Japan Love Hotels come with mirrored ceilings, jacuzzi, and flavored rubbers
Adult only hotels, such as the Hawaiian themed Moana Hotel, are becoming popular all over Japan. They are called “Love Hotels” and are becoming more and popular with tourists visiting Tokyo, Osaka or the rest of Japan.
Other names are fashion hotels, couple hotels, and leisure hotels, these kitsch havens offer fun themed sleeping (or not sleeping) experiences for prices comparable to business hotels.
Who doesn’t love mirrored ceilings, jacuzzi tubs, and complimentary flavored rubbers? Enter the Tokyo love hotel, or rabuho. Though this idea might seem somewhat sleazy to people used to the idea of no-tell motels back in the States, love hotels are clean and used not only by trysting lovers but middle-aged couples looking to get away from the live-in in-laws (and vice versa).
While most Tokyo love hotels tend to be anonymous, often with little or even no human interaction (other than with your special friend) during the transaction, there have been reports of people being turned away for being not the “right” clientele. These stories of refusal include same-sex pairs, groups larger than two, and non-Japanese looking (or speaking) people.
Love hotels can be identified by their creative names and kitschy façades.
Hotel Casa Nova, XO Shinjuku, Casablanca Ikebukuro, Hotel Zebra, Ramses Club, Hotel Adore, Hotel Ring My Bell—need we go on? Often adorned with neon colors and generally gaudy decór, most love hotels have some degree of boudoir fancy that makes them easily identifiable. Indoors, you’ll find rooms decked out with themed decorations (or bland themeless rooms if it’s really budget), fancy bathrooms with showers for two, jet baths, etc., and a TV stocked with all kinds of, ahem, special channels. Unlike biz hotels, you don’t have to pay extra for the juicier programs. Oh, and there’s often wifi too.
There will also sometimes be room service, vending machines with various toys, karaoke machines, disco lights, costume rental for some spicy cosplay, and more. We’ve stayed in rooms decked out with: flowers, figurines, and tinkly lullaby music playing overhead (creepy), a Chinese opium den themed room, a pole smack in the middle of the room, velvet paintings, the list goes on.
The bathrooms tend to also be even more well stocked with toiletries than your average hotel: shampoo, conditioner, lotions, creams, hair products, and of course, contraception. Two seems to be the standard for free condoms, so if you’re planning a marathon, you may want to come prepared. Some may not supply any at all, thanks to rebranding and legalities.
Love hotels can be found all over Japan, but the biggest areas in Tokyo for concentrations of hotels are Uguisudani near Ueno (±61 in the greater ward), the Dogenzaka “Love Hotel Hill” area of Shibuya (±34), Shinjuku’s Kabukicho (±72), and Ikebukuro’s East, North, and West Exits (±86) according to Happy Hotel. The site (in Japanese) has a fairly comprehensive listing of hotels, with addresses, ratings, pictures, and even some coupons for things like free drinks or a thousand yen off the room price. But for the more spontaneous, a good bet is to just stroll around one of the districts, look for a hotel whose features and fees fit your fancy, and saunter in.
Love hotels can be identified not only by their fetching fronts but by the signs advertising rest and stay prices. Once inside, you’re likely to encounter a big board with pictures of various rooms and their prices. Rooms that are lit up are available; if they’re dark, they are occupied and you won’t be able to select them. Choose a room, and either press the button on the board itself or on a nearby machine.
Occasionally, you will have to deal with a human to whom you’ll tell your choice, but the clerk will usually be behind a small window in a wall, with only hands visible. Eye contact is almost never made. Unless it’s an old lady at the desk—then brace yourself for awkward greetings and no less awkward thanks on the way out. But either way, your secrets are safe here.
Sometimes you’ll get a key, but often you’ll be directed to just go to the room, where the door will be unlocked. Once in, the door locks automatically.
Payment is usually at a machine: sometimes in the room, sometimes by pneumatic tube (yes, really), and sometimes through the tiny reception window with the floating human hands. Typically, payment is made up front, and they’ll charge you if you overstay.
Some hotels don’t allow re-entry once you leave your love hotel.
If you don’t want to leave your hotel or your room up to chance, Happy Hotel offers reviews by users (though again, you’ll need some Japanese, or Google Translate, to be able to read them).
Even love hotels have spotted the potential upside to their business that comes from catering to the needs of international tourists, so a number are now available to book directly through online hotels site agoda.com. A few we like are Hotel The Hotel (what a name!) and the Polynesian themed Hotel Moana in the love hotel hotbed of Kabukicho, Hotel Edoyado and Boston Club near Asakusa (both much cheaper than Shinjuku) and just because it’s Tokyo’s most famous love hotel, the Meguro Emperor—a gaudy 1970s era Cinderella castle and well-known landmark on the banks of the Meguro River.
Note that most of the prices on the booking sites (even with discounts) are at the top end of the price range for these places, so if you can overcome the uncertainty of not knowing whether you’ll have accommodation for the night, booking on the day is the recommended cheapo option.
source: eTN
