Love Hotel = Entertainment Hotel?!

 I watched the film called The Japanese Version (Alvarez and Kolker, 1991) in a visual anthropology of Japan class. It included the scenes in a love hotel. When I watched it, I was very shocked, because the love hotel was very old-fashioned. Therefore, I decided to report the current love hotel to people who are not familiar with it.

 Love hotel is where couples go to to have private time. It is everywhere in Japan. Customers can do many things there, such as karaoke, costume play and so on. Please look at this site, A Brief Guide to Love Hotel, for further information about it.

 I went to one love hotel called Chapel Coconuts to observe. It is located Hirakata-shi, close to Keihan Miyanosaka station.



Chapel Coconuts



Entrance

  As you can see in the picture, Chapel Coconuts is a tropical themed love hotel. There were many plastic tropical birds and fake tropical flowers. Customers pick their favorite room by touching a board in a entrance. There were few rooms left when I went there. It seemed like Chapel Coconuts is very popular love hotel around Hirakata city.



Room I picked

 The room I picked was medium size. One hotel room is composed of bed room and bath room.



 Unique thing about this hotel is that customers can get welcome parfait for free. There are many kinds of parfait, including a parfait which has natto (fermented soybeans) or tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlet).

Free parfait menu

 I was also surprised at how many different kinds of things hotel offers to customers. Customers can choose their favorite shampoo and they can borrow it for 300 yen. If they are interested in costume play, they can borrow it too. Interesting thing was that there were only costumes for women. 

Above: costume list , Bottom: Shampoo and body soap list

  According to the film, The Japanese Version, Love Hotel owner said love hotel is popular in Japan, because Japanese people usually live in a small apartment and do not have much privacy. I also think that many young Japanese people live with their parents until they graduate universities or get married, therefore, they go to love hotel to spend private time with their lovers. Not only love hotel is a place where people are able to have private time, but also they can have fun by doing many kinds of activities.

 Even though, Japanese love hotel has been changed, it seems like one point about it has never changed. It is the idea of "お客様は家庭にないものを求めてる。"(Customers are seeking for something they cannot find at home). That is what the love hotel owner said in the film I mentioned above. I think that is why there are many varieties of love hotel in Japan to provide customers fantastic time.