The best travel companion for loners – the RoBoHon mini robot at Haneda Airport is full of surprises

▲An unexpected find: the best travel companion for loners at Tokyo Haneda Airport is this RoBoHon robot produced by Sharp.

Reporter Li Ziyi / Reported and photographed in Tokyo

On the way from Haneda Airport to the Keikyu Electric Railway, a new series of counters has been set up specifically for foreign travelers, offering services such as discounted train tickets exclusive to international visitors, luggage forwarding, hotel booking, and Wi-Fi rental. Among the most unique is the RoBoHon robot, which only began operating here in April this year. It can act as your travel companion, engage in conversation with you, function as a phone, and even walk on its own. For those who struggle to find friends to travel with, why not rent a robot travel buddy at Haneda Airport?

▲The RoBoHon robot can be rented at the Wi-Fi rental counter for the Keikyu Line in the 2nd-floor lobby of the international terminal at Tokyo Haneda Airport.

▲There’s a small robot on display next to the counter—easy to miss if you’re not paying attention.

The biggest fear when traveling abroad is ending up with a "lemon" travel companion, but traveling solo can sometimes feel a bit lonely. At the Wi-Fi rental counter for the Keikyu Line in the 2nd-floor lobby of the international terminal at Tokyo Haneda Airport, you can rent a “little travel buddy.” According to counter staff, there are 20 RoBoHon robots available for rent at Haneda Airport, each capable of speaking Chinese, English, and Japanese. When its eyes light up yellow, you can start talking to it—it responds much like Siri, engaging in Q&A with travelers.

▲It can stand up, sit down, dance, and even knows many popular attractions in Tokyo—making it quite superior compared to some other travel companions.

The reporter played with the RoBoHon robot for nearly an hour and increasingly felt it could be described as a lifesaver for loners. If you enjoy traveling alone but want a bit more liveliness, and there’s no one to talk to or discuss your itinerary with, just chat with the robot instead. It won’t judge you for being a homebody or criticize your itinerary planning. It can even sing and dance to make you laugh—truly a fun, humorous, and knowledgeable travel partner.

The RoBoHon robot is equipped with GPS and can recommend over 30 particularly popular tourist spots—including Asakusa and Shibuya—based on the traveler’s location. Not only that, it’s also a multi-talented friend: it can walk, sit, sing, dance (handling everything from disco to traditional Japanese dances with ease), and function as both a camera and a phone. Quite the multifunctional companion.

▲This little RoBoHon costs 200,000 yen... so it’s quite a hefty investment to operate.