You’ll never feel alone in this hotel (but not in a creepy way).

Every day of the month that ends in a 1 (the 1st, the 11th, the 21st, and the 31st), is “Solo Date Day” in Japan, where people are encouraged to take themselves out on an adventure for one. So on February 21st, our Japanese-language reporter Momo Momomura treated herself to a one-night hotel stay at the “Henn na Hotel” in Maihama Bay, Tokyo.

If you know a bit of Japanese, then you probably know “Henn na” means “weird” (much like some of Japan’s many love hotels), but you’ve probably already figured out what’s weird by reading the title of this article: the hotel is staffed by moving and interactive robots.

▼ Service nowadays sure is different.

When Momo opened the door, she almost screamed and ran away when faced with two robot T-Rexes. They opened their mouths and let out a nice, welcoming groan at her.

She plucked up her courage and made her way to the front desk, where the friendly raptor robot was waiting for her.

The touch screen panel made checking in an easy and high-tech process, and it even offers service in multiple languages! All Momo had to do was type in her name and she received her key card. The raptor even wished her “good day” as she made her way to the room.

The room she got was simple and reminded her of a business hotel (but not in a bad way). The first thing that caught Momo’s eye was the small robot sitting in a clear case on the desk.

Without missing a beat, it informed her, “Talk to me if you have any questions about the hotel.”

▼ The adorable robot is RoBoHoN, made by Sharp

This robot roommate, allowed her to turn on the TV hands-free, set an alarm, and even hear it sing a song! But no matter how much Momo tried to make specific requests, it wouldn’t listen to her…

Suddenly, the robot declared, “I’m going to start playing the taiko drums now!” and began playing an invisible set of large taiko drums, exclaiming “Ha!” to the beat.

Apparently, the robot is better at talking to you out of the blue than listening to your requests. It wasn’t so easy when she was trying to figure out how to continue a conversation, since it would stop answering her if its eyes weren’t yellow.

Rather than be weirded out by this, though, Momo thought it was charming and natural. It told her “Tadaima!” (“Welcome back!”) when she returned from a convenience store run, and it chatted with her a few more times while she was eating dinner. It felt more like a person was in the room than a robot.

Overall, Momo had a pretty good Solo Date Day. The robot service was great, and thanks to her robotic roommate, she didn’t feel a sense of loneliness at all.

By the way, there are humans working at the hotel (at least, behind the scenes). Momo phoned the hotel after realizing she forgot something and was pleasantly surprised to talk to a polite human staff member.

Hotel information
Henn na Hotel Maihama Tokyo Bay/変なホテル 舞浜東京ベイ
Address: Chiba-ken, Urayasu-shi, Fujimi 5-3-20
千葉県浦安市富士見5-3-20
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]