Sex: It gets all our attention, such a small word for such a big, beautiful part of our lives. We all have our fantasies and our kinks; if you could take a little minute to think of yours...take a moment or two...

Stirs a thought or two doesn't it?

Now can I ask you a question? Did the fantasy have anything to do with a special place? Maybe I don't speak for all of you, but personally, I like to think: location matters. The setting, as much as the set, can make a love making experience change from just a quickie on the sofa, to a full blown jig-a-ling sex opera of godly proportions. An uninhibited day on that secluded beach, that nice hotel on that unforgettable weekend or that place you weren't supposed to be having sex... but you did.

We all need that little hideaway for our love sourjourns, a place to make you feel good; while you're doing something that makes you feels good.

Why hasn't somebody capitalized on this on our over capitalized world? A sexual theme park of sorts? Somewhere other than the home bedroom or travel inn hotel?

In the over-busy metropolis of Tokyo they have.

Not in a cash-market money-hungry way, but only through consumer necessity for a little love hideaway. Care to take a tourist stroll down rushed Tokyo loves way?

In Tokyo, the name given to these coital retreats is "Love Hotel" or in it's shortened form "ラブホ" (rabu ho).

In Japan, it's the norm to live with your parents until your married. Whether it's due to upheld moral values or the ridiculous rent / house prices, it makes it almost impossible to live away from home independently. For "bedroom gymnastics" this presents a bit of a problem. Your 25, you have your "job", your "income" and your "fiancé".

Your working 10 to 15 hour days a week and when the weekend comes, having your partner stay over at mom n pops house for "love action" just doesn't feel quite right. Or on the other hand you're a young gal or guy about town for a Friday night's fun and frolics, you meet that special girl / boy but you happen to live the Tokyo equivalent distances of participant A) in Newcastle, participant B) in London...What do you do?

Tokyo is a metropolis of hard work and fast living, but also a metropolis of convenience; a convenience that comes with a level of service that is unsurpassed for its overworked burnt out populous. For every izakaya drinking area, or popular youth hangout there is a short walk away to a place; a place where lovers go.

The first impression that would strike you if you visited one of those bright lit lovers' lanes is the choice and abundance: multiple 10 storey modern concrete blocks with exterior design in fluorescent lighting. Sharp angles cut names in neon; like 1980's Duran Duran and Human League album cover designers given TOO much artistic license. Names such as "Visage", "Grand Chariot", "Perrier", "Excellence", "Proud", "Aramis", "Ayvss" and "Raffine", all await with drive in underground parking and computerized touch panel booking systems to avoid embarrassment and ensure discretion.

All hotels operate on a "stay" or "rest" basis. "Stay" being you have the luxury of checking in like a normal hotel at a larger price tag with a normal next day 10pm checkout. "Rest" being a 3 hour quick cheap rollick. Often couples can be seen waiting outside more popular hotels that are fully booked (Knowledge of which is presented by a backlight panel screen of photos outside, available rooms are alighted or dulled to show occupancy/vacancy) hoping that room 307 "safari adventure" is on a 3hr "rest" ,so they can book a full "stay".

If the outsides of love hotels are anything to go by, with their faux Las Vegas water fountains, and almost Disneyfied themed exteriors, then the interior décor is a joy to behold. Any good love hotel can be measured by its reception, mostly computerized (Press the button on a screen of the room of your choice) or anonymous (A screen shielded check-in, with some old lady passing out the keys) either way, surrounded in fake marble.

The walls are inset with lit fish tanks and "waiting suites" with karaoke for the aforementioned patient couples for room 307.Some offer free popcorn, soft drinks and DVD selection after you've booked in as an added "bonus".

Depending on location , city centre love hotels can feel like a disco version of holiday inn, with some mirrors, chrome, fancy décor, lighting and a zany twist , but go out to the country side and they go into overdrive with "themed" rooms : such as nostalgic Japanese animation rooms (avoiding all copyright infringements of course) to "Moet Chandon" rooms with champagne glass shaped baths, and luxurious black and red velvet finishings.

Though the animation rooms may be for the boys, I have heard rumors of "Hello Kitty" rooms in some hotels, though how the copyright people at Sanrio would let this slip, I'm dubious and yet to see with my own eyes.

Regardless of locale, all love hotels have interiors that stand above (or outside?) normal hotel conventions. As usual there is the fridge and mini bar, complimentary tea, coffee and mints, nice towels but nestled in the room's amenities is much more... Let me guide you through Tokyo's more simplistic joys of the love hotel to see the little differences:

The vending machine - We're all familiar with the hotel fridge, but are we ready for the vending machine? Were not talking a bag of peanuts, a snickers and a glass and half stinky wine bottle; this is your own little humming UV strip lit sex vendor in your hotel room. A most definite separate entity from beverages in the fridge. A range of sex toys to make your Auntie range from blush to shriek are presented on shelves 1 to 3, ranging from "yasahsii rotoru" (gentle rotation) : a small vibrating "egg" with a wire rotary control for about 5 pounds to... "悪魔侍 akuma (evil) samurai "a penis bio experiment went so very wrong; a neon rainbow reminder in terror; a remote controlled whirling, dervish with multiple fittings for orifices yet to be discovered" all for the princely sum of 50 pounds. Shelf 4 offers the everyman's choice with "love lotions" - water and glycerine based jelly goo lubricants with names such as "honey dew", "fairy berry", "love3".

Utilities - Ok it's a hotel for a bit of protected procreation, a bed will suffice, but what if ? Well what if I want to play PS2? Or get fried chicken? Or hey hold on! I want do some karaoke before the consummation of our love ! - Don't worry, most love hotels offer hot meal room service till 5 am, a PS2 in the room with wide range of available titles, a "too big" TV with porn, sports, soap operas, music channels and a karaoke channel to boot. The more flash hotels come with karaoke lover's chair corner's with a comfy "S" curved lover's seat, dual mikes and handy remote for pre loving duets... Just try not fighting over who's turn it is to sing next.

The free stuff - Being stingy, I love my free stuff, don't we all? A visit to a hotel with good free stuff, no matter how simplistic, can have us skipping around the room creening "I got a free comb!"

Your average love hotel can offer you condoms, tampax, shampoos, makeup removers, sponges, body lotions, conditioners, razors, shaving foams, tooth brush with toothpaste, hair laquer, mousse, mouthwash, styling gel, manicure set, dental floss, nail clippers, cotton bud and "ear cleaners", soaps, fresh mints, perfume (even small samples of proper brands) complimentary noodles for two and... did I mention the fold away compact hair brush...?

Everything to say "I just did something really dirty, but now I'm all clean mum !" presented in compacted, sanitized, self serving sachets, placed with loving care and sentimental tear jerking Japanese - English - Jinglish; Such as "For the moon, never too late"(tampax), "Our time is together, lets be precious" (condoms), "Tea is a refreshing drink best served herbal for relaxing times" (herb tea packet), "Always look your best with a happy smile" (hairbrush).All written in a soft serif script font emblazoned on the pastel shaded packets contents.

The bathroom - The Japanese are the most, bathed, sheen'd, buff'd, sauna'd, scrubbed and cleansed race I have ever met had the joy to share communal bath with. Bathing is serious in Japan with "Sento" (Public bath houses, almost religious in their bathing routines), "Onsen" (shared hot springs), spa's, sauna's and steam room's, its no wonder the soothing culture of water on skin and cleanliness reaches into their sex lives and it reaches the love hotel also.

A love hotel without a bath for two, or theme shaped bathtub, or touch panel Jacuzzi, shifting shades bath lighting, wall fitted TV showing kinky movies, excessive bubble bath options on tap... Just wouldn't be worth the "stay" fee!

Japanese culture dictates to clean oneself before entering the bath via means of a contained, tiled shower area, but even this has its love hotel tweak; the normal plastic bathing seats and basins are served in sweet two's, with cheeky little "fiddle hole's" round the posterior area for soapy frolics (A feature which is much loved by Japanese men in Japan's "soap land" prostitution salons)

Aside, after cleansing, for bath loving lover aficionados the world over, nothing beats a love hotel bathroom with the bathtub lights set to violet and sudsing up to your lover watching some cheap, titillating porn, supping cheap wine !

The more "etchi" (sexually baudacious) hotels have the "vinyl plastic matt", to slither around on after bathing with the aforementioned love lotions from the vending machine - A sticky, slithery affair celebrated in Japanese pornography, but given privacy and opportunity everyone tries at least once...

Diaries - Well, I will leave this till last is it the most astonsinishing find I've encountered at love hotels. In love hotels I've seen lover guides with explicit cartoon illustrations teaching men how to perform cunnilingus on their ladies and for the more adventurous or pitiable (?) girl's... Analingus for her man, but none fascinated me more than the love diaries.

These small books tucked in-between the TV guides and hotel pamphlets are open for all visitors to sign, comment and give lurid details for their stay, where the couple met, whether married or single or cheating, his age, her age, favorite position, the evening's "sports report", etc. At first viewing, I thought these were a set up. A plant by the hotel staff to encourage raucous love making and frequent returns, but actually taking time to read these diaries puts any anthropologists study in human nature to shame ! There are tales of lust, sorrow, loneliness, celebration, betrayal, revenge, true love, virginal innocence, beauty and ugly down and dirty grind. More often than not written in pencil in beautiful Japanese girl's handwriting when her lover has fallen asleep...

"We're lovers and we come here every weekend we can, even though I know he's married, he still doesn't know that I am not divorced but our secrets make our love stronger"...

Its unabashed, pure, honest love hotel poetry that distinguishes the hotels from the love hotels as a place...a place where lovers go...

Hokun is no gigolo and happily cohabiting with has girlfriend, planning marriage. But in cases when the last train home is missed, both pounce around like cartoon animals in excited expectation in going to a nearby love hotel.