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Eug Wanker · Feb 8, 2006, 05:35 AM

Maid in Japan cafes treat geeks like lords

“Welcome home, Master,” says the maid as she bows deeply, hands clasped in front of a starched pinafore worn over a short pink dress. This maid serves not some aristocrat but a string of pop-culture-mad customers at a “Maid Cafe” in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, long known as a Mecca for electronics buffs but now also the centre of the capital’s “nerd culture”. “When they address you as ‘Master’, the feeling you get is like a high,” says Koji Abei, a 20-year-old student having coffee with a friend at the Royal Milk Cafe and Aromacare. “I’ve never felt that way before.”

Maid cafes dot Akihabara, which has become a second home for Tokyo’s “otaku” — roughly translated as “geeks”. They’re known for their devotion to comics and computer games and can easily be identified by their standard outfit of track suit, knapsack and spectacles. In thhe cafes, girls dressed in frilly frocks inspired by comic-book heroines wait hand and foot on customers, mostly male, who might have once been obsessed with naughty schoolgirls and nurses.

JoshuaZ · Feb 8, 2006, 05:40 AM

I went to one in my town (just opened) with about 6 other foreign english teachers last month. It was super funny. Clearly a case of otaku culture gone bad. Though the upside was that they had great coffee.

Can't really think of a downside to it all.

Eug Wanker · Feb 8, 2006, 05:44 AM

I went to a Japanese bar which had those hostesses that come to your table and talk with you... in Canada. I wasn't expecting it, but I had read about them before albeit what I read never mentioned they existed in Canada.

I must say I found it really quite irritating having some random woman sit at your table and interjecting into the conversion for no apparent reason. especially considering you're supposed to buy them drinks. I guess people seek out these bars for a reason, but when you're not expecting it and you're just there to talk with friends, it sure is annoying. I can't imagine what it'd be like to go to one of these Maid Cafes by accident and be offered an ear cleaning.

JoshuaZ · Feb 8, 2006, 05:50 AM

The one in my town offers a 3 minute back rub for 500¥. You can also pay them 2,000¥ to play video games with you for half an hour.

Though i wonder how much it would cost for an ear cleaning.

Cubeoid · Feb 8, 2006, 06:29 AM

timeline this someonee..and GTFO

Chuckit · Feb 8, 2006, 06:33 AM

$20 to play video games? That's great. Truly a geek's paradise.

Curse my not being born an attractive Japanese girl. I have to do things that aren't playing video games to make money.

JoshuaZ · Feb 8, 2006, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by Chuckit

$20 to play video games? That's great. Truly a geek's paradise.

Curse my not being born an attractive Japanese girl. I have to do things that aren't playing video games to make money.

I can't agree more. If only you were an attractive Japanese girl. Oh, the joy!

Kevin · Feb 8, 2006, 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

I went to a Japanese bar which had those hostesses that come to your table and talk with you... in Canada. I wasn't expecting it, but I had read about them before albeit what I read never mentioned they existed in Canada.

I must say I found it really quite irritating having some random woman sit at your table and interjecting into the conversion for no apparent reason. especially considering you're supposed to buy them drinks. I guess people seek out these bars for a reason, but when you're not expecting it and you're just there to talk with friends, it sure is annoying. I can't imagine what it'd be like to go to one of these Maid Cafes by accident and be offered an ear cleaning.

We have those here. They are called "Hooters"

There was one about a mile up the road from me not too long ago. The insencere act to get tips got old. These places are like strip-joints, without the T&A.

I once told a overly-eager and annoying Hooters girl I'd give her her tip now if she went away and didn't come back.

wdlove · Feb 8, 2006, 11:24 AM

Cute pictures. Japan putting it's on style on the event.

ReggieX · Feb 8, 2006, 11:39 AM

The main characters in "Densha Otoko" hung out in maid cafes.

analogika · Feb 8, 2006, 11:41 AM

Funny to see how things change.

I remember when otaku were kitanai and treated a bit like weird outcasts.

Same with computer geeks in most other cultures, I suppose.

ghporter · Feb 9, 2006, 08:16 PM

The Hooters girls come SIT AT YOUR TABLE AND TALK with you? And expect you to buy them drinks?

I've never had a Hooters girl interrupt a conversation-even to take my order. I did have one point out that the tray was heavy, but we shut up anyway because we were hungry.

But I've never seen the "strip club" behavior there.

wataru · Feb 9, 2006, 09:57 PM

That's just plain creepy.

MM-o4 · Feb 9, 2006, 11:10 PM

hate to sound all moral, but it's nice prostitution to me. I haten on strippers either, they know what they are employed to do and they wouldn't do it if they didn't want to. I just think a person should earn companionship to pay for it.

MM

Kevin · Feb 10, 2006, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

The Hooters girls come SIT AT YOUR TABLE AND TALK with you? And expect you to buy them drinks?

I've never had a Hooters girl interrupt a conversation-even to take my order. I did have one point out that the tray was heavy, but we shut up anyway because we were hungry.

But I've never seen the "strip club" behavior there.

Buy them drinks? No. But they will come over to your table and act interested in you and your life hoping to get a bigger tip.

I think it was probably because most of the Hooter girls that worked at this particular one, ALSO moonlighted at strip bars.

We no longer have a Hooters here. It lasted 2 years tops.

forkies · Feb 10, 2006, 08:28 AM

i know someone who would practically live at those places if he could. scary

JoshuaZ · Feb 11, 2006, 12:09 AM

Sadly, I know way too many of my Japanese guy friends who would rather hang out at a maid cafe, snack bar, or strip club and never spend time with their families. This is why Japan's population is falling like a rock. These people do not have sex. As evidenced by one of my co-teachers and a very awkward conversation that she started the other day. She's probably 50. To quote her "Japanese people just don't really like sex. Do Americans enjoy sex?"

MM-o4 · Feb 11, 2006, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

To quote her "Japanese people just don't really like sex. Do Americans enjoy sex?"

wow. that is a bit messed up. It's the only reason anyone is here. Not to work make/spend money.

MM

forkies · Feb 11, 2006, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by JoshuaZ

Sadly, I know way too many of my Japanese guy friends who would rather hang out at a maid cafe, snack bar, or strip club and never spend time with their families. This is why Japan's population is falling like a rock. These people do not have sex. As evidenced by one of my co-teachers and a very awkward conversation that she started the other day. She's probably 50. To quote her "Japanese people just don't really like sex. Do Americans enjoy sex?"

Pendergast · Feb 11, 2006, 10:51 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin

We have those here. They are called "Hooters"

There was one about a mile up the road from me not too long ago. The insencere act to get tips got old. These places are like strip-joints, without the T&A.

I once told a overly-eager and annoying Hooters girl I'd give her her tip now if she went away and didn't come back.

Sounds like the T&A is not your thang...

Eug Wanker · Feb 11, 2006, 10:53 PM

Originally Posted by analogika

Funny to see how things change.

I remember when otaku were kitanai and treated a bit like weird outcasts.

Same with computer geeks in most other cultures, I suppose.

ghporter · Feb 11, 2006, 10:57 PM

GPF ROCKS!!! And what's going to happen to Nick now?

Kevin · Feb 12, 2006, 11:44 AM

Originally Posted by Pendergast

Sounds like the T&A is not your thang...

No, T&A is my thang, annoying insincere girls that are just talking to you to get a tip is not.

I'm not a chump. And those girls see guys that pay them for just sitting there with them, looking pretty as chumps. I know, I dated one once.