“Master, mistress — welcome home!” exclaims the smiling younger girl in a maid’s costume, as clients go by means of the trying glass into a novel Japanese world with oodles of quirkiness, cuteness and cake.
These “maid cafes” — impressed by the normal maid outfit that has lengthy been a motif in Japanese popular culture — have advanced from area of interest subculture hangouts 20 years in the past right into a mainstream attraction for folks of all ages and genders.
And workers working there insist that the expertise isn’t in any means designed to titillate, saying it’s meant to be an entirely harmless family-friendly expertise.
“I’ve been fighting against prejudice for 22 years,” Hitomi, a “maid” in Tokyo’s Akihabara district the place the cafes began, instructed AFP. “Little remarks can be hurtful… In those moments, I tell myself that what we do isn’t yet sufficiently understood.”
Waitresses, sporting a brief costume, petticoat, pinafore and hair accent, serve brightly coloured drinks or delights like a dish referred to as “Wan Wan! Puppy Curry Rice” (made with beef) or “Cutie Toy Poodle Cake”.
But the expertise is extra in regards to the interplay with clients, with the maids clasping their fingers collectively in coronary heart shapes, chanting “magic spells” over the meals, singing songs or enjoying video games.
“We serve food and drinks, but to me, it is more like a theme park than a cafe,” stated Hitomi.
In this fairytale world, “the waitresses aren’t just ‘girls,’ but rather slightly fantastical characters who are eternally 17 years old”, the mother-of-two instructed AFP, preferring to not give her actual age.
Tourist Michal Ondra poses for an on the spot picture with a maid within the At-Home Cafe in Akihabara district of Tokyo Image: AFP
At-Home Cafe, which employs 650 maids throughout 13 areas, says it has strict guidelines to guard workers and govern interactions with patrons. This contains no touching and prohibiting the maids from handing out flyers on the road.
French vacationer Taha Hsine, 26, visiting a restaurant together with his girlfriend, admitted that he had half-expected to see “sweaty guys coming in to see their favorite maid”.
He instructed AFP at first it was “difficult to be at ease. In France, we’re not used to this kind of thing. But otherwise, the experience itself, even the way the meals are prepared, I find it really stylish”
“I was expecting a mostly male audience, but there are a lot of foreigners and women,” agreed Japanese buyer Hazuki, 19, visiting along with her boyfriend “out of curiosity”.
Others queueing to enter have been an excited seven-year-old woman from South Korea on her third go to along with her mom and grandmother.
The pattern emerged within the early 2000s in Akihabara, famend on the time because the birthplace of otaku, typically translated as “geek”, tradition.
This time period, then largely pejorative, often described males with an intense ardour for manga and anime.
“When I first became a maid, Akihabara was very much an ‘otaku’ district where a girl like me wasn’t exactly welcome,” Hitomi recalled. “Over 90 percent of the customers were men, they wouldn’t make eye contact with me, and they struggled to carry on a conversation.”
But the meteoric rise of all-girl pop group AKB48 — brief for Akihabara — and TV sequence “Densha Otoko” (“Train Man”), a romantic comedy a few younger “otaku”, helped soften the scene’s edges.
“A genuine ‘Akihabara boom’ then took place,” explains Ryo Hirose, a subculture specialist on the NLI Research Institute.
“Completely ordinary people began flocking there, and ‘otaku’ — along with their culture and even the maids themselves — were, in a sense, transformed into attractions.”
At-Home Cafe, one of many main chains, says that ladies now make up 57 p.c of the purchasers registered on its app.
Some maids have develop into quasi-celebrities and media personalities, constructing their private model on social media and typically sought out by clients.
Many cafes have carried out a posh membership system, the place frequent visits unlock privileges corresponding to particular menu gadgets, the fitting to take a Polaroid picture with the maids, or discounted charges.
Researcher Hirose stated that the interactions in maid cafes are typically constructed upon a “pseudo-romance” fantasized by some common clients. “Some may come to believe that the other person actually has feelings for them,” he stated.
Over time different kinds of “concept” cafes have additionally emerged, that includes all the pieces from ninjas to cross-dressing ladies and liveried butlers.
There are venues working in “a kind of grey zone, with at times very borderline commercial practices. Under the guise of concept cafes, some in reality offer services that include sexual activities,” Hirose stated.
“You can ask questions regarding stuff like hobbies, what they like (and) dislike,” stated Michal Ondra, a 35-year-old Czech vacationer who says he has spent almost 500 hours at maid cafes.
“But you cannot ask things like ‘Where do you live?’ or ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’ Personal questions have to be very shallow,” Ondra instructed AFP.
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