Japan has a very very remarkable thing that I have never seen anywhere else in the world. It is called a Love Hotel or as shortened by the Japanese as labu-ho. Love hotels are in almost all cities in Japan, usually near the drinking districts. They are tall garish buildings adorned with Vegas like neon and silly names like Taj Mahal, Luxor or even (I kid you not) the Penis Palace. Parking lots are usually underground with large industrial curtains hanging everywhere to obscure from view the people entering and exiting. This pervades everywhere with alcoves and cubbyholes to hide yourself from the prying eyes of another curious patron (which makes you want to grab your camera and go paparazzi). Upon a stealthy entry you choose your room by selecting from a menu that is entirely automated without a human in site (really surreal). You are guided to your room by sci-fi like flashing lights marking each correct path you take. The typical room you might see looks like a room designed by a horny slightly geeky15 year old boy. Centerpiece is a King size bed, adjacent is a huge TV playing porn on every channel, a game system plugged into that, even a state of the art karaoke system. The bathroom looks slightly normal except the large Jacuzzi tub and extra room for a blow up mattress (apparently for nude massage involving too much lube for carpet to handle) the next morning you leave and pay at a machine or a window where the face of the cashier is obscured. I once asked a cashier if it was busy last night and she said it was full. This was amazing to me since upon enter and leaving we encountered not one person in a hotel that housed about 300 that night! Why so secretive? Is it just because the Japanese are shy? Or is it easier to hide your own guilt when nobody sees you?
Love hotels are frequented by only two types of customers young couples that have not moved out of their parent’s homes AND couples that are cheating on their mate. This is a huge industry in Japan and it is supported mainly by a 25 year old plus group of men and women that actively cheat on their mates. To my shock some of the NICEST people I have ever met are some of the greatest users of these places. This of course was only confessed after LOTS of beer.
Cheating needs to be made a national sport in Japan. It is so rampant that I would estimate a 10th of couples you see on the streets of any large city are not with their “proper” mates. Often businessmen living in Tokyo will be supporting a family in another city but will be living at their girlfriends. Or that married woman, so lonely with her husband in Tokyo, seeks out a plaything herself. I can’t tell you how many times I have met and dated an interesting girl, only to find out later that she had a boyfriend. I remember talking to other foreign men in Japan that said they would NEVER marry a Japanese girl because they could never trust them (I disagree with this but I understand where it comes from). In converse it would be cold day in hell to see a foreign guy in Japan stay faithful for longer than a week! Cheating is in the air and all breathe it. (in defense of Japan this is probably more common is large cites)
Is cheating wrong? Yes absolutely! are people going to do it anyway? Yes! Are men more at fault than women? No! Is there an answer to this? I don’t know…
- Cheating is voraciously common EVERYWHERE but in Japan it is a bit easier to identify
- Cheating is very human and everyone has experienced these drives at one time or another
- Cheating is both a female and a male problem, I do not believe that men are worse, they are just worse liars!
- There are many people that will never experience this but cheating is like drugs, once someone has partaken they are 10 times more likely to relapse
- Am I morbid and jaded? possibly but sadly I have witnessed the most unlikely people involved in infidelity…
More on cheating later and what you can do to ID it and fight it…
