Love Hotels & The Love Hotel Diaries

By Ed Jacob

In the land of a thousand neighbors, where mom, dad and their mom and dad and their two children have historically resided under one roof - there has always been the problem of finding a little personal space. And even if you don't live with a lot of other people, sometimes the paper-thin walls of most apaatos keep you intimately involved in the goings on of the next-door Nakamotos. You know she likes it rough, that her Mom is coming to visit and their teenage son is somehow implicated in an incident at school that involves a knife, a reel of duct tape and several feet of rope. Behind closed doors, Japan is a little more exciting than its international image.

So if you live in a gaijin apaato with one-inch plywood walls and your screamer girlfriend or man with a moan is tired of biting the pillow, you can make all the noise you want at your nearest no-tell hotel. Or perhaps you simply want to do it in a converted Cadillac, pretend you are on an alien space ship or are curious to see what Hello Kitty Bondage is all about. One thing is for sure. Whatever your fantasy, whatever your desire, they have a room for it.

However, the love hotel is changing - and the news is both good and bad. The good news is they've gone upscale, lost some of their sleazy associations and the decors are somewhat more modern. They've even changed their name. Japanese people never say "rabu hoteru" anymore, and although the abbreviation "rabuho" is still used, the hotels always refer to themselves as "fashion hotels" (in Kansai) and "couples hotels" or "boutique hotels" (in Kanto). Most young people aren't embarrassed about going to them anymore, either. What that means for you, the amorous gaijin, is that it's easier to convince your significant other to visit one of those kinky rooms with round beds and mirrors on the ceiling. In fact, they may even invite you.

The bad news is that as love hotels go stylish, many are getting rid of the exciting theme rooms. They do exist, but its getting harder and harder to find places with bumper cars and bondage slings. In large part, this is due to the introduction of Japan's "New Public Morals Act", which is intended to regulate love hotels and other sex-related businesses. Hotels that have "facilities not required for the basic purposes of guest lodging" (read: that ingenious whip and wash jungle gym) are now categorized as "sex-related businesses" and can only operate in specially designated red light districts such as Shinjuku's Kabuki-cho or the Susukino area of Sapporo.

The act came about largely because the Japanese government was embarrassed by the amount of foreign media coverage of Japan's sex trade, the volume of child pornography and a general Bar-code-hairdo mentality. So they cracked the whip, so to speak. Unfortunately, they didn't realize the media coverage was often envious. Foreigners like love hotels. They're better than sushi, the Sony Walkman and hi-tech toilets. Why don't they have them back home?

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The Love Hotel Diaries

Love Hotel Diaries are little books left in each room for the customers to write messages to each other. There are jottings by teenagers sharing their first sexual experiences, salarymen and OLs having afternoon trysts, and older married couples in their 40s getting away from the kids for a romantic night. Leafing through the pages, you will find some of the most interesting reading material you've ever come across. These messages come from a popular Osaka Hotel.

Written by: A 19-year-old female who had been dating her partner for about 1 year.

Recently not one single good thing has happened to me. The sex is lousy too. I don't even masturbate. Ahhhhh, I hate being a 19-year-old in this kind of shape. I want to meet someone I can be happy with. All my friends have boyfriends. I've got to find someone!

Written by: A female who met her boyfriend through "konpa" (a matchmaking party).

S-chan, we've been going out for one year now. I hope we'll spend many happy years together in the future. I love you.

Written by: A woman staying in the hotel alone after a fight with her boyfriend.

Of all the hotels I've been to, I've never found one I liked so well as this. It's easy to check in, even for a woman alone. Of course the rooms are clean too. It's not so cheap, but the rooms are nice so it's worth it. I owe a lot to this hotel. I've come here with my boyfriend about 20 times and when we have a fight, I come here alone to get out of our house. I come here a lot. And I'll probably come here again too.

Written by: A female visiting the hotel alone.

He was arrested by the police right in front of my eyes. Do you know how hard being arrested was on him? Do you know how terrible that must have made him feel? And do you know how hard it is on me to be alone? And how much harder it must be on him? Can you imagine how much more terrible his suffering must be, even than mine? No matter how hard you try to imagine it, you can never understand unless you go through it yourself.

But now I'm trying all the time to imagine just a little bit of what he must be feeling. He's going to be away for at least five years. That's a long time. Everyone is telling me not to wait for him. Five years certainly is a long time all right. Maybe I won't be able to wait, but what other choice do I have?

Written by: A lesbian office worker involved in several "open relationships" with other women.

Today one of my bosses asked me to sleep with him. What in the world am I going to do? But he's married. I told him I liked him as a joke but he took me seriously! What am I going to do???

Written by: A 22-year-old Japanese university student studying in Peking, who came with a 33-year-old man who was cheating on his wife. Their whole date was spent in the love hotel.

You can be happy even if your partner is someone else's husband.

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