I’m a male member based in Tokyo.

Ebisu? Shibuya? I don’t really mind Shinjuku that much either, though. As Joe-san suggested, why not just take a taxi there?

Consider giving an allowance that’s five to ten times—or even more than—the cost of the hotel. Who do you want to give your money to, and where do you want to spend it? Whose life do you want to help? Who do you want to make happy? Think about it again. Depending on how you look at things, I think a lot of good things will come your way. Rather than spending a lot of money on hotels, it may be wiser to give her an allowance worth ten to twenty times the hotel cost. She’ll be happier that way, too. You don’t have to splurge extravagantly every time.

The recent wave of price hikes, especially among luxury hotels in Tokyo, has certainly been staggering. I recently had the chance to speak with a manager at a foreign-owned hotel. They said that because it’s been difficult to rehire the staff they let go during the pandemic, a number of floors remain closed, and they’ve been raising prices to improve profit margins. You can’t help but wonder, “Who’s going to pay these prices to stay here?” though the weak yen seems to be working in their favor. Now, regarding love hotels: this is just Joe’s personal opinion, but I’m not sure that making them part of the “route” in papa-katsu is necessarily a good idea. As others have mentioned, taking a taxi is always an option, and it also gives you a chance to practice the kind of conversation you have in a taxi. Enjoying the journey itself can be part of the experience, too. I understand wanting to ask, but there are plenty of websites about love hotels, so why not have fun researching them yourself? Day-use hotels are another option as well.

Besides the well-known Shinjuku, there are love hotels near stations such as Shibuya, Uguisudani, Gotanda, and Ikebukuro. There aren’t many because opening new ones is difficult. If you’re not having dinner near one of those stations, you’ll need to take a taxi. They’d probably be happier if you made it a love hotel arrangement and increased the allowance by ¥30,000.

If you’re switching from a hotel that costs ¥50,000 a night to a love hotel, you could just use the difference to take a taxi, so the route really shouldn’t matter. That said, compared with a ¥50,000-a-night hotel, she’ll probably be extremely disappointed no matter what love hotel you choose. So first, think about how you’re going to make up for that. Also, the level of safety around love hotel districts isn’t really that different from one area to another. If safety is your concern, take a taxi right up to the hotel entrance. In an unfamiliar area, it won’t be easy to find the clean, standalone love hotel that Taro-san mentioned. For now, avoid places that offer rooms for three hours for ¥5,000 or less, as they may be used by sex workers.

It’s Fullerene! If you’re trying to solve the conflicting priorities of a love hotel and safety, I feel like driving out to the suburbs may be the only option… Still, I find it strange that simply choosing a lower-tier hotel wouldn’t work. Why jump straight from ¥180,000 to a love hotel?

Come to think of it, the love hotel industry hasn’t been caught up in a wave of price hikes. Maybe that’s because their profit margins were already pretty good... Speaking of the perfect route from dinner to a love hotel, there’s one place that comes to mind. It’s a somewhat stylish creative Japanese restaurant on the first floor of a building. When you take a woman there, the atmosphere is usually pleasant, the food is good, and things tend to go well. Then, when you leave through the back entrance, there’s a love hotel practically right nearby—less than two minutes from the restaurant. But if it’s too close, the woman may not have time to mentally prepare herself, so with a first-time B-type meeting, it can feel too abrupt and make things a little awkward. It’s fine with someone you’ve been intimate with several times, but the first time, it’s better to walk together for a few minutes. Ideally, it should be a love hotel standing by itself in an ordinary neighborhood rather than in a whole love hotel district, with a clean, pleasant interior, a decent number of rooms, and vacancies even if you show up without a reservation. There are several places like that in Tokyo. You probably want me to tell you where, but there’s a risk I might run into you there, so I’m not telling you♪ (Koikeya Polinky) — nostalgia. Anyway, paying ¥50,000 for one night is ridiculous. Is that really what women want? A love hotel costs only a little over ¥10,000, so wouldn’t the woman be happier receiving the difference as an allowance? The same goes for restaurants—I think you should focus on maximizing the efficiency of your money. What exactly is your objective variable? And if you still have money left over after that, wouldn’t it be better to donate it? To Doctors Without Borders, for example. You do know what’s happening around the world, right? Taro