Haikyo – Lost Love Hotels (Original Finds)

More love hotels for you today.

‘Hotel Penthouse’ which we spotted in a frozen field in the middle of winter, and a nameless place that’s both overrun and easily overlooked – despite being right next to a main road.

Although the find dates were a month apart, neither site was that huge so I’m going to bundle them together in a thematic double bill. Enjoy.

This was the glimpsed view of ‘Hotel Penthouse’ that we caught as we drove past on our way somewhere else.

It seemed worth investigating so on the way back we pulled over and made our way around to the other side of the building to see if it was under renovation or it was abandoned.

As it turned out neither was strictly true. The place was actually in the middle of being torn down.

Nobody was around, but the demolition machine was still sitting there and the entire front wall had already been removed leaving the rooms gaping open.

There was debris all over the floor and the mattresses from the beds were still piled up outside, but it was obvious this place wasn’t going to be here much longer so I decided to snap a few quick pictures.

In the end it was a very quick shoot, although the building was easy enough to get inside (all the doors at the back of the car ports were open and led onto steps leading to the rooms) the rooms were pretty much stripped bare not leaving much to shoot. The offices were a little more intact, but not too thrilling. Had the weather been a bit warmer (above freezing maybe) and had we not been coming back from a whole day out we might have spent a bit more time on a more thorough exploration – as it was all these pictures were snapped in about 15 mins and we dashed back to the car and warmth.

The second (unnamed) hotel was a little less obvious, in fact we’d driven past it several times and all that raised my suspicion that something might be there was this old, yellow sign pointing into the undergrowth at the roadside.

Still that was enough to warrant a quick look, and sure enough behind the trees was a gate that led into a concealed and very overgrown courtyard between two long low buildings. The rampant growth was quite a sight, left unchecked it had simply taken over – nature reclaiming, which always impresses me.

The building on the right was locked tight at the front and too overgrown to get around the back, but an open door on the other building lead into the office.  There the control panel told us there were ten rooms in total, five of which could be accessed via a passage behind the office.

The size of the trees glowering over the carports gave an idea of how long it is since this place was in business, though inside the rooms weren’t in such bad condition. The dark halls opened onto small but bright and colourful rooms. Red, blue, green, pink, yellow and orange; the entrance, the fittings, the walls, the ceilings, the phones – everything was a different colour.

Again this was a quick stop as we had a whole days exploration planned with two sites from the book to hunt down. Though looking back at the pictures now I do like the colours, and I kind of wish I’d had a bit more time to try and crack the second building. If a good chance comes up I might well do a return visit.

For now I’ll leave you with a plastic plant – it fooled me for a moment.

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