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  • Hello!

  • Yeah!

  • I like the little hat.

  • Look at that, that style.

  • When I was a kid growing up in the 90s, I had an unhealthy obsession with watching sci-fi films

  • and as a result I would often daydream about how amazing life would be in the future.

  • Driving around in our flying cars, and interacting via life-like holograms

  • And of course, holding conversations with our best friends

  • who would inevitably be intelligent robot talking teddy bears.

  • Well we're now just on to three years away from the year 2020 and the future isn't quite like I'd imagined it.

  • Instead of futuristic holograms, we've got quantum LED true colour 4K televisions

  • With curved displayed and immaculate crisp picture quality.

  • In other words, just a television that you can't possibly hope to afford.

  • Instead of flying cars, we've got not flying cars

  • And instead of robotic talking teddy bears that are our best friends

  • We've got Siri, which is like having a conversation with your least favorite school teacher.

  • Siri, why don't I have any friends?

  • I think it's something to do with cookies.

  • Anyway, I am your friend. Always and forever.

  • Oh

  • Yay

  • Still, perhaps there is some hope, a ray of light at the end of a disappointing tunnel.

  • Last month, a new robot hotel opened in Tokyo called The Henna Hotel

  • Which literally translates as The Strange Hotel.

  • It's supposed to be fully automated and it sounds like the future.

  • But given that I'm a YouTuber person living in Japan, it is my job to go and check such things out.

  • So let's go and see if the future has arrived!

  • Let's go and see if the Henna Hotel is actually any good.

  • Siri, are you ready for an adventure?

  • I can't answer that.

  • Billions of dollars. So much personality.

  • The hotel lobby feels very much alive with numerous automated robots working away.

  • It's looks more like a scene out of Universal Studios than a conventional hotel lobby.

  • Omg

  • That's- That's terrifying!

  • It's a bit like being in Jurassic Park

  • I'm expecting a robotic Jeff Goldblum to come out of the cupboard in a minute.

  • Hello!

  • Yeah!

  • This is really creepy and they won't stop moving.

  • So this is the check-in desk.

  • Instead of people, there's velo-

  • There's velociraptors in-

  • Shut up. Shut up!

  • There's velociraptors with hats instead of people.

  • "Please use the touch panel to select your language."

  • He's a multilingual dinosaur

  • Japanese, English, Chinese - No problem!

  • We're gonna check in

  • It's interesting. The robot actually gestured towards the machine.

  • Ok! We got a room card without humans! No human involvement.

  • Just a robot dinosaur velociraptor. That's all you need.

  • Who needs humans anyway?

  • So these little dinosaurs, apparently, some kids get a bit scared when they come in through those doors

  • And see a giant 20-foot T-Rex, as you would.

  • So they've got these little dinosaurs that are kind of wacky and stupid

  • To kind of make the kids feel at ease when they come here.

  • Yeah!

  • Dinosaurs aside, there's also a terrifying-looking robotic recycling bin

  • An automated vacuum cleaner

  • And even a window cleaning robot.

  • But my favorite thing in the lobby had to be the fish

  • Which I'd assumed were actually real when I first saw them out of the corner of my eye.

  • It reminds me of Horizon Zero Dawn, the video game where all the animals are robots.

  • And they act, eerily, like real fish.

  • I really want one! I don't know why. I just do.

  • The Henna Hotel has two aims, apparently.

  • The first is to be fun and the second is to have as few staff as possible.

  • Less staff means lower costs.

  • Although at 14,000 yen per night, the hotel was still slightly above the average cost of a hotel in the local area.

  • That said, the rooms themselves had a few special features to give them the edge.

  • Including the one thing that we all really want in our hotel room.

  • That's right! A robot talking egg!

  • Oh!

  • So this is called Tapia and it's a robot egg concierge that's in every single room in the hotel

  • Such idealistic music

  • Happy music for a happy time

  • This is a list of all the stuff you can do with it.

  • It can turn on the light, switch on the TV, and -

  • "Hi! How are you doing?"

  • I'm good.

  • Switch on the TV!

  • "I turned on the TV!"

  • Ta-da! Magic!

  • So you can do stuff like that, which is quite cool because talking is a lot easier than pressing buttons.

  • It can also do other stuff. You can get your fortune.

  • Which I'm certainly interested in.

  • "Tell me your birthday and I'll read you your horoscope."

  • My birthday, April 21st.

  • "I heard that your birthday is April 21st, is this correct?"

  • It is correct.

  • And now we're gonna get my fortune.

  • From a robot... egg.

  • I'm sorry...

  • "Relationships involve hard work"

  • "But you're willing to lean into the tasks at hand in order to achieve positive results"

  • Apparently, I'm gonna do well at work??

  • My love life - not so well.

  • And money - not so well either.

  • There's a reason I don't read horoscopes.

  • What else have we got?

  • This rather strange looking thing is a

  • Wow! Apparently, it's like a wardrobe from the future!

  • Because you put your clothes in and it kind of cleans them using some sort of air purification process

  • that I can't possibly comprehend.

  • Looks great. It looks really great. It looks like something out of Ghost in The Shell, so I quite like that.

  • And the beds are supposed to be special. The mattress is completely unique to the hotel

  • It's called Blessed! Blessed Air!

  • Apparently, it distributes your weight evenly over the bed, so it's supposed to be hard, but

  • be comfortable. Yeah, it's good! It's nice!

  • My weight has been distributed over the bed

  • 83 kilograms. Evenly distributed.

  • I shouldn't have told you that.

  • Shit.

  • The hotel plans to expand overseas in the coming years and the concept certainly does have some potential.

  • Although, I suspect many customers would miss the human touch.

  • And there's no doubt that some salarymen might be a bit alienated walking into a hotel to be greeted by robot dinosaurs!

  • Especially when there's not even a robotic Jeff Goldblum.

  • But what do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

  • So, the Henna Hotel: Is it strange? Yes! It's pretty strange

  • But if you like robots or want an inside into what hotels might look like in the future

  • Come visit the Henna Hotel.

  • Thanks for watching, guys! See ya next time.

Hello!

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