Japan in Motion---Pro-web casting from across Japan.

Maid Cafe

Welcome Home, Master!

Akihabara is world-famous as the epicenter for Japan’s otaku, or geek, culture. In addition to its truly overwhelming collection of electronics shops, this neighborhood of Tokyo is also home to a growing number of stores devoted to manga and anime goods, the print and animated comics that have become synonymous with Japanese popular culture. For years, a staple of these comics have been young girls with enormous, dewy eyes dressed in the stereotypical French maid’s uniform.
Starting around 2000, a new kind of cafe began to appear in and around Akihabara. Suddenly, the ubiquitous French maid of otaku fantasy came to life and, menu in hand, greeted customers to her shop with the words, “Welcome home, Master!” An overnight hit, the Maid Cafes proliferated and began to spread beyond Akihabara until today virtually all Japanese cities of any size have at least one. There are even a growing number of cafes outside Japan, mostly in East Asia but farther afield as well.
The defining traits of the cafes, in addition to the obvious fashion statement, include a level of customer pampering unusual even for Japan and a deep commitment to the anime ideal of cuteness. In addition to the humble language, the maids will often kneel beside the table as they prepare tea, or engage customers in games and playful interactions calculated to making them feel relaxed and indulged.
The driving aesthetic is moe, a word which in standard Japanese means budding or sprouting, but which has taken on an altogether different meaning in the anime-focused culture of Akihabara. Here, moe is difficult to explain but refers to feelings ranging from protective affection to infatuation or fetish feelings for someone else, typically but not always an anime character. This is, in a word, the experience that maids try to create for their customers. If they’re successful, the customers become regulars.
Not surprisingly, the maid ethos has begun to mutate. At some cafes, customers can choose their waitress’s outfit. There are also maid bars and foot massage parlors. And, naturally, there are also butler cafes catering primarily to the girl-geeks. But even here, most of the “butlers” are actually women dressed as men. Real men, it seems, just aren’t moe enough for the job.

●@home cafe, head shop
>>Access
Mitsuwa building 7F, 1-11-4, Soto Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
10 minutes walk form JR Akihabara station

>>Open Hours
11:00 - 23:00
*You might have to wait for about 1 hour to sit at a table on Sunday or national holiday.

>>Holiday
Tuesdays

>>Map
Akihabara area map>>Click here to view.
Central Tokyo & JR Yamanote line map>>Click here to view.

-Matt Mangham

>>Hotels and Ryokans close to Akihabara station