Love hotels are ubiquitous in Tokyo and indeed all over Japan. According to this report on love hotels there are anywhere from 25,000 to 40,000 of the establishments in the country. While many other countries have guest houses and hotels where rooms can be rented by the hour Japan’s love hotel industry is a bit unique.
Love hotels come in all shapes and forms with the most famous (or infamous) being themed establishments where rooms are decked out to look like anything from a hospital room to a spaceship. For the purposes of this site “the best” love hotels are normal places that are easy for English speaking foreigners to access. Here are two that fit those criteria perfectly.
Aroma Hotel Tokyo
Hotel Aroma in Ikebukuro is probably the best all around love hotel in the city. I’m not the only one who thinks so. It has won all sorts of awards in Japan. Booking a room is as easy as walking in, selecting one of the available rooms from the front and paying. The costs start at 4000 Yen ($40 US) for one hour with discounts given as the time increases. Most delivery services know Hotel Aroma. The only difficult thing can be getting a room at all. Even though the place is huge it can completely fill up at popular times.
The rooms are large, the bathrooms are full sized and the front desk staff is all female. Usually the women are quite attractive, which makes a good place even better for an old dog like me.
Hotel P Door Tokyo
Hotel P-Door in Uguisudani is a little more old school but it gets the job done in every way. The place is in good condition and the rooms are as large as they are in most mid-range Western hotels. Rooms are very reasonably priced at 2500 Yen ($25 US) per hour and best of all the young woman at the front desk can speak English quite well. This is a rarity in Japan generally let alone in a love hotel. The gal in question may not hang around forever but while she is there is a huge plus.
This is another place familiar to most delivery services. It has plenty of rooms but on the off chance they all fill up there are several other love hotels in the immediate area including others owned by the same company.
Admittedly this is a very short list but it gives a good idea of what’s available for foreigners who are able to do a bit of looking around. In the future I may write about more love hotels in the land of the rising sun but for now this will have to do. I should note that Love Hotels are one of the few places that are fine to book at the last minute. In fact this is often the only way to book.
