A love hotel sign in Ikebukuro Tokyo

A love hotel sign in Shinjuku, Tokyo

A love hotel (ラブホテル rabu hoteru) is an originally Japanese type of hotel offering privacy for a couple to have sex. Alternative names include romance hotel, fashion hotel, leisure hotel and boutique hotel. Love hotels are often used by young couples, since many young Japanese people live with their parents. They are also commonly used for prostitution. The areas around love hotels are often littered with posters advertising "delivery health" (an euphemism for call girls). Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1229x989, 173 KB) Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: Love hotel Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1229x989, 173 KB) Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: Love hotel Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Ikebukuro (池袋), a part of Toshima ward, is a large commercial and entertainment district of Tokyo, Japan. ... Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Kokyo Imperial Palace. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1540x1080, 212 KB) Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: Love hotel Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1540x1080, 212 KB) Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux File links The following pages link to this file: Love hotel Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. ... Categories: Wards of Tokyo | Japan geography stubs ... A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging, usually on a short-term basis and especially for tourists. ... The missionary position is the most commonly used position for sexual intercourse in humans The cowgirl sex position is a position frequently combined with kissing, caressing, and embracing of the paramour. ... A prostitute in Germany Prostitution is the sale of sexual services, such as oral sex or sexual intercourse, for money. ... Delivery Health,デリバリーヘルス, is a form of prostitution in Japan similar to Fashion Health, the difference being that the brothel has no premises and is essentially a Call Girl service. ...

Love hotels usually offer a room rate for a "rest", kyūkei (休憩, kyūkei^?) as well as a night stay. The period of a "rest" is usually three hours. Very cheap daytime (off-peak) rates are also common. In general, reservations are not possible, leaving the hotel will forfeit access to the room, and overnight stay rates only become available after 10pm.

Entrances are discreet and interaction with staff is minimized, with rooms often selected from a panel of buttons and the bill settled by pneumatic tube, automatic cash machines, or a pair of hands behind a pane of frosted glass. While cheaper love hotels are utilitarian, higher-end hotels may feature fanciful rooms decorated with cartoon characters, equipped with vibrating beds, or decked out like dungeons complete with S&M gear. Flogging demonstration at Folsom Street Fair 2004. ...

Love hotels are typically either concentrated in certain city districts like Dōgenzaka (道玄坂, Dōgenzaka^?) in Shibuya, Tokyo, near highways on the city outskirts, or in industrial districts. Very few Japanese people wish to have a love hotel in their neighbourhood, and often oppose construction in residential areas. Categories: Wards of Tokyo | Japan geography stubs ... Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Kokyo Imperial Palace. ...

Love hotel architecture is sometimes garish, with buildings shaped like castles, boats or UFOs and lit up with lurid pink and purple neon lighting. However, many love hotels are very ordinary looking buildings, distinguished mainly by having small or covered windows.

History

In Japan, love hotels developed from tea rooms chaya (茶屋, chaya^?), mostly used by prostitutes and their clients, but also by lovers. After World War II, the name tsurekomi yado (連れ込み宿, tsurekomi yado^?), literally "bring-along inn" was adopted, originally for simple lodgings run by families with a few rooms to spare. These establishments appeared first around Ueno, Tokyo (partly due to demand from Occupation forces) and boomed after 1958 when prostitution was abolished and the trade moved underground. The introduction of the automobile in the 1960s brought with it the motel and further spread the concept. World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrination, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atomic bomb. ... Shinobazu Pond and Bentendo Hall in early spring Tokyo National Museum Pagoda of Kaneiji, now in Ueno Zoo Rodins Gates of Hell in front of the National Museum of Western Art Ueno (上野) is a district in Tokyos Taitō Ward, best known as the home of Ueno Station... Long a symbol of Tokyo, the Nijubashi Bridge at the Kokyo Imperial Palace. ... 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The 1960s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... The word motel originates from the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, first built in 1925 by Arthur Heinman. ...

The name "love hotel" may originate from an establishment in Osaka called Hotel Love, which had a revolving advertisement on the roof. The sign was thus easy to misread as "love hotel", which was adopted for the entire concept. In Japan, however, the original term has fallen into disuse thanks to the euphemism treadmill and an ever-changing palette of terms is used by hotel operators keen on representing themselves as more fashionable than the competition. Osaka Castle Location in Japan Osaka Aquarium (Kaiyukan) Osaka railway station View from Osaka Castle. ... A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces. ...

Other countries

In South Korea, many modern yeogwan (여관), also locally known as "motels", are effectively identical to Japanese love hotels.

In other countries such as Brazil or the Philippines, cheap hotels intended primary for sex are known as short-time hotels or motels (even if they are actually meant mostly for pedestrian access). In Singapore, cheap hotels often offer a slightly more euphemistic "transit" stay for short-time visitors. In Manila, a campaign against the hotels, believed by religious conservatives to contribute to social decay in the predominantly Roman Catholic country, ended with the city banning hotels from offering stays of very short duration. The word motel originates from the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo, first built in 1925 by Arthur Heinman. ... Manilas President Manuel Roxas Boulevard also known as the Baywalk Manila is the capital of the Philippines. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...

See also: List of types of lodging This is a selected list of types of lodging. ...

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Love hotel