April 25, 2011

Akihabara Maid Cafe Experience

Posted in Uncategorized at 21:24 by miyukisama

So, here I am.

Blogging again.

Well, I never have anything to blog about in Adelaide, not really.

So I present to you the latest of my Japan adventures. I got here 6 days ago for a year of University study, so I’m sure many more will follow.

Today, my friends from University wanted to go to look at mobile phones in Akihabara, so off we went.

Now, the phone bit wasn’t very exciting, but after a little bit of convincing I dragged them to a maid cafe.

We went to the second floor of a small building close to the JR Akihabara station, and we greeted with a cacophony of high-pitched cutesy voices.

The four of us were told that to stay for an hour, and it would cost us 1,000yen each and we had to order one item each as well.

The maid who mostly dealt with us was seemingly the maid in charge (and called Ran-chan), and alongside her was a new maid who was somewhat terrified. The first thing we were asked to do was come up with a team name. After much deliberation I decided to called us “国際チーム (Team international)” because between the four of us we had 5 obvious nationalities (Taiwanese, Chinese, Australian, Japanese). The maid was utterly confused.

After Ran-chan tried to talk us into buying a special course (watch the maids dance and make you a cocktail/float, and get a photo with your favourite maid) and failed (teaches her to try to sell over-priced things to Chinese people), she dejectedly handed us the normal menu.

Photos were not allowed in the restaurant, but I Cylon-ed this one

She suggested the cappucino, which in a fit of…something, I ordered. We also ordered “Kuma-tan” (Bear Chan) and “Kame-tan” (Turtle chan) parfaits and …a cafe latte, but a damn cute latte! (Actually no, just a latte).

So, the cappuccino was presented in a tall glass with froth (I asked for cold)

Then, the maid asked me what my favourite animal was. I briefly flirted in my head with asking for my actual favourite animal, a Tapir, but I said Dog.

This was the result:I see it.

Before we were allowed to eat or drink anything, the maids insisted that we make hearts with our hands, and say

美味しくな～れ、萌え萌えキューン！

The best translation I can offer is “Becoooooome delicious, cute cute KYUUUN!” Kyun is the onomatopoeia for that feeling in your chest you get when something is really cute.

Japanese is a strange language.

Incidentally, that cappuccino was damn delicious, so the ceremony clearly worked. Clearly a scientific experiment to compare the deliciousness of ceremonied and non-ceremonied (it’s a word, shut up) drinks needs to be done. Nature would publish it, of course.

The Bear and Turtle parfaits were, in fact, bears and turtles. You saw a side view of the bear in the stealth cafe photo.

(Chocolate) Bear:

( Green tea) Turtle:

So cute, so very cute.  And quite tasty! The orange layer you see is cornflakes, which seem to be ever-present in parfaits here.

During our animal-themed desserts, a kind maid (Moa-chan, or something. She was my favourite because she spoke in a sensible voice) offered to play jenga or cards with us. If we won, she said, we’d win a voucher!

Jenga with maids costs 500yen, apparently. We declined.

Most of the people visiting the cafe while we were there were men by themselves. They were enjoying themselves with the ceremonies and the maids who looked after them, keeping them in conversation for most of the time. One was constantly talking what seemed to be nonsense. Another was seemingly the typical otaku, who was far too excited by the Oishikunaaare thing. The people at the table next to us were tourists, seemingly, who were even more bemused than our group of four.

So when the hour was up (and the first head maid tried to guilt-trip us into staying another hour by seeming to be on the verge of tears) we paid…6,900 yen for the four of us (1,000yen base fee, plus 700yen cappuccino,  600yen latte, and 800 for each parfait) we left feeling like we’d experienced something and paid a lot of money for it, and cemented my feeling that working in a maid cafe would be tiring and bizarre. And profitable.

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