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{{trope}}
[[File:Osaka love hotels.jpg|thumb|350px|A street of love hotels in Osaka... [[Sarcasm Mode|Good thing they're so discreet.]]]]
{{quote|''Ah, that's where ''those'' hotels are.''|'''[[Persona 3|Junpei]]''' properly censors himself}}▼
▲{{quote|''Ah, that's where ''those'' hotels are.''|
It's ''hard'' to have anything approaching an adult relationship in Japan. Especially the Japan of anime. Once you get past the obstacles of [[Loser Protagonist|attracting any attention]], actually getting around to [[Meet Cute|encountering an amenable romantic interest]] without [[Naked First Impression|blowing it from the get-go]], running the gauntlet of [[Love You and Everybody|finding]] [[Love Letter Lunacy|true]] [[The Nose Bleed|love]], and sidestepping [[Love-Obstructing Parents|typical]] [[Childhood Marriage Promise|anime]] [[Mayfly-December Romance|romantic]] [[Cannot Spit It Out|obstacles]], there is still one suprisingly difficult issue.▼
▲It's ''hard'' to have anything approaching an adult relationship in Japan. Especially the Japan of anime. Once you get past the obstacles of [[Loser Protagonist|attracting any attention]], actually getting around to [[Meet Cute|encountering an amenable romantic interest]] without [[Naked First Impression|blowing it from the get-go]], running the gauntlet of [[Love You and Everybody|finding]] [[Love Letter Lunacy|true]] [[The Nose Bleed|love]], and sidestepping [[Love-Obstructing Parents|typical]] [[Childhood Marriage Promise|anime]] [[Mayfly-December Romance|romantic]] [[Cannot Spit It Out|obstacles]], there is still one
Japan is crowded. Japan is expensive (well, Tokyo's expensive, and [[Creator Provincialism|nowhere else counts]], right?). As a result, even if you're of age to engage in certain physical activities, you probably don't have any private space in which to do that and not get caught. You may even be living with your parents, which is a [[Parents Walk in At The Worst Time|whole other level of uncomfortable]]. Even if you can manage a rendez-vous, your six-''tatami'', underlighted, cluttered room with the one-person futon isn't likely to inspire romance. And unlike your North American counterparts, you likely don't own [[Auto Erotica|a car]] and only advanced, highly acrobatic positions tend to be possible on a bicycle, even with the kickstand down.▼
▲Japan is crowded. Japan is expensive (well, Tokyo's expensive, and [[Creator Provincialism|nowhere else counts]], right?). As a result, even if you're of age to engage in certain physical activities, you probably don't have any private space in which to do that and not get caught. You may even be living with your parents, which is a [[Parents Walk in At
So, what's a couple to do, at least without acting like a [[Hentai]] pair (ie [[Making Love in All The Wrong Places]] ) and using any location within two minutes walk of where the mood strikes?▼
▲So, what's a couple to do, at least without acting like a [[Hentai]] pair (
Enter the love hotel. Over the last number of years, the love hotel industry has become quite profitable. They are locations which specialize in providing a place for a couple to have sex.▼
▲Enter the
In the west, [[No Tell Motel|hotels of this sort]] tend to be seedy, quasi-criminal affairs frequented by prostitutes and populated by unsavory characters, or motels far, ''far'' outside city limits, reachable only by car and the location of choice for affairs and civil servants. However, classic Japanese discretion and love of commercial pomp have made the typical Japanese hotel a combination of a well-run Holiday Inn, Disneyland, and an upscale adult toy store. Some are quite gaudy on the outside, while many are distinguishable from the outside only by the reduced number and size of windows facing the street. Some of the innovations that might be seen:▼
▲In the west, [[No
* Multiple separate entrance and exit points, to reduce the chance of running into someone you know.
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Needless to say, love hotels get portrayed with that equivocated attitude that necessary but scandalous things usually inspire. For that reason, the Yakuza sometimes has a habit of camping outside the entrances with cameras, then demanding payment to keep the pictures confined.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'' had a number of adventures regarding love hotels. Akemi luring Godai to one in a failed attempt to get Kozue to dump him (and stir up Kyoko in the process) may be the most notorious.
* The OVA episode of ''[[Please Teacher
* In one episode of ''[[Love Hina]]'', Naru panics when it appears that Keitaro is dragging her towards a love hotel. [[Not What It Looks Like|It turns out]], of course, that he's more interested in the sticker booth. Also, Mutsumi takes Keitaro to one, and he wakes up naked wondering what he's doing there. It seems that Mutsumi is pretty clueless about what they are.
** In the manga, {{spoiler|Keitaro and Naru actually ''do'' go to a (tastefully decorated) love hotel to get funky. In typical anime/manga fashion, they are interrupted. By a giant tortoise and his looks-like-a-tan-Shinobu owner.}}
*
* ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[
** In a later manga chapter, Belldandy and Keiichi get caught in the rain, and the only pace they can find to shelter is a love hotel. They can't bring themselves to go in - which causes problems for other people who do want to ... make use of the facility.
* Episode 3 of ''[[High School Girls]]'' is focused on a love hotel.
* In the anime ''[[Planetes]]'', something of a [[Lampshade Hanging]] occurs; on the crowded space station, non-work space is so limited that the hotels provided for transient commercial visitors are about the only place a couple can go and not be seen by half the station crew and all their workmates. Of course, it's understood that because of this, perfectly ordinary, casual, platonic dates happen in hotel rooms ''all the time''.
* In the last episode of ''[[Excel Saga (
** Dr. Shiouji takes Cosette to the same hotel, but leaves when he finds out she's fully consenting adult and not a child.
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]: The Second Raid'', Chidori Kaname invites a propositioning stranger to a love hotel. Then she knocks him out with a stun gun and handcuffs him to the shower, and takes advantage of the privacy of the room to check herself for tracking devices, having only asked the man to take her to the hotel as a means of trying to shake the person she's convinced is shadowing her.
* Used quite frequently in the OVA ''End of Summer''.
* When Kagetora and Beni run away from Beni's father in ''Shinobi Life'', they get stranded at a train station and look for a place to stay. The only option is a love hotel. Kagetora, being from the past (feudal Japan, it seems), has no idea what it is and innocently enters, asking for a room. Beni jumps through all kinds of hoops to keep him from finding out what the hotel is actually for. [[Hilarity Ensues]], followed by [[Mood Whiplash]].
* In the second season of ''[[Darker
* For secrecy/[[The Tease|to annoy his love interest]], Kazuma of ''[[
* Takamura Mamoru from ''[[Hajime no Ippo]]'' attempted to drag a girl he hooked up with on a group date. He got outright rejected for it.
* In Juzo Itami's ''A Taxing Woman'' the heroine gets a line on the bad guy's criminal empire by auditing the bedsheets and laundry at one of these. Also, the theme rooms depicted have to be seen to be believed, at least if your upbringing was anything like mine.
**
* In the final ''[[Patlabor]]'' OVA, Captains Gotoh and Nagumo take shelter in a [[Love Hotel]] during a rainstorm and ''almost'' get involved in some hanky-panky... but the restraint they show makes the episode one of the most mature and heartwarming episodes of the franchise.
* In one chapter of ''[[Psychic Academy]]'', Ai takes Orina to one. However, his mental link with Orina's roommate causes him to realize that Mew is in trouble, and they leave to rescue her before anything actually happens.
* In ''Baby Pop'', the main characters - for lack of an ''actual'' hotel room - [[Crowning Moment of Funny|race]] a [[Salaryman]] and his lady friend for the last room in a Love Hotel. That said main characters are father and step-daughter only makes it funnier/more awkward.
* [[Myself Yourself|Syuri and Syusuke]] are accused of being seen coming out of a love hotel; since they're ''twins'', it kicks off a shitstorm that results in the two of them [[Put
* In ''[[Koibana Onsen]]'', Gin and Moeka go to a love hotel when they first try to have sex.
* In ''[[Doujin Work]]''; Najimi convinces Hoshi to visit one, to Justice's anger and Tsuyuri's amusement. {{Spoiler|To Hoshi's dissapointment, turn on Najimi only wanted to take pictures of its interior to use them as reference.}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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== [[Film]] ==
* There's a cute scene in ''[[
* In ''[[City of God]]'', the big robbery by the Trio Ternura occurs in the Brazilian equivalent (a cross between the Japanese and Western ones; it is outside the titular slum, but built for a specific purpose - including mirrored ceilings). There is a humourous moment where one of the gang members walks into one of the rooms and tries to figure out exactly what and how the several people occupying the bed are doing.
** And later in the movie comes a deeply disturbing scene that explains why the Trio Ternura were wanted for mass murder when there was supposed to be no killing.
* In ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]'', Harry and Lloyd stayed in one while on a roadtrip to Aspen.
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[William Gibson
== [[Live
* Plenty of these turn up in ''[[Deep Love]]''. Justified because the main character is a prostitute.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The adventure "Colors of Sacrifice" for the ''[[Trinity Universe (
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', one of the areas you face the [[Tarot Motifs|Arcana Shadows]] in is a love hotel. The Shadow dwelling inside attempts to make the protagonist and [[The Chick|one of his teammates]] use the hotel, but the attempt fails ([[But Thou Must!|despite the player's best efforts]]). It's hardly difficult to work out which of the Shadows tries this. (Though oddly, this is ''after'' you fight Hierophant - it's unclear why that one would come to a hotel.)
** Ironically, the teammate in question shares the same arcana herself.
** What's doubly funny is that [[Taken for Granite|several transmogged (coffin-changed)]] people can be seen in various rooms, some of the coffin placement is... suggestive.
** And as an added bonus, the Shadow tries to accomplish this through a [[Shower Scene]].
** The same thing happens to the [[Gender Flip|female protagonist]], but with one of the male teammates.
* And no one could forget the [[Final Fantasy VII|Honey Bee Inn]], which is also famous for having a lot of dummied-out content that was even more extreme than what ended up in the game proper and thus didn't make the final cut.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Western Animation example: In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" Homer and Marge go to the western version of one these (the ''Aphrodite Inn''), they have themed rooms (Camelot, Pharaoh, Caveman etc.) but the only one left is called "The Utility Room". It turns out be the Hotel's actual Utility Room with a couple of camp beds in it.
** The show also plays with the "seedy motel" end of the scale. Every time the Simpsons have to leave Evergreen Terrace, they end up staying in the "Sleep-Eazy Motel", where part of the sign is burned out. And every time, Mayor Quimby is in a nearby room with a bimbo.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Love Tropes]]
[[Category:Hotel Tropes]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/Japan]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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