Japan's Christmas Love Hotel
By Joanne Cachapero
Thursday, December 25, 2008
The Christmas Chapel love hotel located in Nihonbashi, Osaka attracts love tourists with an annual seasonal display that turns the façade of the hotel into a Christmas tableau to rival the holiday windows of 5th Ave. in New York City.
Seeking seclusion, frisky couples in Japan have very few places that they can even park a car for a make-out session, and often time, young people still live with their families at home. With a shortage of private spots for romantic encounters, the Japanese invented “love hotels.”
The Christmas Chapel puts on an elaborate light display, and has a musical Santa at its entrance. Guest receive hospitality gifts like Santa slippers or a stuffed animal, and the rooms are decorated with old-fashioned canopy beds and a European-style décor.
Love hotels can be rented by the hour, several hours or even overnight, and the facilities are constructed with privacy in mind, often with tall fences, hedges and other ornamentation to prevent the curiosity of prying eyes. Most love hotels feature a payment kiosk in the lobby so that visitors will not have to confront a front desk employee.
In 1999, an amended version of the Businesses Affecting Public Morals Regulation Law of 1948 went into affect, restricting sex-related businesses including love hotels. The hotels located in designated red light areas still retain some features like sex chairs, vibrating beds and ceiling mirrors.
A more recent trend in suburban love hotels is décor and atmosphere meant to appeal to women and, reportedly, Japanese women now ask their men friends to visit the love hotels more often.
The Chapel Christmas love hotel is located at Osaka, Chuo-ku, Nihonbashi 1-9-18, or can be contacted by phone at (06) 6212-7322
