My initial birthday plan was actually very innocent & perhaps even childish to some - to go to DisneySea to celebrate our birthdays. Not that I'm a Disney fan at all, but why not since I've only been to Disneyland & Sea is supposed to be more for adults. But all because of the false weather forecast that it was going to be pouring all day on Sat, our plans were foiled & went into a direction that tipped the end of the innocent scales - try a love hotel!! But hey, I wanted to go to a spa but was vetoed vehemently & that's another indoor place that can shelter us from the rain. Ok, and it was also to kill my curiosity of the novelty of love hotels. They're almost everywhere & mentioned in travel guidebooks or talked about by foreigners living in Japan on their blogs. You can't fault me for being the curious cat, can you?
I approached the search of a love hotel like I would a normal hotel. First, we did some research on the net to see where you can find a place that's most condensed with the hotels. Actually, that was a no-brainer because many people know there's a place in Shibuya - Dougenzaka. Then it was to marvel or get excited by looking at the room pictures. Some cool web sites have them categorised into different themes - like neojapaneseque, Moroccan style, Jungle or Underwater etc. But then, you experience a mild heart attack at the prices. After recovering from the attack, you learn that you have to be more realistic & look at the more ordinary rooms that would not burn a hole in two pockets. Actually, I don't think most Japanese people would even bother researching online because 1) you can't reserve (that's what I heard) & 2) it's on a first come first serve basis. 1 & 2 sound like the same to me...no??
Then it came to the physical search on the day itself. It was in the day & I could see everything & everyone clearly at Dougenzaka. And people could see us very clearly too. Oops, didn't realise how embarrassing it can be to be caught shopping for a love hotel. It was hard to be discreet because I was stopping & checking out the exterior of each hotel & even taking photos of some. But hah, that could be a wonderful cover - to pretend to be a tourist fascinated by the concept of such hotels. Then I saw the first couple who jumped out of one of the hotels. The guy looked like he should eat more & shave; the girl was pretty normal looking. They seemed happy & I couldn't stop grinning that I actually caught them coming out of a love hotel.
Next, more couple sighting. They were entering or leaving the hotels. Most of them didn't linger. They stopped for a moment briefly, looked at each other (some didn't) & just popped in. I was the complete opposite. I lingered outside to look at the prices, check out the decor & then went in to look at the room pictures & came out again to go into another hotel because I was unsatisfied by the normal looking rooms. I combed the whole area, careful not to miss any hotel that I thought was affordable. Others could see us going in & out & whispering about the rooms. All the time, I was thinking this is so embarrassing but hilarious. We laughed at every couple we saw in that area. I'm sure they must had be laughing at us too.
Now, it's to uncover the secrets of love hotels & dispel their myths:
Secret No. 1: If the room pictures are lighted, they're available. If not, it means that people are ahem.....
Secret No. 2: When you walk along the corridor & see a light on the sign above the door, it means the room is empty.
Secret No. 3: Nobody asked us for an ID. That means even if you're underaged, you can probably slip through the hands of law. Don't think that's a good thing...ok, I'm quite preppy.
Secret No. 4: The reception will call you 30 minutes before the time is up. So if you don't want to sound weird on the phone, please get ready 35 minutes before.
Myth No. 1: You can't see the face of the front desk staff. NOT TRUE in some hotels. The one we went to had an obasan talking face to face with us. Another hotel had a man telling us, "Sorry, no pictures" without a screen at the reception. One other hotel had another obasan telling us to leave because we couldn't make up our mind right in our faces. Yeah, like I wanted to do business with her!
Myth No.2: Love hotels are wonderful because they create the mood & come with entertainment like karaoke, jacuzzi, or funky disco lights. Our hotel room had no karaoke, no porn (what a relief!), no jacuzzi but a very ordinary dull looking bathtub, & still mood lights. Also the bed doesn't rotate! But what we had were the booming effects of music that you could feel & even adjust their intensity while on the bed. You can perhaps consider that therapeutic if you play soothing music from the sound system! If you want karaoke, jacuzzi & the works, please be prepared to pay more than ¥10,000 for 2 or 3 hours of "rest".
Finally, here comes my verdict of love hotels, or more precisely, the hotel that I went to: A little fun for a first-timer, but didn't live up to the hype. Would I go back again? Definitely not. Would I try another love hotel again? Probably not. The thought of the whole experience just tickles my stomach so much that I can't be "romantic"......
Not really sure what I'm aiming to do here...perhaps it's just to bring attention to the plight of many Cambodian kids who are too poor to go to school and try to get people to do whatever they can - be it devoting your time or money - to help those who are in need. 
