Travel Where People Meet, Overcoming the Physical World and Distance (Part Two)

Technology changes the way we live, and it also changes how we travel. Mr. Ory Yoshifuji, the developer of “alter ego” OriHime robots, made it his mission to eliminate loneliness after his own experiences and talking to people he has met through research. This endeavor has many reasons behind it, no to only to support those who are lonely but also to connect people and create exchanges, encounters, and communities. Looking through the lens of Mr. Ory, we’ll explore the new ways that technology will bring to us for travel, and the future of how travel will become profound as connections between people deepen.

What is the role in travel in alleviating isolation?

In part one of this series, we introduced OriHime and pilots that work at Alter Ego Robot Café DAWN ver.β (going forward as “Café Dawn”). They overcome physical limits of distance and connect society and people together, bringing new ways for people to meet.

In this second part, we’ll talk to Mr. Ory Yoshifuji, the developer of OriHime, who has made it his mission to alleviate isolation and loneliness from people, to connect people together, and to explore the possibilities of travel.

People Desire to Go Out and Meet Other People Directly, Even if It’s not Efficient

(Author) You’re on a mission to alleviate isolation and loneliness from people. What sort of possibilities does travel have here?

(Mr. Ory) I think that travel has the potential to relieve loneliness. Movement, dialogue, and purpose are important to do so. Putting impediments that prevent these three items aside, I believe it is possible to relieve loneliness and feelings of isolation.

I was a shut-in myself at one time, and I always thought, “Why do people go out?” People eat breakfast, take showers, choose what to wear, adjust their outfits in front of the mirror to go to school or work. Assuming it takes one hour to get there one way, this means people spend roughly three hours of their lives every day to do so. It was difficult to live life without going out before, but with the advent of remote work becoming more common, we can do more things online. We help people who can’t leave their homes easily with OriHime. People can essentially now live their lives without having to go anywhere. Nevertheless, people will still move around. I believe that many people want to invest the time, meet people in real life, and connect with society. It may not be logical, but I think that’s the value of going out in the world.

(Author) What is the value of “going out in the world?”

(Mr. Ory) When I was young, I spent most of my days not talking to anybody. I tried many ways to overcome this problem. Likewise, people who recover from isolation or loneliness have different situations and try various ways to overcome it, but there is one point of commonality that they have: there was someone there for them, and that’s why they are here now.

In technical college, I theorized that people could potentially receive comfort from artificial intelligence and thus researched creating robot friends. When I recovered from being a shut-in, I realized that people are made from the encounters they have, people are comforted by meeting friends who mesh well with them and by talking to other people, not from artificial intelligence that matches with them. That’s when I stopped my research on robot friends.

I failed to change myself and thus think that people don’t change so easily. But if you meet someone, listen to them, try to do something with them – these action influence others and are the catalyst to change. I’ve experienced it many times myself.

Mr. Ory, Who Loves to Travel, Pursues A Sense of Togetherness with OriHime
(Photo Provided by OryLabs Inc.)

Being Disabled and Unable To Move, “A Life Without Discovery, Means Not Meeting People”

(Author) Going out in the world is important to meeting new people then.

(Mr. Ory) When I was about 20 years old, I developed an interest in other people. I would listen to their stories about their lives, and they would all have different family situations and difficulties. I thought it was interesting to see people’s perspectives and have different values from me. In my case, I had opportunities to interact with disabled people and noticed that many of them tend to think about life. They would wonder why they were afflicted with whatever disease they had or wondered if they were a burden as they couldn’t live without someone’s help. I thought to myself about what I should do in life and that’s what made me realize it.

In 2017, I had a bed-ridden friend who passed away. He was a secretary and his name was Yuuta Banda. He told me, “One of the biggest handicaps is being unable to move. Without meeting new people, you won’t be able to make new discoveries.” You are unable to move within your own house, unable to look outside of the window, and unable to open the fridge. Being bed-ridden means there are a lot of inconveniences. He was bed-ridden since he was four years old for 20 years. He was unable to go to school and lived his life without being able to make friends who mesh well with him. For Mr. Banda, being unable to make new discoveries because he couldn’t meet people was his biggest handicap.

(Author) Mr. Banda also talked about his experience being bed-ridden for 20 years with you as well.

(Mr. Ory) If I didn’t have any connection with him, I wouldn’t have known about his life and his point of view. It was a learning experience. I can’t live other people’s lives, but listening to other people’s stories – it truly expands your horizons and gives you more perspective.

With that experience, I started to think how can replicant the feeling of actually being somewhere else? That’s when I started to focus on OriHime. Of course, I liked VR and metaverse from a long time ago, so I thought I could approach it from that point of view. I named this project OriHime because I thought of how I wanted people to be able to be somewhere else, in real life, in reality to meet people there, even though they are somewhere else. My vision that I first thought about in college was the seed connecting it to the present.

(Author) As Mr. Banda said, being restricted in movement means less opportunities to meet new people. On the other hand, there are people who feel lonely and isolated despite not having those limitations. What do you think is necessary to meet new people?

(Mr. Ory) Feeling isolated might mean that person hasn’t yet met someone they mesh well with. However, meeting new people is hard without some sort of catalyst. For example, people commute with hundreds of other people everyay on the trains in the city, so one would think that it wouldn’t be that strange to make a friend there, but that’s not the reality. Basically, meeting new people is very important.

I’m interested in how and the conditions people start to converse about their values with each other. Just like communication that takes place during travel, I theorize that good encounters with people happen depending on the questions being asked. I am starting to confirm this belief through Café DAWN.

In front of Café DAWN there is a message that reads, “Bed-ridden, I’ll go first.” The café is using Mr. Banda’s ideas.
(Photo by author)

New Experiments Walking with the Alter Ego Robots

When talking to Mr. Ory, he hinted at the possibilities of travel to eliminate loneliness and isolation from humankind. OryLab Inc. isn’t stopping at just Café DAWN. They are exploring the possibilities of a new experience: having the small OriHime robots ride your shoulder as you explore town.

Exploring the Town With On-The-Shoulders OriHime

I had the opportunity to try having OriHime ride on my shoulders. At Café DAWN, the robots are used for exchanges, but the OriHime that rode my shoulders, seeing from my point of view, felt like a partner in crime in a way. It was a refreshing experience.

Although I live in Tokyo and move around the city every day, the pilots controlling the robots don’t have the freedom to do so and may have never been to a particular location they’re visiting using the robots. They are walking in the same place, seeing the same landscapes as I do. However, they may experience things differently, notice things differently and have different interests. Questions like, “How strong is the wind blowing?” “What’s the temperature like?” and “I heard a bird singing, was there something?” come up in conversations. These things are obvious and commonplace for me so I don’t pay attention usually, yet now I did. You can make discoveries walking with another person, but there is a big difference when it’s with a pilot. I felt like there were more things to notice.

Right now, the company is working on verifying whether or not this experience can be used as actual tour guides. In usual guided tours, the guide will lead the visitors and tell them prepared information, and have a role in guiding them places. However, for the on-the-shoulder OriHime, they’re able to relay information as well, but the actual person walking is the visitor themselves. There’s no way to control the visitor if they decide to take another route.

Conversations happen easily with strangers as having the robot on your shoulder is conspicuous. People close by wonder, “What is that?” and start talking to you. Children also draw nearer. When I had the robot on my shoulder, visitors’ children from overseas surrounded me and a woman smiled at me and greeted me.

A pilot told me, “Unlike Café DAWN, there are many surprising and unplanned elements outside. Enjoying these elements and creating a journey is group work. The type of travel it will turn into depends on the customer as we think together, share realizations, and help each other out. It is different from a guided tour, but that is what makes it unique and interesting.”

Technology Will Change People’s General Knowledge and the Landscape of Society

It seems on-shoulders OriHime was an idea thought before the inception of Café DAWN. Although there were people who thought nobody would do such an embarrassing thing at the beginning, AI and robots are becoming more commonplace now. COVID-19 changed a lot of the way society works, more foreign visitors are coming to Japan, and society is changing overall. All these reasons make it easier for people to accept the on-shoulder OriHimes. People in the city use their smartphones and wireless earbuds, seemingly talking to themselves as they walk. That’s become a normal scene so technology will change our general knowledge about things and the landscape of society.

The On-the-shoulders OriHime taking people who can’t go outside to experience the world may have hidden possibilities. For example, bed-ridden children can participate as a pilot such as in field trips, day trips, and other activities they’ve once given up on. Of course, they can also experience everyday life with their classmates too. These sort of “life experiences” may be one interesting future in the realm of travel.

People who wouldn’t normally meet in their everyday lives, meet and move together. It isn’t a one-way relationship either. They’ll share what they see, their point of views, and senses. They’ll reflect upon what they realize as well. It is different from the normal sense of travel of reaching a destination. Through travel, they’ll meet people, share each other’s point of view, and values. Doing so creates and enriching experience. Travel will become something more than it is now, and I feel like it will progress to become exchanges of the heart.

Travel Fueled by Technology and What That Means for Today

Mr. Ory has spent his career building connections with people, special places, new discoveries and encounters. He wants to create a new way to travel. In a society where people are aging and diversifying, people need each other to live and not feel isolated. It is important to have roles that receive gratitude or “thanks.” “I want to use technology to help people move around to also address the lack of human resources and mitigate feelings of isolation,” he says.

An Alter Ego Robot Café opened up in Denmark for a limited time this past spring (April 2nd to September 30th, 2025). Although the pilots weren’t able to physical move themselves, they were able to connect with friends over 8,000 kilometers away using OriHime. As they shared their experiences working in the same space, they created exchanges with the people there. OriHime overcomes distance, disabilities, and what was commonly thought to be “general knowledge.” The fight to expand its services continue.

People who weren’t supposed meet, connect with each other. They share their backgrounds, points of views and make new realizations. This experience will enrich their lives. This is what it means to travel. The value and the work that comes out of this in the future can also be a part of tourism as well. New encounters and exchanges change shape depending on the technology and leave a deep mark on our hearts. They will continue to influence the lives of the people going forward.

Staff work together at the limited-time robot café in Denmark, overcoming distance, time, and language.
Many exchanges have been born here and has gotten traction abroad as well.

　
*1 Filter Bubble: This refers to the phenomenon of displaying information that the user likes and no other various points of view, resulting a narrow-minded line of sight. This may potentially solidify prejudices.
　
*2 Echo Chamber Phenomenon: This refers to a place online where communication repeats the same opinions and thoughts, resulting in amplification of certain information and forming extremism. By eliminating objective information and differing points of view, it may be the primary cause of the division of society.