Discretely booking a room in a Love Hotel

There's more lust than love going on in these kitsch palaces of passion.

Neon-lit witnesses to many an illicit affair and drunken one-night stand, Love Hotels have nonetheless become an institution in a country where most young people live with their extended families in cramped apartments with paper thin walls until they get married.

You'll find Love Hotels in any red-light district - look out for rows of buildings with elaborate facades and wonderful English names like 'Hotel Seed' or 'Hotel Lovery'.

The set-up of these hotels is very discreet: entrances are separate from exits and many have computerized booking systems in the lobbies so that human contact is unnecessary. Rooms are kept scrupulously clean and can be rented by the hour or by the night.

Some rooms are themed or are decked out with vibrating beds, Jacuzzis, costumes, sex-toy vending machines and karaoke machines.