Saw this online today:
'Maid in Japan' cafes treat geeks like lords
By Naomi Tajitsu | February 7, 2006
TOKYO (Reuters) - "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 center 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 the 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.
At one cafe, maids get down on their knees to stir the cream and sugar
into the customer's coffee.
At Royal Milk, diners can follow up a meal with a range of grooming
services, including ear cleanings.
Maids at some of the more attentive shops even offer to spoon-feed
customers at their table.
Maid cafes have mushroomed since they first emerged about four years
ago, evolving from cafes where waiting staff emulated characters from
a popular series of role-playing video games, often dressed in
schoolgirl-inspired uniforms.
Shops where computer-generated characters came to life to serve coffee
to gamers have since morphed into establishments serving customers
ranging from teens to septuagenarians.
Akihabara now boasts around 30 maid cafes that cater not just to male
geeks but also to couples, tourists and the merely curious.
FANTASY ESCAPE
Patronage is also on the rise among young women, some hoping to snag a
geek and turn him into Prince Charming in a real-life imitation of
last year's hit movie "Train Boy," a love story set in Akihabara that
also became a popular TV series.
"These cafes offer a chance for men oppressed in their daily life to
escape into a fantasy world," said social commentator Tomoko Inukai,
adding that the phenomenon hardly helped to promote gender equality in
a largely male-dominated society.
For some of the "maids," who are often as keen on comics and games as
their customers, the job is a kind of virtual world.
"Being a maid is all-consuming," said Hinaka, a maid at Royal Milk
Cafe who goes only by her first name.
"I'm not acting like a maid here, I am one."
Besides serving diners from a menu of inexpensive cafe fare, Hinaka
also offers fully clothed massages, and for 9,000 yen ($75) customers
can chat with her in a private room cluttered with comic books,
character figurines and animation DVDs.
The average age of the maids at Royal Milk is 20, and an appearance of
innocence is a priority.
"The concept of these cafes, where women who are physically and
emotionally immature serve male customers, is not surprising given the
fetish for young women among Japanese men," Inukai said.
Hinaka at Royal Milk gets plenty of stares as she moves around in a
black dirndl-inspired pinafore worn over a white shirt, which is tied
at the collar with a big ribbon that matches her billowing, short pink
skirt.
"Sitting here and admiring how pretty the girls are is like admiring a
flower," said Kinuko Nagahama, a 29-year-old woman sitting alone at
the cafe. "If I were a few dress sizes smaller, I'd love to work at a
place like this."
Hair salons in Akihabara are also cashing in on the trend.
At one such establishment called "Moesham," stylists dressed as maids
give shampoos and cuts to a mainly male clientele not intimidated by
the salon's decor, which resembles the bedroom of a young girl
besotted by hearts and lace.
A few customers even come three or four times a week for a shampoo,
said Yuki Todo, stylist-manager at the shop.
Yasunori Tomita, a 32-year-old salesman and first-time customer, said,
"I don't have a girlfriend at the moment so getting pampered by maids
will have to suffice for now."
