Fucked Up Japan

Japan does not have brothels, and it is certainly illegal to sell sex. At soaplands however, you’re buying a nice bath and a scrub down by a sexy little maiden, and then the sex or hand service is simply a welcome extra! See, we’re not selling sex here!

I’ve always wondered what the inside of a soapland looks like, but gaijin generally can’t get it. I imagine them to be pits of inexcusable sexploitation in love-hotel like rooms of grotesque beauty. That is of course, unless the place goes out of business and becomes a “haikyo”, or abandoned building, upon which my interest is suddenly piqued. As it was for this fellow John who wrote a wonderful piece about the experience along with some great pictures and even a video! Here’s a little snippet:

The Queen Chateau Soapland Haikyo in Mito, Ibaraki, is at once a grand but squalid folly. A bath-based brothel rising 5 fairy-tale stories into the sky, cornered with towers and capped with bright red tile, it represents an era gone mad with indulgence, audacity, and hopefulness. Now it lies in crippled ruin, its bright colors fading, its halycon days of glamor and glitz surplanted by ghost-like hangings in its dim and dusty bars.

Check out the full article and photoset at his blog, [MichaelJohnGrist.com]

If anyone knows of any haikyo in Kyoto prefecture (expecially love hotels) and would care to drop me a Google map of the place, I would love to go urban exploring myself and post the pictures / videos here!~ We could even make a fuckedup get-together daytrip out of it! Let’s happy fun breaking into abandoned Japanese buildings!