Hotel Hanazono (花園)

Outside: 
The sign on the main street has small text in English and larger kanji with flowers in the background.  Given all the neon, it's an unmistakable love hotel.  Although the hotel is not a drive-in, each room has an entrance accessible from a private alley off the street.  There is no lobby.  The rooms have a small, protected alcove outside the front door with a machine where you select 'rest' or 'stay.'  The whole process is automated and there is no interaction with people.  You select the 'stay' option on the screen.  Do not open the door to your room or begin using the machine until after 10 p.m.!  You will be charged the extra hour if you enter too early.

Inside: 
Somewhat disconcertingly, once you're inside, the exterior door locks shut, and there is no way to exit unless there is an emergency.  This is a precaution to make sure that any extras used during the stay are accounted for before you depart.  Inside the room is a large vending machine where you pay the cost of the room and for any vending items you may have used (vending charges are determined by scales in the machines that measure if something was removed).  You can pay with cash or credit card at any time (you can even stay later than the set 'stay' time, but you will be charged) and the door unlocks allowing you to exit.

This room we stayed in was large with a huge bathroom that shared a glass wall with the bedroom.  The bedroom was decorated with wild paint colors on the floor, walls, ceiling and even the bedspread.  There was a wall switch for a black light that made the colorful decorations glow.  The pajama set included yellow and pink bathrobes.  There was a large TV in the room, karaoke, pachinko etc.  - standard love hotel fare.  The bed was very comfortable, but we couldn't fall asleep until we unplugged the pachinko machine!  There might have been a way to quiet it more gently, but we couldn't figure it out. 

The bathroom had a large shower area, and a large in-floor bathtub.  There was also what appeared to be a old metal and plastic pool chair.  A laminated card in the sink area clarified that this was in fact a sex chair and a series of photographs of a young woman demonstrated the multiple uses of the chair.  Given the evident rust, and the fact that the plastic was breaking (yikes!) we chose to entertain ourselves with the black light and the karaoke instead.

Leaving:
We set an alarm to get up on time to leave as there would not be a phone call alerting us that it was nearly 10 a.m.  We paid the machine based on when we entered the room and how long we stayed.