Luke Bradburn, 29, uncovered the abandoned establishment near Nagoya in southern Japan. The love hotel has been kept as it was when its owners walked out 20 years ago
An urban explorer stumbled upon an abandoned Japanese love hotel that had been left untouched for two decades near Nagoya in southern Japan.
Love hotels, which are short-stay accommodations offering private rooms for hourly or overnight use, are designed primarily for couples seeking a discreet and intimate space. Despite their popularity peaking in the 1980s–1990s, these establishments still exist in Japan today, albeit with less frequency.
Luke Bradburn, 29, journeyed to Japan in early 2024 to document the Fukushima exclusion zone and concluded his trip in Aichi Prefecture, where he discovered the deserted hotel. The four-storey building has remained untouched since its closure in the early 2000s due to dwindling business in the area.
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Inside, each room boasted its own unique theme, offering a range of experiences from spaceship-style beds to clam-shaped baths and even a full boxing ring. Luke, hailing from Bury, Greater Manchester, said: “It’s such a big building. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were up to 30 rooms across the whole thing. Walking in was so strange, seeing it completely preserved.
“They even still had all the menus up for when people would arrive and choose and then their themed room.”
Luke first learned about the hotel after spotting pictures of the interior on social media, but due to its rural location, it proved difficult to find. After scouring the surrounding area on Google Maps, Luke eventually pinpointed the hotel and plotted a route.
He said: “It’s so rural and went out of business over two decades ago, so it’s just faded into the background after a while. I also discovered that it closed in the early 2000s because the local population had aged, so there weren’t as many young people around. This meant fewer guests and the hotel shut down due to lack of business.”
Within the building, each room boasted its own unique theme from spacecraft-style beds to shell-shaped baths to a complete boxing ring. Video footage from inside also revealed sex toys left undisturbed for decades, with all rooms still fitted with beds and baths or jacuzzis.
Luke said: “I wasn’t even expecting there to be that much left of everything. It was fascinating to see some of the arrangements left behind. These included clam-shaped baths, beds made to look like a UFO or a carousel and bondage apparatus with a big red star on it. Definitely the room with the star that felt very Soviet Union to me was the strangest.”