold claim. After all, there are some pretty incredible love hotels out there, from dungeons to swimming pools, and almost every kind of theme or style you could imagine in between.
But the Keibajo US in Niigata has got us excited.
Shared by @rutile_TiO on Twitter, here are some pictures from the hotel's fantastic rooms and suites.
There's a wooden classroom, a samurai sword-themed tacky "Oriental" room, a factory room, a hospital ward room (complete with two hospital beds), and ...
A story is going viral about a British couple from Brighton who claim they "accidentally" booked a room at a love hotel. And that they liked it so much they stayed a week.
After travelling for 27 hours and arriving in a new country for the first time, Hamnams and her boyfriend were probably just relieved to arrive at their hotel in one piece.
Having booked online through a reputable agent with no qualms, the pair checked in at the front desk and headed up to their room.
"This was kindly laid out at the head of our bed. As confident as we were that ...
It is said that half of all sex in Japan happens in a love hotel. 1% of the population uses a love hotel on any single day; something like 1,370,000 couples. A large proportion of the nation's new babies are conceived in a love hotel. There are 500 million visits a year. Room occupancy is 600-700% in some busy establishments -- 78.8 stays per room per month!
The love hotel industry has an annual turnover of ¥4 trillion yen, which is around four times the operating profits of Toyota and double the anime industry. And yet it's cars and anime that the government wants to push as the face ...
Google is essential for ours lives -- searching for information, browsing images, checking a location on a map.
It can even help you pick the right love hotel.
Love hotels have their own websites and there are also plenty of portal sites with information on the various amenities and features at each facility.
Needless to say there are images.
But none as detailed as these provided by Google Street View, which lets you tour a love hotel in the heart of Shinjuku's Kabukicho.
The Designer’s Hotel & Spa Pasha Resort is more fancy than kinky, but sometimes that's what you ...
Ever been with that special someone and been desperate suddenly to find a love hotel and complete the experience... before the moment passes?
Or you know how the date is going and need to surreptitiously check out your options for a more intimate encounter somewhere in the area?
Well, Tonight for Two might be the iPhone or Android app for you.
The free Japanese app allows you to find and even reserve a room at a nearby love hotel in around ten seconds. Which should be enough time to keep a potential companion for the night interested...
Our tip would be to have it on your ...
We've just heard of this new documentary which takes a look at one of our favorite places, the love hotel.
While we don't like the preview's slightly cheap pandering to exoticism and stereotypes about Japan ("in a society where conformity is everything and public affection cannot be shown..." -- really?) that just aren't the whole truth, we shouldn't judge it solely by the trailer.
The visuals are interesting, at any rate, promising some nice kinky scenes of S&M inside a love hotel room, by the looks of things. Check out the nurse asking her "patient" if his cock has a ...
On March 18th, pop singer Hikaru Utada has activated her Twitter account for the first time in 1.5 months. And one of her surprisingly rare tweets involved her confessing that "I have never been to a love hotel."
Utada of course has been famous since a young age, making her debut at 15. Even wandering the street is impossible, let alone a secret tryst at a love hotel. She would have been carefully managed by her agency and label, plus she was married to filmmaker Kazuaki Kiriya from 2002 to 2007.
Since then she has maintained a lower profile, living partly in London, where she met ...
It seems the foreign media has just discovered what a love hotel is.
Only the other day we blogged about an article that held the love hotel industry up as a shining light in Japan's economic doldrums.
Now AFP have followed up with this recent video report to accompany the same article in which an intrepid camera crew interview a hotel manager about the love hotel system.
Pressing buttons, pay, get the key and then go up... "Discretion is guaranteed."
There is a nice touch where the camera lingers over a catalog advertising some sexy costumes.
It also features footage ...
While much of the economy is struggling to find any positive effects from PM Abe's fiscal policies, and consumers are dreading April and the impending raising of consumption tax, there is at least one industry that seems unaffected by the financial doldrums.
Love hotels are doing big business.
As we know, sex always sells. It doesn't matter what the crisis is, people will always pay for sex -- whether that is with their partner, material for their own private fun, or to hire the services of a professional.
An AFP article has picked up on the love hotel phenomenon as a sign that ...
