My friends from high school hit me up last summer to plan the next group trip, this time heading to Japan. Initially hesitant because of the flight expense, I eventually agreed since several others were set on Japan as a destination. By February, we had confirmed our PTO dates and booked our flights for August.
As mid-May approached, it became clear that we needed to start planning. We lacked hotels, an itinerary, and ideas of what to do beyond eating ramen and drinking sake. The group chat was flooded with uncertainty, making it difficult to coordinate a call to discuss the details further.
To streamline our planning process, I turned to my new AI server “Venus” and decided to create JapanBot, a Discord bot designed to help us organize our trip. This bot uses Groq’s cloud reasoning brain and SearXNG for live web research, storing all trip-related data in SQLite.
How JapanBot Works
The first step was gathering everyone’s interests. The group listed preferences such as cultural food, wagyu, anime, ramen, and temples. These interests were then fed into a research engine that ran overnight to compile data from public places in Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo.
JapanBot was designed to ask specific questions to help us select hotels near places we wanted to visit. For example:
- Kyoto Hotel Selection: “Considering we want to visit Fushimi Inari Shrine and Gion, which hotels offer convenient access to those areas?”
- Nara Hotel Selection: “Given our interest in Todai-ji Temple and the deer park, which hotels are closest to those landmarks?”
- Tokyo Hotel Selection: “We’re interested in Shibuya and Akihabara; which hotels provide easy access to those districts?”
The bot generated around 15 questions per city to gather detailed information. This included researching must-see attractions and providing estimated costs, GPS coordinates, ratings, operating hours, and peak times. This information was crucial for building a practical itinerary and selecting convenient hotel locations.
Selecting Hotels with JapanBot
Once the research was complete, the bot suggested hotel options based on our group size and budget constraints. For example:
- Kyoto Hotel Options: Multiple hotels were suggested within our $1000/person budget, with consideration for proximity to Fushimi Inari Shrine and Gion.
- Tokyo Hotel Options: Similar options in Tokyo, taking into account the proximity to major attractions like Shibuya and Akihabara.
The group then voted on their preferred hotel choices through a Discord poll. Each vote was recorded in SQLite for future reference if we needed to revisit our decisions. For instance:
poll_id: 1
hotel_name: "Kyoto Central Hotel"
votes: 4
status: confirmed
The bot tracked our spending and we ended up significantly below our initial $1000 per person budget, staying under $500 for the entire week.
Moving Forward
With hotels booked, we can now focus on building a detailed itinerary for our days in Kyoto, Nara, and Tokyo. The bot will continue to assist us in planning daily activities based on our interests and the gathered data. Future improvements will include calculating travel times and suggesting daily activities, but for now, we’re focused on getting the hotel selection process smooth.
JapanBot worked efficiently, providing a structured way to plan our trip without the chaos of endless group chats. It streamlined the process and made it easier for everyone to contribute their ideas and preferences. We’re excited to see how it helps us throughout our journey.