Christmas as a Couples Event
Christmas eve has become a couples event night here, with couples exchanging gifts and having dinner together. At the height of the “bubble economy” the cool thing to do was to reserve an expensive hotel room, have a French dinner at a posh place, and give jewelry to your girlfriend (Tiffany’s open heart pendant was immensely popular then). Even now, a lot of hotels have special “Christmas dinner/stay plans” for couples who want to celebrate Christmas in style.
Love Hotels
These are hotels that couples go to have sex. You can “rest” for a couple of hours. Or if you check in late enough, you can “stay” the night. The rooms and bathrooms are very well equipped. Some rooms even come with your own swimming pool and sauna!
Usually love hotels are built in a cluster, within walking distance of major stations like Shibuya and Shinjuku. The exterior is often gaudy. Some of the stranger buildings I’ve seen looked like western castles, or had what looked like an Eiffel tower or a Greek-looking statue on top.
Also called “boutique hotels”, “fashion hotels”, “couples hotels”, among other names.