Maid Cafes in Japan

 

Made Cafe

Since the year 2000, many cafes called Maid Cafes have opened in the Japanese cities of Akihabara, Osaka and Shinjuku. These cafes are referred in Japanese as ‘Meido Cafes’ or ‘Maido Cafes’. The Japanese Maid Cafes are mostly like the regular cafes serving teas, coffees, cakes, etc, with their waitresses dressed up in the costumes of French maids. Sometimes the costumes also include bunny ears or cats to increase their cuteness.

The maids in the Maid Cafes use honorific languages towards the café’s customers, like those used by the servants towards their master. Customers are greeted by saying, ‘welcome home, Master’, than a wipe towel is offered and a food or drink menu is shown. Some of the popular dishes include, ice-creams, cakes that sometimes are baked by the maids, spaghettis, omurice, drinks like milk, tea, coca-cola, alcoholic beverages like beers and sometimes even champagnes.

Generally, all the Japanese Maid Cafes charge regular prices for serving drinks. They charge extra for the extra time the customers are present that is for every 30 minutes, 400 yen. Some of the cafes offer other services like, grooming services, ear cleaning and shampoos, or fully clothed massages. Other options include, taking polaroids of the maids together, or single, or with the customer. These polaroids are than decorated with stickers or coloured markers. In one of the unusual option, the customers can get themselves slapped by one or more girls. In some of the Maid Cafes, the customers on paying an extra 900 yen can chat with a maid in a private room which are cluttered with animation DVDs, character figurines and comic books.

Nowadays, due to their increasing fad, the demand of women in Japan wanting to become maids in these cafes has been on the rise. In the country, where many adults have nostalgic dreams of their childhood fun, this offers a rare opportunity to role play by dressing up in various costumes and transport themselves away from the tough daily life. Also, many of these Japanese women are devoted fans of animation videos, comics, video games that portray maids as heroines, and thus these women enjoy themselves immersing into these characters. Patronage of these Maid Cafes among the young women are also on the rise as they hope to turn a geek into a Prince Charming.

 

Recently, a latest form of Maid Café has come up in Japan known as the ‘Princess Restaurants’. Here the waitresses wearing maid outfits treat the customers like royalty and show them to their ‘throne chairs’. These cafes mainly target the female customers between the age of 20 and 40. in Tokyo Ginza, the ‘Princess Restaurants’ have become very popular, providing service only to couples and women.

Thus the Maid Cafes in Japan, dispersed in their various cities add a new charm to their already interesting places.

Christmas in a maid cafe

Cute Maids Singing!