It was only when I clicked the “payment” button on a hard-gained hotel reservation for a weekend in Fukuoka, gateway to Japan’s western main island of Kyushu, that I noticed the small print: “We are an unmanned business hotel.”
Unmanned? I had missed that little word. I wasn’t even sure what “unmanned” really meant. And anyway, in this gender-sensitive day and age, shouldn’t it be “unpersonned”? And did this mean NO human staff at all? Would there be anyone to help with luggage or check-in problems? Either way, I had already signed up and paid. I could have canceled — but then, I thought, this could be the time to leap into the automated world. And I was curious.
