The young Japanese female fans of vintage love hotels
Old love hotels in Japan have long enjoyed a special brand of fandom, either for their garish visuals or their increasingly haikyo-style “abandoned” status.
But a new sort of love hotel otaku is emerging. And they are young women who visit the establishments by themselves.
We previously mentioned the 20-year-old student whose YouTube channel was obsessed with introducing love hotels (along with net cafes and other such places). A few weeks ago, she showcased the cheapest love hotel in Tokyo.
An even more prolific profiler of love hotels is Yunana, who shares her fascinating trips to postwar Showa-era love hotels with photos and thoughts in regular tweets on her Showa Love Hotel Travels account (ゆなな@昭和ラブホ巡り). (She also often tweets about visits to kissaten coffee shops.)
Though she is careful to avoid showing her face, she is always dressed nicely (in what seems like maid cosplay) and integrates herself into the fieldwork-style content.
She recently visited hotels and rooms themed around Alice in Wonderland and the sci-fi anime/manga Galaxy Express 999.
She goes to great lengths to find unique and striking hotel room designs — from shell and chariot beds to tiny baths, retro wallpaper, and bizarre how-to-use guidance literature — as these examples below show.