Akihabara is traditionally known as a largest shopping district of electric appliances even to the foreign tourists. However, for the last few years, Akihabara has been famous in a different way. "The meido(maid) cafe" is a symbolic phenomenon of the new Akihabara. In a meido cafe, waitresses impersonate animated characters by making up and wearing costumes. For animation geeks, the heroine in animation is an idol. Therefore, it was not long before the meido cafe became their holy place. After they got a lot of media exposure, they were called "Akiba Kei" geekheads and captured the attention of business circles as a potential market.
"Welcome home, sir" the cordial greetings the waitresses express as visitors enter meido cafe is a root cause of meido cafe. For the great admirer of maids, they provides optional services, for example; play games, take a picture with waitresses, and so on. It seems to me weird, but finally curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go to a meido cafe!

My first meido cafe is located on the 1st floor of a small building near Akihabara station. As it has very common appearance and all the windows were draped with curtains so as not to be looked inside, we did not realize it as a meido cafe. As we opened the door timidly, four or five men were already waiting for the seats. While we got in line after them and waited for our seats, a waitress came to us and asked us about the number of company and smoking preferences. We were a little bit disappointed with her normal behavior as we expected her endearing gesture and sweet voice like a popular animation character. However, their uniform was different from ordinary cafe. They were wearing black blouse with short puff sleeves, mini skirt, long black socks up to upper knee-high and frilled white apron. The inside of the cafe was rather small and ten tables and five chairs facing a counter table are placed in order. The internal surface was plain and we couldn't find any accessories except the waitress's costumes displayed on the wall behind the counter table. But the impassioned glance male guests cast at maids made me feel that this is not an ordinary cafe.

To be continued...

(*) Akiba-kei: It is kind of "Otaku." Otaku indicates those who become addicted to things such as railroad, animation, computer game, etc. Akiba stands for Akihabara in Tokyo. Recently Otaku has inclined to gather Akihabara to get animation software and figures, then Akiba-kei became the general term.