Royal Blush: Japan’s Abandoned Queen Chateau Soapland

Rubber Duckie Optional

Japan Queen Chateau soapland abandoned brothel bath(images via: Totoro Times, Tokyo Times and Tom Richardson)

Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub… and this is NOT the children’s nursery rhyme you were looking for. Tubs were where the action was at the Queen Chateau soapland, and oh what nice shiny tubs they were! All the soap in the world won’t wash the stain of procuring sub-legal erotic services from your soul, however, regardless of how luxurious the room or how copious the bubbles.

Japan Queen Chateau soapland abandoned brothel(image via: Seb)

It would seem that when the end came for the Queen Chateau soapland, it came suddenly with managers, staff and customers fleeing the joint like rats escaping a sinking ship. From expensive bath fittings to the basic minutiae of bathing, everything remains in situ as if the local cops had mounted a raid. Perhaps that’s exactly what happened.

Communications Breakdown

Japan Queen Chateau soapland abandoned telephone(images via: Tom Richardson, Seb and Tokyo Times)

Getting away from it all for a while has its limitations, and the sundry businessmen who patronized the Queen Chateau in its pre-mobile-phone heyday still had to check in with the boss every once in a while. Then again, the boss could very likely have been in another of the soapland’s rooms so a state of the art switchboard was necessary to enable any connections.

No One Can Hear You Steam

Japan Queen Chateau soapland abandoned steam sauna chair(images via: Seb)

Remember those funky personal steam cabinets Bugs Bunny used to lock his adversaries inside in several choice Looney Tunes shorts? Welcome to the much more real, much less innocent but still waaay funky version. One would assume customers would await the arrival of their chosen bath attendant while sweating away the stresses of the day in one of these spike-less Iron Maidens. Excellent!

Japan Queen Chateau soapland abandoned brothel(image via: Michael John Grist)

Only the client’s head would be exposed when enjoying the mini-sauna-for-one, which explains the various pseudo-psychedelic tiled murals on the room walls. What, you were expecting a glorious view of Mount Fuji or a mock Roman mosaic straight out of Caligula’s Last Days of Pompei? No such luck, Chuck, and besides… you already paid for a different scene of splendorous decadence at the front desk.