Do they really have bondage/chains incorporated on the walls or something? ^__^

Since I like to read reviews before viewing older anime, I ran across this
article from the Anime News Network about Ichi The Killer, Episode 00:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/ichi-the-killer-episode-0/dvd

Apparently this was a prequel to the live action movie. I wasn’t interested in
watching it as I am not particularly interested in a story about the making of
a killer. However, it seems there is a scene which makes reference to a Love
Hotel…I don’t know if they actually show the characters at the hotel.

In Aa! Megami-sama TV, episode 7 there is a scene where Toshiyuki Aoshima
takes Belldandy to a Love Hotel and tries to take advantage of her. Needless
to say, it’s not a good idea to try this with a goddess. In the anime, there is
nothing which actually identifies the hotel as a Love Hotel…in the manga,
chapter 20 (I believe), the same scene makes direct reference to a Love
Hotel.

Two other anime series which did not mention Love Hotels, but the manga did:
Karin (aka Chibi Vampire…for some strange reason) had Kenta’s mother
working at a Love Hotel.
Midori no Hibi had a scene in a Love Hotel room complete with a spinning
disco ball and vibrating/bouncing bed.

[...] kids and relatives in those can take advantage of some of the love hotels described in this post on the Anime Blog.  Rooms have themes such as “Outer Space,” “Bumper Cars,” or “Anne of Green [...]

“…so people have sex at stairwells and outdoor parks.”

Oddly enough, up through the occupation period (Post-WWII), it seems that many if not most Japanese used (not the stairwells) the great outdoors. The following quote came from a document I found from the University of Michigan Law School archives…I’ll provide the link to it later in this comment:

“So if machiai and noodle shops were mostly used by pros, where did the other “amateur” (non-monetary) couples go? The available evidence points to one primary location: outside. As Shoichi Inoue explains in his thorough history of Japanese ‘love space,’ ‘At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, many couples made love outside. In fact, the general movement of male/female interaction form outdoors to indoors is said to be an extremely recent development.’ Even as late as 1973, novelist Aiko Goto, in an interview regarding a recent increase in the number of love hotels, responded:

‘Sex was originally something to be done while bathed in sunlight in the middle of a field. The need to seek simulation behind closed doors shows how weak people have become. Young people don’t need stimulation like that; young people should be doing it in the park. It’s much more pleasant.’

And do it in the park young people apparently did. A 1916 news report notes that park benches and fields were full of amateurs in the evenings, including ‘doctors and nurses, office workers and female assistants, manual laborers, cooks, and their girlfriends, reporters and their contacts, bank workers and female apprentices’ The practice continued well into the U.S.Occupation, when ‘as the sun set, lovers gathered in places like the Imperial Palace grounds and Inokashira Park, and the next morning the grass was full of paper scraps and condoms.”

So perhaps the Japanese once had similar views as those currently held in Singapore.

@ Rachel

Actually I had abbreviated my first post quite a bit due to the sudden arrival of a special project at work which had to edited ASAP. Therefore, I kept the post limited to the rough equivalent of a US Love Hotel and some humor (sort of) with respect to the roadside motel.

Being from the US, I was totally unaware of the Love Hotel. My wife, who is Japanese, told me about them a couple of years after we got married. However, she was raised at a time when Love Hotels were viewed quite dimly by most of the general populace. The themed architecture and rooms were the exception rather than the rule…the Meguro Emporer hotel had not yet been built. So what she told me was rather negative and reminded me about the sleazy hotels and roadside motels portrayed in various movies and novels. Imagine my surprise when I start seeing stories on CNN and other sources about the Love Hotels in Japan with their themed rooms. I pointed this out to my wife who was amused, but I’m afraid she still has negative views about them…I guess we won’t be staying at one in the near future the next time we visit Japan.

Anyway, I got curious and did a little research. It seems that the development of the Love Hotel was rather haphazard. By the 1970s, there were elite hotels like the Meguro Emporer as well as small mom and pop operations. They were also spread out. They did not necessarily stay in the red light districts and they could even be next to schools and retirement
homes. In 1978, a supermarket owner tried to build a Love Hotel close to a junior high school and the subsequent legal battle eventually lead to the 1985 Revisions to the Entertainment Law. This was meant to help regulate Love Hotels…interestingly enough, it provided the catalyst for the growth and development of what we now know as the Love Hotel.

I found this 2002 document from the University of Michigan Law School archives. It goes into more detail about what I just mentioned. I gave tjhan an excerpt…which you can read above. I found the document interesting and there really is not much “legal-ese” at all…mostly in the form of footnotes:

http://www.law.umich.edu/CentersAndPrograms/olin/abstracts/discussionpapers/2002/West 2002-018.pdf

Love hotels are pretty entertaining though. I like how they’re all designed to look like castles or famous world landmarks. Leading to the joke in Abenobashi where they see an actual castle and the girl is like, “L…LOVE HOTEL?!”