Facebook Pixel Welcome to the house of love | The Guardian Weekly – newspaper – Lesen Sie diese Geschichte auf Magzter.com
Mit Magzter GOLD unbegrenztes Potenzial nutzen

Mit Magzter GOLD unbegrenztes Potenzial nutzen

Erhalten Sie unbegrenzten Zugriff auf über 9.000 Zeitschriften, Zeitungen und Premium-Artikel für nur

$149.99
 
$74.99/Jahr

Versuchen GOLD - Frei

Welcome to the house of love

The Guardian Weekly

|

May 16, 2025

From cruise ships to UFOs and giant whales, half the sex in Japan may happen in the architecturally astonishing world of its thousands of love hotels

- Oliver Wainwright

Welcome to the house of love

Do whales make you horny? How about UFOs? Maybe you've always dreamed of having a tryst in a fairytale castle, or making love inside a gigantic biscuit tin? Whatever your weird fantasy may be, it can probably be catered for on a roadside somewhere in Japan, if a new book on the curious phenomenon of love hotels is anything to go by.

French photographer François Prost has been on a 3,000km pilgrimage of passion, driving from Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo, to the island of Shikoku in the south, to document Japan's unique architecture of furtive liaisons. What he found spans from manga-embellished motels and Christmas-themed love nests to pastel-hued stage sets worthy of Wes Anderson. And some things stranger than your most eccentric kinks could dream of.

"I find love hotels culturally fascinating," says Prost, whose previous projects have included photographing the facades of strip clubs in the US and nightclubs in Ivory Coast. “Japan is generally a fairly conservative society, but these are places of escapism, fantasy and almost childlike wonder. And you find them everywhere.”

Estimates vary, but some put the number of love hotels - or rabu hoteru - in the country as high as 37,000. They pop up in city centres and rural villages, at busy highway junctions and secluded among fields in the middle of nowhere. As Prost's photographs show vividly, they come in all shapes, sizes and stylistic genres.

Some look like alpine chalets, others like tiki huts, while plenty are modelled on cruise ships, promising to take you on a voyage to love paradise. Whether French chateaux get your juices flowing or you have a penchant for Arabian onion domes, there's a place waiting for you to be greeted by an anonymous receptionist, pay for a kyukei, or “rest”, and live out your carnal dreams.

image

WEITERE GESCHICHTEN VON The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

My boyfriend's use of AI stops him thinking for himself

My boyfriend of eight years, who is 44, has ADHD and runs his own business.

time to read

2 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

'Our land lets us all breathe clean oxygen'

The Congo River basin is home to a biodiverse ecosystem-and a relentless trade in timber and charcoal

time to read

3 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Nations apart: Andrew's UK arrest highlights US passivity on Epstein files

It is a tale of two nations.

time to read

2 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Under water: Engulfed by storms, but climate denial grows

In the week between Christmas and the New Year, two Spanish men in their early 50s - friends since childhood - went to a restaurant and did not come home.

time to read

3 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

The crown in court

A brief history of royal run-ins with the law

time to read

3 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Big in Beijing

James Balmont's band, Swim Deep, plays to crowds of hundreds across the UK - but in China, they play to tens of thousands. And they're not the only ones

time to read

3 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

Trump's Board of Peace is serving private interests more than public good

In Gaza, aid still trickles in at levels relief agencies say are far below what is required.

time to read

2 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Needle drops Weight-loss pills are here - and big pharma stands to gain

Oral tablets could bring obesity treatment into the mainstream, with the sector predicted to be worth $200bn by the end of the decade

time to read

6 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

How Italians gradually warmed to their Winter Olympics

With the atmosphere in Rome subdued as the Winter Olympics unfolded across northern Italy, travelling to the Games was not on Amity Neumeister's radar.

time to read

3 mins

February 27, 2026

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Fire and fury

Violence erupts as security forces kill feared cartel boss.

time to read

1 min

February 27, 2026

Listen

Translate

Share

-
+

Change font size