If you are wandering the streets of any city in Japan, on a cold, dark night, desperately searching for accommodation, and you happen across a very brightly lit, very ornate hotel with an odd name and bizarre decor, best to give it a miss and keep looking. 
You have probably found (accidently, because I am sure you wouldn't be looking for one on purpose; would you?) one of Japan's most bizarre and unique cultural creations - the love hotel.
A 'Christmas Chapel' love hotel in Nihonbashi, Osaka. The Christmas facade only stays up for the holiday season.
What is a love hotel? Well, Japan being very crowded, there are limited opportunities and places for young couples to 'make out'. Secluded places to park your car, or 'lover's lanes', are few and far between. Any place you can park a car will probably already have ten cars in it, and will not be private. And taking someone home is an unlikely option, as most young folks live with their parents until marriage, and the house is likely to include grandparents too. So finding a time when the house is empty would be the same as celibacy, I would think.
Close-up of Santa on the facade of Christmas Chapel love hotel, Osaka.
Hence the love hotel. A secluded place where you can rent a room for an hour or two, or all night if you really want. Sure, I know that in other countries you can do this, too. You can take a room in a rural or outer suburban motel, the anonymity of at least one party protected to some extent by your car, but these motels are not purpose built. Love hotels are. Japan doesn't suffer from the same need to adhere to a religiously imposed morality that other nationalities might. So although the privacy of guests at these establishments is well protected by discretely placed hedges, screens, etc., and the ability to pay by machine, rather than confront a receptionist in person, the hotels themselves are hardly hidden.
In fact, it is their bizarre decor, ridiculous names, and bright, bright self-advertising facades that make them so interesting to foreigners. I have only included two here, a Christmas Chapel (is nothing sacred!) in Osaka, and a Mexican village in the countryside of Saga, complete with plastic palm trees, and plastic coconuts. 
Mexican theme love hotel in the countryside of Saga prefecture. Each room is a secluded (by way of the hedge!) hacienda, complete with sub-tropical palm trees, to survive the Saga winter, no doubt.
The Christmas theme hotel actually only retains that facade for the season, removing it, and replacing it with another, equally unsuitable theme. If you are interested, do a net search, as there are many sites devoted to the strangeness of love hotels - including one that has pictures of a 'hello kitty' room in a Tokyo love hotel. Like I said, is nothing sacred!
(A small disclaimer here - I do not personally hold any views as to the morality of such projects; although I have to admit I do LOVE the architecture!).
Hi, I am wondering if anyone can suggest a love hotel in or near central Tokyo that has a room with a love chair, if not near Tokyo how far from central Tokyo is the Love Hotel. Thanks
Posted by: Lisa | July 30, 2007 at 08:14 PM