Playboy Visits One of Japan's Last Vintage Love Hotels

With Japan scheduled to host the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the government has made extra efforts to rid the country of what it perceives as unsavory elements of its past, in an effort to appease the influx of visitors that will flood the country before and during the international sporting event. Unfortunately, the few remaining vintage love hotels in Japan are likely to be on that list, and the possibility of their demolishing has spurred Osaka-based photographer Rik Sanchez to capture the often ornate interiors of these love hotels before they disappear forever. Playboy followed Sanchez on one of his shoots to Osaka’s Hotel Fuki, which ironically was built in 1963, one year before the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. There, Sanchez photographs the nostalgically kitsch rooms while lamenting the uniformity and lack of character of modern love hotels. Enjoy the video above.