Seline Love Hotel, Nagano Prefecture, Japan

How could I have gone so long without featuring this location? During my three month stay in Japan, the Seline Love Hotel was one of the more relatively accessible ruins to visit. All my dream Japanese explorations are super old doctor’s clinics or schools that are only accessible by driving. I didn’t have a car, nor did I know anyone who wanted to spend an entire weekend seeking these places. I spent a lot of time and money on public transportation to visit places like this, this and this. With the assistance of, haikyo.org, Google Maps, and the 2007 book Nihon’s Ruins (ニッポンの廃墟), I was able to find the locations I could get to by walking and public transportation. Which brings us to today’s featured abandonment, the Seline Love Hotel.

The Seline Love Hotel has been left abandoned since AT LEAST 2007. That’s when it was listed in the book mentioned above about Japan’s most mysterious ruins. I went in September 2017, a pretty good time as it hasn’t started to snow yet in the Japanese Alps. I saw pictures of the place in winter, and Seline Love Hotel is inaccessible due to the high snow banks that pile up in the late fall and winter months. It was crisp and breezy. A welcome relief from the muggy summer. Just before setting out on the hour-long walk from the train station to Seline Love Hotel, I discovered Panoramic Park Ski Resort, an original find that I haven’t seen other haikyo (廃墟) explorers document. A pleasant diversion, to say the least. After being side-tracked for a couple hours with that place, I made the trek to Seline Love Hotel. I walked along a highway, across an elevated road that wound its way through the Japanese Alps. Cars rushed by intermittently as I made my way across the valley below.

At the end of the bridge, I saw the building on the right-hand side. It was a weather-beaten gray, concrete shell, For the time being, trees and bushes still thrived around the hotel. The wide sidewalk on the bridge disappeared, and I had to walk on a narrow shoulder of a semi-busy highway for about 100 meters. I would finally hit paydirt when I crossed the two-lane road. Visibility was hindered until I was in the middle of the road, so I had to make a straight dash for it. When I got to the other side, I had to make my way through the brush to the backside, as it was the only access point. Love hotels are all about protecting client’s privacy, even those located on isolated mountain highways. 

Inside is what I would call an Interior Decorator’s Nightmare. If this place weren’t already recognized by the urbex community, If I had discovered it, I would have christened this place the Interior Decorator’s Nightmare. 

So many clashing colors and patterns it hurt the eyes! It also appears that funky motif wallpaper was covered over other funk motifs, It was like peeling back the layers of a psychedelic onion. There was also some disturbing graffiti involving a pregnant lady that I couldn’t unsee. I’ll leave it to your imagination or a simple Google search to understand.  Here is a collection of odds and ends found inside the hotel. Hmm, I wonder what Red Village means…