Maid Cafe

I have been discussing about Maid Cafe with some blogger friends over the past few days. It started when I asked advise from an Osaka-jin blogger friend about restaurant and cafe in Osaka, then the thread goes on discussing about Maid Cafe and Butler Cafe in Japan. I don't consider myself as an Otaku but I do love anime and things so I love to visit one of the most unique cafes in Japan:Maid Cafe!

This kind of unique theme cafes originated in Akihabara, Tokyo around the year 1999. The service staffs of these restaurants (or bars) dress as elegant maids or as butlers. In a standard maid cafe the female employees dress up as French maids and refer to the customers as either Master (Goshujin-sama) or Mistress (Ojo-sama) and if for those who are happy to pay extra will be allowed to take picture with the maids. In other stores, the outfit and even the setting itself change. In school-themed cafes, customers are referred to as Senpai instead of Master or Mistress. Other themes include, little sister (imoto) and shrine girl (miko). Recently, with the booming of Maid Cafe, additional related service have become popular. These include ear cleaning, a foot or hand massage, photography session or even 'dates'with maids, but don't get it wrong, it's definitely not a brothel or that sort of things.

The popularity of Cosplay restaurants and maid cafes has spread to other regions in Japan, such as Osaka as well as other countries, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Mexico and Canada.

I found a link for you who like to search for Maid Cafes in Japan, this Maid Cafe link makes it easy for you to search by region/city, theme and even some extra infos such as their menu and coupon. The link is in Japanese but you can easily translate it by using Google Translate.

By the way, the Este ears service from Atelier Mimi sounds really interesting :)

Only in Japan..

(Some 'Maids' promoting their Maid Cafe in Akihabara)