Japanese Sex Culture Behind Veil : A Review by a Japanese Girl on Love Hotel
Written: Jan 07 '01 (Updated Apr 06 '01)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: huge variations in rooms
Cons: They are not friendly to non-Japanese people.
The Bottom Line: Need some love? Okay. Let's make a love!
|
|
|
| uribou's Full Review: Love Hotels |
WARNING!: This review reveals a sexual sub-culture in Japan. Your discretion is advised.
I am very surprised that Epinions.com has the category of LOVE HOTEL here. As a Japanese, I had a lot of difficulties and embarrassments when I had to explain what Love Hotels are to my non-Japanese friends visiting Japan.
HOW TO FIND LOVE HOTELS
If you visit Japan, and see some castle-like (I mean it) gorgeous buildings with neon-signs or billboards, you are probably looking at a Love Hotel. To find a Love Hotel is not difficult at all. At almost every single train station, especially in suburbs, there are more than a few Love Hotels.
Note that "love hotel" is a generic word, and that the billboards usually don't say "love hotel". The western type motels are not very common in Japan. If you see some motel type accommodation, though it might not seem a castle, you are probably watching a love hotel.
WHAT IS A LOVE HOTEL?
Love Hotels are very goal-oriented hotels. Obviously the goal I am mentioning here is LOVE, or, okay, making love. So, the most important components of rooms in Love Hotels are 1) one huge bed, and 2) a huge bath tub. Of course, they must be big enough to accommodate 2 people. Other equipment is TV (with x-rated porn programs), fridge, condoms, "adult toy" vending machine, and so on. Please note that from around late 80s when Japan was in the great economic boom, Love Hotels have been trying to differentiate from each other, and many of them renovated the interior. And now, they have Karaoke machine, tanning machine, and sometimes even a swimming pool (!) inside the room.
As you might guess, most of the users are very privacy sensitive. They don't want to leave anything personal in checking in. So, when you go into a Love Hotel, you don't have to see a front clerk. Moreover, you don't have to leave your name. Just pick up a whatever available room with whatever equipment you like from a list, and pay the fee. They give you a room key through a small window which is covered by curtain. Of course, reservations are not necessary. Whenever you got an "urge", just going into a Love Hotel is fine.
PRICING SYSTEM
Let me explain their pricing system. They have a very tricky pricing system. If you want to stay at a love hotel, you have to be very careful so that you won't face an outrageous bill.
If you check in before 22:00, you usually pay for a couple of hours. The prices of the rooms varies a lot (from $35 to $180 for two hours) based on the hotel locations and the equipment. (Note that if you are in the west area of Japan, you will pay for one hour.) If you want to stay more than two hours, you have to buy a half hour or one hour for about $15. If you want to stay overnight, it's not a good idea to check-in before 10:00 pm. Because you will be charged by hour, you will end up with an outrageous charge.
After 22:00 (sometimes 20:00), you can buy the room for overnight. Again, the price varies a lot, but it's usually from $75 to $250. The checkout should be usually done by 10:00 in the following morning.
SOCIAL BACKGROUND
These days, Love Hotels are often called Boutique Hotel or City Hotel. Since the naming of Love Hotel is too direct, and has a dark and negative image, Love Hotels try to improve their image especially from the girls. Name change is their first step.
There are some serious cons with Love Hotels. As I mentioned above, Love Hotels don't have any monitoring features, and they are very money oriented, which results in a lot of prostitution inside Love Hotels, unfortunately. To make the things worse, there are so many foreign prostitutes in Japan, Love Hotels are not very friendly to foreign people. Foreign visitors are rejected at most of Love Hotels (except the area close to US military base).
Well, I have to admit the percentage of foreign prostitutes are decently small, but it's very obvious when a Japanese guy are coming into Love Hotels with a foreign-looking girl. Even if both of you are non-Japanese, and are able to manage Japanese quite well, they are just afraid of "potential" problems.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
At any rate, Love Hotel is a very "Japanese" thing. It's almost the culture which is not often introduced. Actually, it is a dark side of Japanese sub-culture. Nevertheless, if you want to get really familiar with Japanese culture, Love Hotels are worth giving a shot.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
uribou
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Reviews written: 129
Trusted by: 136 members
About Me:
Sushi party with Japanese girls?
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.