The View From the Tower

I live in a big apartment tower in Arakawa Ward of Tokyo. Here are a few of the more interesting things I’ve seen from my balcony.

The Sumidagawa River fireworks display is an amazing spectacle, but finding a place to watch it entails arriving hours beforehand (some people even camp out to get a good spot) and all the nearby stations are jam-packed with people after. This year, we were able to enjoy the fireworks without any hassles whatsoever.

A  JR freight yard.

The Tokyo Sky Tree, the new Tokyo Tower that is currently under construction in Sumida Ward.

Mt. Fuji

Park

Before anyone gets too envious, this is what I see on a regular day without my telephoto lens.

The Mermaid’s Stroll Love Hotel

I came across this odd little love hotel will driving along the coast of Wakayama Prefecture. It’s called Ningyou no Osanpo.

There’s more information about   love hotels in my book, Love Hotels: An Inside Look at Japan’s Sexual Playgrounds. I spent years visiting love hotels around Japan, interviewing love hotel designers, owners and staff, and wading through Japanese books on sex and love hotels to bring you this book.

It’s 182 pages of information about their history, the people who design and operate them, their place in Japanese society, crime, and much, much more. There’s also a love hotel guide with information on how to get to the best hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Yokohama, Sapporo, and Fukuoka.

For more information about love hotels, please visit my newly updated love hotel page at: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotels.html

To order or find out more about the book, please visit: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelbookintro.htm. There’s also a smaller guidebook, with just the hotel information for 500 yen: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelguide.html.

There are more love hotel-related posts here.