An un-comprehensive guide for the traveling gaijin with only three days to see everything in Tokyo, and then some places they will never see.
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Tokyo Tower. The Japanese are  so proud of this landmark.	But, I get the strange feeling that I've  seen it somewhere before.  Lemme see ..

Click on any picture outlined in red for a larger version.

When we lived in Europe, we traveled everywhere, and this sure is familiar ..  but all those landmarks are a blur now .. was it Rome?  London?  Madrid?	Nah!  I guess not.  It must be Alzheimer's creeping up on me.  This is Tokyo Tower, not Madrid Tower.   Japanese architects wouldn't plagiarize anything, would they? (Remember no-copyright music books?)

At the top of Tokyo Tower, looking north.	Another view to the north.

Click on any picture outlined in red for a larger version.

From the top, looking south.	Another view to the south.

Looking east.	Looking west.

Click on any picture outlined in red for a larger version.

As a tourist, you could head straight for the Americanized Roppongi area .. and the Hard Rock .. and gawk at a Jimi Hendrix guitar .. but you can see that in Orlando.	Do you really want to go all the way to Tokyo to eat and/or drink in the Hard Rock, just so you can be around fellow gaijins?  I don't think so!  This is where all the GIs who are left in Japan congregate.

The Japanese would be shocked by our American adult book stores. These are really tame! However, their manga comics are hardcore brutal and erotic thrillers.	Pink means an adult store.

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It was only a question of time .. and Tokyo's limited space .. until we saw this. No, they're not bunks on a luxury train .. it's quite the opposite from luxury .. it's the newest in public overnight accomodations ..	It's a "capsule hotel," and there's no reason for describing it when a picture does it all .. can you even believe this??  That IS the room! Given the size of Japanese apartments ("mansions"), though ...

The capsule hotels DO have a few amenities, however, that American hotels would do well to imitate.  Here is the massage room at this capsule hotel in Shinjuku.	The shower room of a capsule hotel, with female attendants to wash your hair .. now THIS reminds me of the way it used to be.  The tan boxes are to keep the Internet Thought Police away.

Sleeping in capsules doesn't suit your taste?  Well, here is the latest in purely Japanese creations:  The Love Hotel.  The rates are for two, three or four hours. A "rest" is $26, a "stay" is $45. That's cheap!

How bizarre is this?  A Statue of Liberty on top of a Love Hotel!  Remember: "Hey, GI, how about a short time?" But no GIs here, Japanese only.	Love Hotels are often outrageous in their exterior decor.  They blend into surroundings like a velvet Elvis painting at The Louvre.	Love Hotels were meant to serve a very important function.  Japanese homes have zero privacy.  If mama-san and papa-san decide for a little lovemaking .. there are the kids, usually sleeping in the same room.  Love Hotels were created for two or three hour trysts. (Well, not always mom & dads.)

The interiors of Love Hotels give Japanese couples a large (by hotel standards) room, usually with a theme and cool electronic toys to play with.  This room has a rocket ship bed and space theme for Star Wars fans.	Abecu hoteru in Japanese, from the French avec (with), designates love hotels! They serve as a short-time nest for couples to enjoy some privacy.  This one is built to resemble a 15th century English castle.

Patrons are not always singles in search of sex, abecu hoterus are also used by married couples who lack space at home. The rooms can fulfill most fantasies with design ranging from harem extravaganza to science-fiction, wall-to-wall mirrors, bondage equipment and video recorders to recall the heat of the moment.	Fashion hotels or love hotels offer double rooms for short time periods of two hours during the day and for the whole night (usually from 10 PM). The purpose of the hotels is to give couples the possibility to spend some undisturbed time together. Love hotels can be found all over Japan.

Many of them can easily be recognized because of their strange look. In Tokyo, there are some districts where many love hotels can be found side by side (e.g., Shibuya). An overnight stay costs about $80. The rent fee for two hours during the day is a little bit lower. On weekends, the prices may be much higher. Reception at a love hotel is very anonymous.	The guests choose a room on a board by pressing a button and then pay at a little window where the receptionist behind cannot be seen. The rooms are equipped according to their purpose with large double beds, a television offering erotic programs, a nice bathroom and other amenities .. such as a grand piano.

In Japan, every problem seems to have a technological solution. The result in this case is the multibillion-dollar “love hotel” industry. It’s hard to miss some love hotels! Betcha $100 this one was renamed "Titanic" after the movie was released!	Life preservers on the balconies? They can be astoundingly gaudy affairs on the outside, often done up to vaguely resemble such out-of-place icons as cruise ships, wedding cakes or the Statue of Liberty. Otherwise, love hotels are paradigms of discretion.

To most Americans, renting a hotel room by the hour means a drive to the edge of town, an embarrassed check-in, a stained, threadbare wall-to-wall carpet and all manner of sounds emanating from the next room. That formula wouldn’t work in Japan, though, where privacy, decorum and hygiene are all held at a premium.	Yet the demand for hourly rooms is much higher in Japan, due in part to a more chauvinistic society that doesn’t frown as heavily on philandering husbands, plus a living-space shortage that drives even married couples to seek occasional trysts outside their cramped, thin-walled apartments. This one boasts its own sauna!

You drive into a parking lot whose entrance is covered with long cloth fringes to foil prying eyes. Various types of pull-down or clip-on devices are available for covering up your license plate, lest a jealous spouse take to cruising the lot in search of your car.	Jacuzzis seem to be a major component of all of them! The most impressive concession to privacy offered by many love hotels, however, is the ability to check in and out without interacting with any staff. Just inside the entrance to the hotel is an electronic screen that tells you the numbers of the rooms that are vacant.

You then make your way to one of the rooms and gain entrance by inserting yen notes (typically about $30 an hour) into a computerized lock. The door flies open, and that room number disappears from the screen at the entrance.	High-tech touches inside abound in the neat, if slightly garish, rooms. Las Vegas drive-in wedding chapels exude the same style of class. Powerful amplifiers and big speakers are there for your music or CDs conveniently selected by the management.

Rooms can include wide-screen-video, karaoke and a remote-controlled sound system that offers dozens of music channels, plus noises such as gongs and crowing roosters (farmers who miss home?) ..	.. and even the sounds you would hear in a train station (to be played as background when you phone your boss or spouse from the room to say you’re going to be late). Here, a spiral staircase .. in a 2-story suite.

When you leave, maids are electronically summoned by the computerized door lock to thoroughly clean and sanitize the room. No employee ever sees you go in; no one ever sees you leave.	One hour and five minutes after you first walked in, the room number is back up on the board.  Head 'em up and move 'em out!

OK, in the mood for a more .. traditional .. Japanese tourist entertainment??
 

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