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Osaka Love Hotels Just Ain't What They Used to Be

Where: Osaka, Japan

October 2, 2007 at 2:37 PM | 3 Comments

[Ed. Note: Jaunted contributor AJ McGuire recently finished a tour of Osaka and reported back to us on the town's changing love hotel scene.]

As Osaka is considered the loudest, brashest, gaudiest city in Japan, its only natural that the city's love hotels compete with the neon overload of the Dotonbori district and the deranged fantasy world of nearby Universal Studios Japan.  For a business whose bread and butter is discretion, love hotels are hard to miss around here.  Spread liberally throughout the city, love hotels are convenient landmarks, beacons of light on drunken stumbles home, and fodder for untold numbers of WTF tourist photos.

Venerable as they are, Osaka's love hotels are not immune to change. Even much loved institutions as the Gang Snowman have been redesigned in takeovers and questionable marketing moves. In the photo above, the former Belles des Belles seems to be ripping off Robert Indiana in rebranding itself a little more generically --that is, if a massive white building sporting Greek columns, angel sculptures, a massive neon lit silver orb on the roof and the new name Hotel Love can be called generic.

MORE Love Hotel photos after the jump.

Not especially digging the new mustard yellow color accents on the Hotel Love here but who can say no to pink neon? This photo also showcases the wonderful contrasts of the Tani-9 (pronounced "tah-nee-kyu) neighborhood, mixing in the gaudiest love hotels with beautiful shrines.

Here's the former Hotel Gang Snowman, now done up with some sort of creepy Phantom of the Opera motif. There was nothing in roman letters on the building besides "hotel" so my best shot at reverse engineering the Japanese-Engrish comes up with either "Carnival" or "Cannibal". Either way, its not as cool as tommy gun-toting snowmen and free soft ice cream.

At least there's still Hotel Chapel Cinderella down the street, for those who like fairy tale magic on the inside and several ball gowned statues looking like snipers on the roof.

Related Stories:
· Love Hotels [HotelChatter]
· No More Love for Love Hotels [HotelChatter]

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Author Photo: Judson by Judson

3 Comments

Return to » Osaka Love Hotels Just Ain't What They Used to Be

  1. amandak

    HotelChatter Member
    October 2, 2007 at 9:09 PM




    Oh no!

    I can't believe Gang Snowman's has gone. That's it, I'm never visiting Osaka again.

  1. Judson

    HotelChatter Member
    October 3, 2007 at 2:26 PM




    Re: Osaka Love Hotels Just Ain't What They Used to

    I know, we're all in mourning.  I was going to try out the Hotel Carnival/Cannibal but something about it set off my fear of clowns radar and I chickened out.  I wonder if they still have the car on the roof.

  1. juliana

    HotelChatter
    October 3, 2007 at 8:10 PM




    i have a fear of clowns too!

    so i would definitely not stay at any love hotel that had any circus paraphernalia hanging around. although tommy-gun toting snowmen just sound so cute!

Return to » Osaka Love Hotels Just Ain't What They Used to Be

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