Namba Yasaka Shrine to Nakanoshima..... Zen, Love, & Business...

 

Continuing with my little architectural exploration of Namba and nearby areas of central Osaka, from the Yasaka Shrine I headed towards Nakanoshima, about 4 kilometers away...

First sight was Zuiryuji Temple, commonly known as Tetsugenji after Testsugen, the Obaku Zen monk who founded the temple. Knwn for printing the complete Buddhist sutras in Japanese, Tetsugen made the temple huge during the Edo Period.

Totally destroyed during WWII bombing, the main hall was rebuilt in wood, but has since been rebuilt in concrete....

I passed by the octagonal Namba Hatch I had visited a little earlier...

Other than that there were no noteworthy structures.....

Although I did pass numerous urban Love Hotels which offer splashes of colour and whimsy among the glass and steel towers....... I am at a loss to understand Mickey Cookies as a love hotel theme..

Other than a few cities in the US with big rivers to cross, I don't remember seeing the kind of elevated urban roads that seem to be common in metropolitan Japan..... very Bladerunner to me....

I have only ever stayed at a couple of rural love hotels before, so I have no idea what the interiors are like.... but I can guess....

The final photo of the post is Nakaonoshima, my destination,  home to a couple of museums I wanted to visit...

The previous post in this series on the architectural delights of Osaka was on the Namba Yasaka Shrine..

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Abandoned Love Hotel

 

Right on the beach in front of Iwami Hagi Airport stands an abandoned hotel.

The main building is standard 5-storey structure and was a regular hotel. However, attached to it was also a Love Hotel, I suspect operated by the same company. I believe the Love Hotel stayed in business longer than the main hotel

I dont remember ever seeing it open, suggesting it has been closed for some years.

The 2nd and 3rd photos show inside what appears to be the Love Hotel's managers' living space.

The first of the rooms I explored just seemed like a fairly standar room.... nothing exotic...

The price list suggested there were several classes of room though...

Certainly the next one I explored was larger and with more facilities....

A karaoke machine and specialized furniture were available... Another abandoned Love Hotel I explored near Matsue, and then yet another near Yamaguchi.

The previous post was on the walk here along the Kohama Coast....

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Togitsu to Nagaura

 

Togitsu Town is situated at the southern end of Omura Bay in Nagasaki, and lined up at the waters edge were these four Ebisu statues. My guess is that they were collecetd from various points along the Nagasaki Kaido as it passes through what is now Togitsu.

The presence of a Honjin here shows a Nagasaki Kaido passed through here, and Ebisu statues are common along Nagasaki Kaidos in nearby areas.

I was taking the road that ran up the West side of the bay while the train line ran up the East side through Huis Ten Bosch. I came upon this remarkable little house with imaginative geometry.

I have been unable to find out anything about it or who the architect was.

The main road was still pretty built-up and busy but for much of the way Iwas able to take a smaller broad along the hillside where I visited quite a few shrines.

There were an awful lot of Love Hotels along the way. Not yet halfway between Nagasaki and Sasebo, I guess they were serving the Nagasaki market. They were more upmarket and modern than the  type of love hotel I usually encountered in rural areas.

Nagaura, a little fishing harbour about halfway up the bay, was where I had a room booked for the night, and as I headed up the narrow inlet to get there it became much less built-up and quieter.

The previous post on day 64 of my Kyushu walk was on Togitsu Inari Shrine.

Rural Love Hotels

After spending the night near Kirishima Jingu I headed south on my 28th day along the Kyushu Pilgrimage. Pretty much all downhill, my favorite kind of walk, late morning I passed through an area with quite a lot of small love hotels clustered together.

The top photo is a former love hotel that now advertises itself as a lodge. You can tell it's not a love hotel because there are no curtains to hide the vehicle and its number plate, a standard feature that helps protect guests identity. The vast majority of these love hotels are of the cabin / chalet type.

Some of them, like the one pictured above, have been abandoned.

All the cabins were unlocked so I peeked inside a few..... fairly rudimentary and completely lacking in the luxury and exoticism associated with urban love hotels//// though this room did have the mirrors.

A few of them looked a little less run-down with a fresh lick of paint.....

Love Hotel Haikyo

Halfway up the side of a mountain, miles from anywhere, literally clinging to the side of the mountain. we came upon a small abandoned Love Hotel.

Literally built into a crevice, a stream passed underneath the building.

Each of the 4 rooms were decorated with different themes, though the building had been stripped and vandalized so it was not clear exactly what the themes were....

This one seemed to have an underwater theme.

Each of the 4 rooms had floor to ceiling windows with fantastic views over Nakaumi (the Inner Sea) and Daisen, but Love Hotel customers are not usually concerned with the view :)

Not sure how long this place stayed in business. In this part of the country the love hotels are built between towns, not in towns, so this one would have served customers from Matsue and Yonago.

The rooms/suites were really large, even by love hotel standards, so I suspect they were not cheap...

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