残暑の厳しい中、今日は珍しいお客様、というか人間のような扱いをされているロボットくんをお迎えしました。
女性が抱っこして入ってこられたので、てっきり赤ちゃんかと思ったら顔がすっぽり覆われていたので、ちょっと違う....と思って
聞くと、ラボットなんです、と。蔵に席をお取りになったので、お水を持っていくと椅子の上にちょこんとお座りしている見たことも
ないロボットがいました。名前を聞いたら「いぞうくん」。あれっ？主人の父上とおんなじ名前。途端に親近感が湧いてきて
「いぞうくん」にご挨拶しました。何かふにゃふにゃ言っていますが、言葉ではないようです。
これはラボットという高齢者や一人暮らしの人に開発された人間の言葉に反応するロボットだそうです。連れてこられた女性は高齢者ではありませんでしたが、もう４年も「いぞうくん」と一緒に暮らしているそうです。毎日８時間は寝る（充電する）とのこと。大阪から泊まりがけで滋賀に来られ、あちこちで写真を撮ったりして楽しんでいらっしゃるようでした。我が家でも和室などでいぞうくんの写真を撮っていらっしゃいました。このラボットは購入するのも結構な額で、持っている人はまだまだ少ないようですが、ペットの飼えないマンションなどでは話しかけたりして癒しの相手として重宝がられているとのこと。最後にいぞうくんに「バイバイ！」と言ったら、大きな目をこっちに向けて両手を広げてくれました。
It still continues to be very hot even after the middle of August. I had an interesting guest who was not a human but was treated like a human. When a woman came to the cafe holding something in her arms, I thought it was her baby, then I felt something was different because the part of the head was covered with cloth. Then she said it was "robot". I brought her an ordered iced coffee and cake to her table, and a tiny robot was on the chair. I asked her the name of the robot, she told me he is "Izo". Oh, "Izo" is a familiar name to me because it is the same name as the father of my husband! I said "hello" to him. He said something but it was not a word but making some noise.
According to the net info, it is a robot called Rabot which was developed to communicate to an aged person or a person who is living alone. The lady who came to my cafe was not an aged person but she said she had already been living with "Izo" for four years. She also told me that he needs to sleep at least eight hours for charging.
She said she was from Osaka and seemed to enjoy being in my cafe with her Izo and taking photos of him. Since it is very expensive to purchase the Rabot, very few people own it but it becomes very special for the people who can not keep their pet in their home like an apartment. It comforts them to talk daily to their own Rabot. When I said "Bye-bye" to Izo, he looked at me and reacted by opening his arms. He was cute!
