The Anime Blog

Honeymoons are the one time in a married couples’ life where it’s expected that they go kuh-ray-zee with each other. Many honeymooners book nights at expensive hotel suites and spend their hours basking in their new love. After that, well whoop de doo? No more adventurous romping, no more expensive suites designed to inflame passions, no more time committed to getting reacquainted with each others’ charms except perhaps once a year on Valentine’s Day. Boorrrrinnng. The daily grind of work, kids, family, chores, etc. can wear a couple down and leave no room for luv’n. I call this “Marriage Cut Off Syndrome”.

The Japanese are no different and are in fact worse off with MCOS than couples here in America. Most Japanese families live together as a group (Granny, Gramps, Auntie Yuki, Uncle Wantabe, Cousin Ayaka; you get the picture). Japanese offspring usually live with their parents until they’re married off, adding additional bodies to the equation. Think of all these people squeezed together in a tiny house or apartment with only paper-thin walls or actual paper providing the privacy and one can realize that there really isn’t much privacy at all.

The Japanese seem to have a cure for this or at least a cure for not getting caught while getting nooky; Love Hotels. These hotels have designed every room like a honeymoon suite. Each one is usually outfitted with a bed, big screen TV, karaoke machine, video game console, and fridge. Aside from these standards, most love hotels offer themed rooms for her/ his pleasure. These themed rooms are the ones that really attract the customers.

Every major city has a district where the bulk of the love hotels are located. Most of these love hotels are situated there since they fall under the category of “sex trade” due to the themed rooms. Anything that isn’t considered wholesome fun by the “New Public Morals Act” (why isn’t a Hello Kitty S&M room considered wholesome fun people?) gets filed under sex trade and most operate inside a city’s red light district. The things which are the main draw to kinky or curious couples are also considered the dirtiest by the government and hence bulked together under this label.

Back to themed rooms since this, to me, is absolutely fascinating. Many rooms have a main theme that help folks live out specific fantasies or to add a little more wasabi to things. For example:

• Outer space
• Under the sea
• Bumper Cars (Sounds like fun)
• Gone With the Wind
• Naughty nurse/ Dirty doctor
• Prison love
• Anne of Green Gables
• French Provence
• Pirates
• The 70’s (why??)
• Popular cartoon characters (Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty to name a few)
• Traditional Japanese rooms (for those who want that “realistic” Japanese flavor they can’t recreate at home…)


and many, many, many others.

S&M room are by far the hotels’ most popular attractions. Hotels have incorporated bondage gear into most theme rooms or have straight up bondage rooms specifically used by naughty boys and girls to hone their lashing abilities.

Love hotels also have splashy, colorful exteriors to match their wacky interiors. Hotel Loire in Osaka has gaudy colors and ribbons painted on its facades proclaiming to one and all its function as love hotel. Other hotels are just as loud but some are demur in appearance and offer less titillating fare to their customers.

For every taste, kinky or common, there’s a love hotel suited to it. The one thing all couples who patronize these dens of desire hunger for is privacy and anonymity. This is provided for by the underground parking garages and lack of face to face staff when checking into a room. Customers can slip unseen into a love hotel and reserve a room all by using automated systems. One system that’s popular is the one by which lovers are offered a screen lighting up available rooms. Once a room is chosen, the selected room goes dark and lights in the hallway guide the way to the room.

There are three ways to spend some time in a love hotel:

1.)“Rest”- meaning about an hour or three and the price is any where from 2500 to 45000 yen hourly
2.)“Service Time” or “Free Time”- These are the times during the day when the rates are the cheapest.
3.)“Overnight Stay”- you guessed it; it’s all night but check in is at 9:00 or 10:00 and check out is 10:00 the following morning.

“You get what you pay for” is definitely in play when going to a love hotel. If you want a quality atmosphere for quality luv’n you’re gonna need to spend some quality cash. Love hotel prices run the gamut from 50,000 yen per night to 115,000 yen per night. Depending on what you’re using the room for, 50,000 a night is pretty cheap, especially if you’re using it as a place to crash if you’re touring Japan.

Love hotels tend to lend a blind eye to their customers’ intent. Love hotels can be a good resource to those who plan on touring Japan on a budget. Each hotel has different policies so don’t count on every love hotel being as friendly to tired foreigners as a previous one.

Love Hotels have become increasing popular in Japan over the years and many young couples find their way to one at least once in their lives. I still haven’t seen love hotels used in anime, but given time and their rising popularity it’s inevitable that they’ll make an appearance. Who knows, with meido cafés on the rise and moe becoming a staple in anime series, is a meido or moe themed love hotels too far behind?