I'm not sure if it really counts as a robot, but I like to call it my robot bathtub.

Yeah, those things can be annoying. On the other hand, I'm grateful every day that I get to live and work here.

It's real. When I turn it on, it warns me the water will start soon, so make sure the plug is in. Then it fills to a preset level and temperature. The voice announces when there's five minutes to go and, after a cheery little tune, when the bath is ready.

Yep, that's my Japan. Or at least it was my Japan up to a few years ago. Now I live in the big city in a still-uninsulated apartment and I have a bathtub that talks in a cute anime-girl voice. And the bank machines work all the way until 9pm, some of them! Even so, it's not raining constantly, people mostly own real…