With individual rooms and connected parking spaces, the love hotel below has a fairly common design for small, relatively out of the way places.
Built in the late 60s or early 70s, the rooms were presumably quite modern at the time, but unsurprisingly they now look incredibly dated to say the least. That said, they can’t have looked that much better in the early 90s when the hotel was somehow still operational. Needless to say it’s impossible to know how many customers they actually had back then, but it’s probably safe to assume it wasn’t many — hence the eventual closure of the business in November 1992.
The one slightly odd thing is that lone guests and families were welcome, which is clearly unusual for a love hotel. Not that it makes any difference now of course. Little does after almost 30 years of very visible decay. Dilapidation that admittedly did make reaching the rooms quite difficult, but ultimately it was worth the effort. It always is. The chance to see and quietly take in the slow, unrelenting passage of time never fails to feel special. In fact, so much time has now passed that it’s probably fair to assume that the passion once felt in these rooms has long since fizzled out, and yet love, against all the odds, still lives on.
carl says
Beautiful. I[m amazed that there still seems to be the feeling that someone was living there until the end and then just stepped out and walked away leaving a few possessions behind.
Lee says
Thank you. Yeah, get that feeling quite a lot, which only adds to the interest and atmosphere of such places.
ellen says
That bed………… 😮
Lee says
Yes, definitely in need of a good clean!
Coli says
Very different from the other ones you’ve documented. In fact without looking closer at the rates posted front, I would’ve never guessed it was an old hō. Interesting find:)
Lee says
Yeah, it’s quite low-key, and in many ways just ordinary, which in some ways made it more intersting. Know what you mean too. Not obvious at all, although perhaps that was the idea!
Stephan says
This is a very cool find, I like it. Those old TVs are really something and the story has a happy ending! 😉
Lee says
Cheers. Yeah, can’t beat old televisions in places like this. Always interesting to see. And, yes, one last happy ending!
Richard says
Where in Japan is this place?
Lee says
It was a couple of hours north of Tokyo. A first trip outside the city for a long time, but could be a similarly long while before I make another one…
Richard says
One needs to be cautious about travel right now!
cdilla says
A great find and collection of photographs. I had thought it was over Hakone way but it seems not.
There is so much to look at, but for now it’s the pillow case design. Looks almost like a board game.
Lee says
Cheers. Certainly wouldn’t be out of place in Hakone, but nah, this was north of Tokyo.
Good call. I hadn’t noticed that. Let’s hope the guests had more distractions than the pillow case designs!