Playboy has made a video offering a “rare glimpse” into what they call a “vintage love hotel”. Well, Hotel Fukui in the Kyobashi district of Osaka, a business district with a bevy of love hotels behind the station, is actually more like a themed love hotel than a vintage one (initially we were expecting something more like the Hotel Okura).
True “vintage” love hotels, as we know, are fairly basic affairs, with nice amenities but a straightforward decor. The gaudy or wacky themes came more recently in the 1970s.
Popular Japanese consensus says that by the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, these few remaining vintage love hotels will be leveled for modern conveniences associated for the Olympics and tourism. Hotels left behind will be given a contemporary overhaul to be indistinguishable from mainstream hotels. Playboy gets a rare look inside the beautifully seductive Hotel Fuki in Osaka before the mirrors on its ceiling are one day inevitably removed.
We’re not sure about the accuracy of that, since the Olympics are not located in areas where there are lots of love hotels (hell, the Hotel Fukui isn’t even in Tokyo but in Osaka) and famously the most crazily themed hotels are often in the countryside anyway.
Playboy also interview Rik Sanchez, an Osaka-based photographer who covers a lot of the fetish scene and love hotels. We remember him from our own days in Kansai. The awesome photo above is one of his.
Quibbles with wording aside, it’s a cool video. Enjoy.
