You've got to hand it to Japan. For a country that's already brought us the joys of Gaki no Tsukai's "Slap Ball" game, the worryingly edible "Happy Kitchen Candy Hamburgers," and some of the most confusing fast food mascots of all time, it's still got plenty of, uhh, interesting surprises left to wow the world with.

Exhibit A: a hotel manned by a robot dinosaur..

The aptly named Henn na (or "Weird Hotel") is located in Japan's Sasebo, Nagasaki. This week it has opened its doors to the public, and everything—from check-in to check-out—is handled entirely by a robot staff. On arrival, guests are greeted by either a Japanese-speaking female humanoid that errs on the creepy side of the uncanny valley or, inexplicably, an English-speaking velociraptor in a bowtie.

Unfortunately, the two robot receptionists aren't quite sophisticated enough to hold a conversation, so guests are required to tap in their information via a touch-screen panel and then have their photo taken for use as a facial recognition room key. (After all, robots aren't so hot at finding keys if people lose them.) Luggage is handled by an automated porter, which guides itself to the correct room.

Once there, guests might be surprised to find there are no light switches, they instead have to speak to the hotel's tulip-shaped concierge robot Tuly in order to switch the lights on or off (and also to ask for the time or the weather forecast). Sadly, Tuly hasn't yet mastered the act of calling a cab or directing you to the nearest McDonalds in order to avoid hefty hotel restaurant bills.

A giant robotic arm, of the kind usually seen in manufacturing plants, handles the remaining luggage. Guests put their luggage through a window into a box, after which the robot arm grabs it and places it into a stack in a room. It's arguably a bit extravagant for what could just as easily be handled through a coin-operated locker, but Hideo Sawada—who runs the hotel as part of an amusement park—argues that it's as much about innovation as it is about gimmickry.

"I wanted to highlight innovation," Sawada told The Guardian. "I also wanted to do something about hotel prices going up." A room in the Henn na Hotel starts at ¥9,000 (£46, $73), a comparative bargain compared to other hotels in Japan that can easily cost three times as much. Naturally, not having to pay staff saves on costs, although the hotel still uses human staff to man the security team and ensure no one runs off with a robot.

Sawada hopes to expand his robot hotel concept by opening another in Japan soon, and he later has ambitions of opening abroad. He's also working on adding more robots to the existing hotel, including a "block-shaped" one to deliver room service and drones to fly in small jars filled with snacks.

While Japan tends to lead the way with random robotic creations, the western world is catching up. Cruise company Royal Caribbean recently outfitted its ship, Quantum of the Seas, with robotic bartenders that make drinks to order via a tablet. Meanwhile, the UK's Moley Robotics has been working on a robotic kitchen, which recently made Ars UK a delicious crab bisque.