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| Love Hotels: The Hidden Fantasy Rooms of Japan | 
| List Price: $40.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 9 reviews)
Sales Rank: 51724
Category: Book
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Studio: Chronicle Books
Manufacturer: Chronicle Books
Label: Chronicle Books
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 156
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.1
Dimensions (in): 11.2 x 11 x 1.2
ISBN: 0811856410
Dewey Decimal Number: 779.092
EAN: 9780811856416
ASIN: 0811856410
Publication Date: November 30, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Sex creates odd cultural conventions everywhere, but nowhere has an institution quite like the Japanese love hotel. To be rented by the hour for amorous liaisons, the theme rooms revealed in this provocative collection of photographs are steeped in fantasy, their elaborate decor ranging from simulated subway cars to religious bondage with much kink in between. These brash rooms are fascinating in themselves, but also present a window into a very classified aspect of this society. The foreword by best-selling author Natsuo Kirino and passages from hotel guest books lend humor and context to these 80 haunting room portraits, creating an astonishing document of sex and romance, public and private space in Japan.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Just the tip of the iceberg October 23, 2008
The photographs in this book are wonderful and provocative. However, it should be made clear to readers that the rooms in the book are not rooms most Japanese people will ever see.
 Wrong about Love Hotels September 5, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I am of two minds on this book. On one hand, it is full of great fantasy-land photos representing a slice of Japan that I love; the bizarre, the outrageous, the unashamed blending of cute/sexy/violent and anything else that can be thrown into the mix. On the other hand, this book completely misrepresents what love hotels are, the purpose they serve in Japanese society, and pretty much every other aspect of this unique aspect of Japanese life. Anyone reading this book, then going to a love hotel in Japan, would be sorely disappointed.
I lived in Japan for many years, and during that time I went to many, many love hotels. The vast majority are nothing like these photographs, and the themed rooms are actually quite rare. If you notice, most of these photographs are from the same couple of establishments, Hotel Adonis, Hotel Loire and Hotel Snowman (not the actual name of the hotel, which is really Gang Snowman), because they are the few out of the thousands of hotels that offer these kinds of rooms. Most love hotels are...somewhat boring in decor. They are nice rooms, with lots of services such as free movies, karaoke and a big bathtub, which are usually cheaper to stay in than regular hotels. Yes, there are some outrageous love hotels, like the ones in this book, and those are the kind worth seeking out because they are so much fun, but they are hardly the norm.
The introduction to this book, by Natsuo Kirino, author of the book Out, is depressing and also misrepresentative of love hotels in Japan. She would have you believe that they are some sort of seedy place where men live out their dark fantasies while cheating on their wives and abusing women in general. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. Oh yes, there are those who use them as "cheating hotels", but all of my Japanese friends and co-workers, teachers and chefs, young and old, used love hotels without embarrassment. Why? Well, for one thing because Japanese houses are small, with thin walls and families often sleeping in the same room together. Privacy is a valuable commodity. For another reason, they are just fun. It is nice to get out of the house, out of the routine, and go with your partner and indulge in a love hotel for the night. People would chat at work at which hotels they liked, in the same way people swapped good restaurants. My wife and I stayed at a great love hotel for our anniversary, complete with private roof-top pool, huge bed and massive bath. It was fantastic.
On another note, in the introduction Kirino calls Japan "a land without religion" and blames that for the moral failing of the country. Japan is indeed a "land without Christianity", but that is not the same thing as being "without religion". I was quite shocked at how poorly she represented her native country, and with such spite and venom she discussed the Japanese people. I dearly hope no one takes her opinion as indicative of the country and its populace.
So, in other words, great photos and a nice look at the more bizarre and fringe love hotels, but no one should take this as representative of the industry or the country as a whole. Without Kirino's introduction, this would have been a much better book, buts its inclusion drags it down to a sad and misinformed level.
More writing and more photos August 6, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I kind of feel bad giving this book 3 stars, but i think there could definitely be improvement. The variety of photographs seems huge at first, but after flipping through the book a couple times it's a bit repetitive.
I did enjoy the introduction as it gives a unique view of japan and the love hotel industry. Obviously there are many different opinions on why japans culture is the way it is and i enjoy them all whether they are right or wrong. This book has a 4-5 page insight into sex in japan.
Another section i really liked about the book where the customer questionnaires. Some where amusing, others where perplexing, but all were enjoyable. I think this section could definitely be expanded.
The two things that i feel would make this book a 5 star book are more writing and more photographic variety. As far as writing i would like expanded captions for photographs to help explain the rooms a bit more in detail. For photographic variety i would love more close up shots of small details and maybe more artistic shots. The pictures in this book tend to be more "real estate" than artsy. Even though i gave the book three stars and even though i think it could be improved i would recommend this book to anyone interested in japans sex culture, or just the odder aspects of japan.
 An interesting peek into Japanese sub-culture June 24, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The pictures are fantastic, and the "notes" written by the various couples range from pathetically sad to highly entertaining. Be sure to read the forward or you won't understand the significance of Love Hotels in general. Makes an interesting conversation starter if left lying around on the coffee table!
Commenting on the introduction December 3, 2007
3 out of 14 found this review helpful
I haven't actually read this book, although the concept is certainly intriguing and the photos look excellent, however I did get to read the introduction here at Amazon and was struck by some of what this female Japanese author has to say about love hotels. She starts off discussing the history of the hotels and how they have changed into the modern commercialized fantasy play locations that are depicted in this book. However the second part of the introduction deals with the author's view of these hotels as encouraging impersonal sex which focuses primarily on male needs and encourages female sexuality in a primarily commercial sense.
What I get from this description is the fact that the rigid polarization of gender roles in Japan and the continued focus on formalized systems of interaction has created an atmosphere where female sexuality is still a social taboo outside of certain accepted institutions. In the past this was somewhat less of a problem since marriage was for family and social purposes and not for the gratification of the individual unless they were unusually lucky. However, the roles allowed for women to be taken care of financially and protected by their fathers and husbands, in exchange for providing them with domestic services including sex. Under those circumstances women were not expected to engage in sex unless they were either married or prostitutes of some kind and since marriage was not necessarily personal men could find sexual fulfillment outside, provided that they remained discreet.
How this differs from today though is that after the effects of feminism changed our perception of gender roles, women began engaging in other types of services which would allow them to financially support themselves to some extent and made them less dependent on men. This led to lessening of the sense of obligation towards men for the support that they provided and thus a lessening of the desire to satisfy them sexually. However, this also led somewhat paradoxically to the protection of women by cultural inertia rather than by men in particular thus making it less acceptable for men to find alternative outlets for their sexual needs while continuing and even strengthening the taboos for women. This leads to a situation where women's sexuality is virtually nonexistent except for commercial purposes which provide another incentive and where men's sexuality is strongly repressed. Not surprising then that fantasy hotels would be required to allow both men and women to express themselves, or that women's expression should end up being limited to a mostly commercial style.
This repression also explains the rise in sex related crime, whereas being able to play out those fantasies in a hotel might actually lower the incidence in actual public venues. Strangely enough companies hiring women still limit their wages and involvement because the reality is that most women are going through the motions until such time as they can obtain a husband. So the major changes in gender roles are primarily on the surface but the overall result has been a continued and gradually escalating restriction on sexual expression on the part of both genders. I find it ironic that to western minds the existence of love hotels seems like a lowering of moral standards in the context of promiscuity when the reality is that their existence points more towards a lowering of moral standards in the sense that a natural expression of basic human needs has been so perverted as to require an artificial commercial venue to allow it to occur at all.
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