Love Hotel || Tokyo, Japan
Japan is a rich and layered culture known for many things: anime, the longest empirical dynasty in the world, samurais, and... Love Hotels. While many may be aware of love hotels by osmosis or in generic Japanese pop references, this concept was new to me upon researching for our trip. In a funny turn of events, I always try to read (or listen to) a book set in the country that I'm visiting to get a little extra immersion into a culture. Unbeknownst to me, I downloaded After Dark by Murakami, and while sitting on a Tokyo subway and zoning out into the second chapter of my audiobook, a love hotel pops in as a pivotal location in the story.
Love hotels are a very specific public good (IMO) that could only derive from very specific social norms. Mainly (from what I learned) is that historically Japanese had multi-generational homes and young newly married couples didn't have privacy to explore sexually, so love hotels were created to give them a private outlet to get it on. It's also not lost on anyone that Japanese culture was and still is patriarchal, and although it's slowly changing with newer generations, it's not uncommon to have marriages of convenience where the wife dedicates herself to her children (even sleeping in the same room as them) and it's assumed the husband has mistresses, and thus love hotels have another place in society. And although they’re a common part of Japanese culture, they’re actually quite unknown or un-visited by foreigners which makes them a special time capsule for their culture.
I can only speak to the one love hotel that we went to in Tokyo. I did a fair amount of research and since neither of us are turned on by cutesy or infantilizing genres (no kink shame, it's just not for us) but we have been getting into BDSM the past few years, we settled on the Alpha Inn in the Shiba-koen district of Minato, Tokyo and carved out an afternoon of our trip for this sexy adventure. Tokyo is a leader in the shear amount of and promptness of their metro and rail lines (aside from the fact that there are multiple privately owned rail lines which means you can't seamlessly transfer trains), so we easily took the metro to the Azabu-Juban station and had an easy ten minute walk. Our love hotel was surprisingly (to us) in a city neighborhood where we walked past families and schools. Maybe this is typical for Japanese and it’s intended to be convenient and obscure, but to Americans it felt surprising that these upscale city neighborhoods would allow them. And the bonus was that we didn't plan to see the Tokyo Tower but we ended up walking past it after our sexy adventure.
We were a little worried that we were in the wrong place or that the love-ho was no longer open since it was such a residential area. But as we approached it was right there, as described. Discrete parking spaces were occupied, and we walked up to what appeared to be an average apartment building. As soon as we walked in, it was anything-but. The decor was oozing chintzy sex dungeon with lacquered wallpaper, neon lit-cabinets, and mirrors on the ceilings. I know we walked in wide-eyed with giddiness and trepidation because we didn’t know how to conduct this transaction. Fortunately, we had the most lovely older local woman who is such a pro at her job. She spoke English confidently, didn’t shame or embarrass us, and just launched right into her spiel. She explained that the neon numbered board behind us was all of their rooms, the ones that were lit were currently available. Then she handed us a three-ring binder with plastic sleeves full of information. Each sheet was a room that corresponded to the numbers on the wall and included photos (and possibly descriptions but I was too nervous to study it). As we started to review the book, a couple walked out of the elevator, she an incredibly hot dominatrix in very scant pleather lingerie and stilettos leading a hooded and robed man on a leash. They walked past us and down a hallway. hopefully to an exciting couple hours. Steering our brains back to the task at hand, we flipped through the book, picked a very dungeon-esque room, pointed to it, gave her our credit card, she told us we had three hours, told us to grab a goodie bag on the coat rack beside us, we then took our key and headed to the elevator.
Our room was on the sixth floor, but with all the windows blacked-out and only dim lights to guide us, I kept almost feeling like I was in a basement or on the ground floor. We walked in, took in what we were about to embark on for the next couple hours, undressed, showered, and started laughing with excitement, nerves, and playfulness. The room felt like every 90s Skinemax setting: red lighting, the walls were painted red with gold accent pillars, a chaise lounge, king bed with accented wall art, and black leather BDSM sawhorse and St. Andrew’s cross. We then opened our goodie bag to discover rope, a flogger and paddle, hand and feet cuffs, bondage bar, and a collar with a leash.
We started making out and greedily feeling each other up. I then climbed onto the sawhorse on all fours and Dax put me in the hand and feet cuffs. He then proceeded to rub his hands over my entire body, finger me, suck on me, and spank me. He then pulled me up and handcuffed me to the cross and flogged my ass and back. I then turned around and got so incredibly wet by getting my tits flogged. After the rush of my submission, I then handcuffed him to the cross and proceeded to paddle his ass and thighs. He called me Mistress and was at my whim. I enjoyed slapping his ass and then comforting him with my body pressed against his.
With him still the sub, we then moved to the king size bed, and as a first for both of us, he put the collar on and I held the leash while I continued to slap, kiss, stroke, and take in his body. I thought that I would be uncomfortable, and possibly even turned-off by the leash, but something in me took to it and I was overcome with a playfulness I’ve never experienced before. We then proceeded to take turns exploring each others’ bodies in a very hungry and fanatical way before fucking in multiple positions on the (incredibly lumpy) bed.
After cuddling naked for a bit and letting our bodies slow down and our minds catch up, we explored the room a little more now that we had our senses. In our curious exploration, we found what could possibly be the best surprise I’ve ever discovered at a sexy adventure, which was a coin-operated vibrator in the form of a metal machine on wheels that plugged-into the wall. Although we didn’t partake, it was a fun laugh at the end of this wild adventure.
We then cleaned ourselves up, dressed, and as we walked out we dropped off our key, thanked our lovely receptionist who smiled a knowing smile, and we walked out of a seemingly mundane apartment building back into normal life.
