Japan’s Greatest Love Hotels: Room 306, Hotel Geihinkan Kawasaki
Room 306 at the Hotel Geihinkan in Kawasaki has got to be one of the most bizarre love hotel rooms in the entire country.
Instead of the typically gaudy ceiling mirrors and disco lights, Room 306 has a running stream, stone lanterns, rock gardens, a wisteria tree, four-poster futon-style bed with wooden decking and TWO bridges inside it. Forget that the Greco-Roman look in teh bathroom and a washroom is totally out of place with the otherwise traditional Japanese appearance of the place.
The room is decorated to resemble (?) a typically opulent court room from the Heian Period, a time the Japanese usually find romantic and which saw Murasaki Shikubu write “The Tale of Genji,” a work many say is the world’s first novel and a tale of a young prince who romps around like Casanova! Incidentally, “The Tale of Genji” is celebrating its 1,000th anniversary of publication this year.
Considering this background, the room’s setting is probably quite appropriate. I was lucky enough to find footage of the event, made with an editing style remarkably similar to my own. Of course, being a happily married man, I could never have gone to such a place, so I felt really lucky.
Room 306 costs 9,450 yen for a rest (three hours) of 15,740 yen for an overnight stay, both of which are reasonable rates even if the hotel has probably seen its best days now.
Also noteworthy of this hotel is that it takes its name from the real Geihinkan, the official state guest house for greeting foreign dignitaries on official visits to Japan.
The hotel’s website offers a discount coupon for those staying overnight.
Contact Details
4-7 Shinkawadori
Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki
Kanagawa Prefecture
Tel: (044) 222-2233
