I recently had the good luck to visit something I've been dying to do since coming to Japan - stay in a Love Hotel. These types of hotels are scattered all throughout Japan (even in small, seedy towns or where there's demand) and are infamously known, as the name suggests, for making love in. What makes them even more conspicuous is the ability to rent them by the hour, so you can quickly get in an get out. Prices usually go for 2000-6000 yen per hour ($20-$60), or you can stay the night (after a certain time like 11:00pm) from around 6000-15000 yen per night ($60-$150). So Love Hotels not only attract couples looking for privacy, but poor backpackers looking for cheap accommodations on par with hostels.

One of the reasons Love Hotels are so popular are because many of the rooms are themed! I'll admit, that's one of the reasons I wanted to go. You can get rooms decorated as doctors offices, subway carriages, dungeons, castles, outer space, underwater, cosplay, Hello Kitty, mirrors, glass, Egyptian, to anything in between. A lot of the rooms (depending on the price) also have things like saunas, massage chairs, rotating beds, flashing lights, jacuzzi's with built-in TV's, karaoke boxes, and flat-screen TV's. By the time I got to the Love Hotel it was already after 2:00am and a lot of the rooms were already taken, so I settled on an outdoor-themed one with wood paneling, and a ceiling with silhouettes of branches and what appeared to be a dead squirrel. Mm, romantic. Another amazing feature about Love Hotels is that, Japan being a sexually discreet country, everything is automated! You don't meet a single person the entire time you're there.

Here's a quick "How To" if you ever want to visit a Love Hotel:

- Rooms are chosen from a panel at the entrance with pictures of all the rooms. A lit panel means the room is available, and hourly and overnight stay prices are listed. All you do is press and hold the button until the light goes off.
- Enter the room but don't be alarmed when the door locks behind you. It's to keep you from buggering off without paying!
- Relax. Take a bath, watch TV, and enjoy the complementary toiletry. Don't forget to take advantage of the sex toy vending machine.

There's a panel in the wall with a clock showing you how long you've been in the room and the price listed near it. The more hours you stay, the more you have to pay, so when you're ready to leave you:
- Look for the pneumatic tube and plastic container (yep, like those ones you see in the movies!)
- Fill out the form next to the tube with your info, time you entered, and time you will leave.
- Put the form into the plastic container along with your money.
- Load the container into the tube, press the vacuum button, and off it goes!
- Wait a few minutes, they'll unlock the door, and you'll receive the container back along with any change.

Overall, a relatively painless experience. If you happen to make a mistake or don't know what to do, you can call the front desk (there is one, you just never see the person working there.. but I'm pretty sure they can see you 0.0) and hope they speak English. They'll come to your door looking down and shame-faced and will explain to you how to go about paying. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures because I had forgotten my camera, but hopefully next time I'll be able to provide pictures. In the meantime, go look up "Love Hotels" on Google Images to see more of Japan's quirky (yet awesome) culture.