In the latest of our reports on how the coronavirus is affecting the adult industry in Japan, we highlight love hotels, the temporary accommodation that exist for couples to have sex.
Love hotels are enjoying a supposed boom due to the pandemic and semi-lockdown measures imposed by the government.
An article we saw recently claims that the "pandemic sees thriving demand at suburban love hotels."
The basis for the claim is largely a single Japanese-language media article, itself based on a single interview via Twitter with an employee at a love hotel in Kanagawa, the prefecture immediately ...
We spotted these photos on Twitter of a derelict former love hotel in the city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The hotel Nokyo (or Noukyou, のうきょう), whose name literally means "agricultural cooperative," had a brilliantly original farming theme.
When all its rooms were full, it would apparently display "Great Harvest" but "Crop Failure" when there were still rooms available. Of course, if you weren't planning on impregnating your partner during your visit, you might be put off by these names.
There were also vegetables in the refrigerators in each room.
Nokyo ...
Japanese love hotels, as we know, come in all shapes and sizes, with every manner of themed room imaginable seemingly available somewhere, though the most adventurous examples tend to be found out in the countryside rather than central Tokyo.
They also increasingly offer a wide range of amenities, especially bathing and food items, though also karaoke, video game consoles, WiFi, and tanning beds -- and even Dance Dance Revolution.
Twitter user Zoe recently spotted an interesting service available at a love hotel in Uguisudani, the east Tokyo neighborhood with a particularly high ...
There was quite a lot of stir about the Japanese teen drama River's Edge when it came out in local movie theaters early 2018 because it featured the first nude sex scenes with popular actress Fumi Nikaido.
The nudity showed off Fumi's butt and breasts in a bed scene.
We already showcased the merits of that nudity. There is actually another sex scene -- outside this time -- and you get to see Fumi's breasts again.
However, the really good sex scenes are courtesy of lesser-known actress Shiori Doi, who plays the friend with whom Fumi's character's lover is cheating in -- mainly because she ...
As we know, love hotels come in all shapes and sizes. We've previously noted steampunk hotels, retro-themed vintage ones, and hospital ward themed rooms.
It's not just the exteriors, which are always a bit garish (albeit not always as crazy and extravagant as reputation suggests); it's the interior facilities and amenities that also make this genre stand out from regular modes of accommodation.
Increasingly offering a variety of services to keep punters coming, from WiFi to food, bathing options, massage chairs, tanning beds, and more. (So much so, in fact, that women can even have a ...
Share by @virtualjaaames on Twitter earlier this week, these pictures of an abandoned love hotel in Nagano Prefecture in central Japan remind us of the fate of so much of the Japanese countryside. And that love doesn't last forever...
Haikyo "ruins" hunters often seek out abandoned homes and theme parks, though love hotels, regular hotels, and hot spring inns are another popular choice.
There is something chilling yet oddly logical about these post-apocalyptic scenes, filled with rust and emptiness. Or is it sadness we feel at seeing the discarded vibrator lying on the ground?
Hotel ...
We all like to stay in fancy hotels sometimes (if not all the time).
But there's also something fun and kinky about an overnight stay at a love hotel. It's like the kitsch is telling you to really make the most of your time there with a partner (or two).
We recently spotted a write-up about the Ichiraku Ryokan, an inn in Hiroshima that was a former red-light district inn and then a love hotel. It was built in 1950. The old red-light districts were still allowed for a time in the early postwar period until laws were changed to ban prostitution (at least in its overt form).
The current ...
We recently stumbled across this video of a black man who freestyle raps his way around the love hotel district of Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo. In the background we see couples scurrying into the entrances for an intimate session.
As the foreigner wanders the streets of Kabukicho's love hotels, he apparently bumps into a random Japanese lady. He serenades and picks up the woman, and then together they enter a love hotel for some good interracial times together.
In the next video, things get a bit more heated. Our gaijin adventurer continues his rapping while his female ...
We're late to blog this but we've just come across this Abema TV report from the end of December about love hotels and Christmas.
Christmas in Japan is not a family event: it's an event celebrated by couples on Christmas Eve, which usually means a romantic meal somewhere, followed by sex either at home or at a love hotel.
But is this still the case?
Abema TV went a-wandering on Christmas Eve in Shibuya -- home to Tokyo's famous "love hotel hill" -- and found that many hotels were not as full as you might expect. One hotel, they found, was two thirds empty. They spoke to some ...
Girls just wanna have fun -- and have fun alone if needs be.
It's well known that love hotels are sometimes used in lieu of regular accommodation when other hotels are booked up or because the cost is basically the same. There has been a recent spike, for example, among foreign tourists using them (sometimes by accident) as well as businessmen.
Does that mean a woman could stay overnight at a love hotel alone? In theory, yes. But would they want to?
One Japanese woman recently set out to investigate the merits of such a scenario.
She was much more prepared than most: she ...
