Is Japan the craziest place on the planet? Let's forget for a second about Harajuku girls, cosplay, lolitas, fancy toilets and fetish vending machines and just go to a Japanese cafe. More precisely, in a maid cafe - an establishment where you will be served by girls in maid costumes, called Master, and maybe even fed. This is not a restaurant, although you can get food. This is not a bar, although you can buy a strong drink - and you'll need it. This is not a theater, although there are performances. And this is not a fetish club, although a certain sexuality slips into the appeal.
What is a maid cafe?
Maid cafes began popping up around the 2000s in Akihabara, a vibrant and modern area of Tokyo. Already at that time, Akiba was a stronghold of the youth subculture, what the Japanese call “otaku”. Inspired by local interest in manga and anime, maid cafes began to open exponentially, and soon cute maids were serving up goodies all over the country.
The name of the maid cafe comes from the English maid - maid, maid. The girls who work there - and only girls work there - dress hyperreal, like in a manga, with short frilly dresses, knee socks and cat ears. It's like you're having lunch while in an anime, which is very appealing if you're into that kind of thing.
The maids run the cafe in their own way. Clients are greeted with embarrassment, respect, care, and at the same time they can be mimicked. There is also such a thing that the visitor is subjected to cruel treatment, edification - depending on the type of cafe and the preference of the visitor.
But still, the main goal of such establishments is to help the visitor relax as much as possible. Here you will be greeted with a bow, a respectful “We are glad to see you with Gayajin-sama or sir”, they will recommend something from the menu, they will bring food like an aristocrat, and the maid will draw a smiling cat’s face on it. For an additional 500 yen, you can play a game of Jang against any maid of your choice. In fact, you pay money not for food, but for communication with cute girls in maid costumes who behave as if they belong to you personally. In parting, they will wish you a good trip, making sure to remind you that you are always the boss here.
Gundam Cafe (Tokyo/Osaka)
This cafe is a perfect example of the fact that themed cafes come not only with cute characters, but also with very menacing ones. There are currently three Gundam-themed cafes located in two cities, Tokyo and Osaka. This establishment is located in Tokyo (in Akihabara and Odaiba), and Gundam Square is located in Suita City, Osaka. No matter where you decide to go, you will be amazed! After all, usually, all the staff in the cafe are dressed in themed costumes, and rare Gunpla models are displayed in the windows. There is also a gift shop there. Many of the dishes have creative names, such as "Hyaku Shiki Omurice". Their menu also changes frequently, so there's a reason to visit often!
Address: 〒101-0028 Tokyo, Chiyoda-ku, 1-1 Kanda Hanaokachō
Photo courtesy of Gundam Cafe Official Website
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The role of maids in the anime industry
Maids are quite common in anime. In the anime, we see both private maids and representatives of maid cafes. Yes, it seems strange to us, but not for Japan. Perhaps the most famous anime on the topic “ Student Council President – Maid”
" The main character is forced to earn extra money and at the same time tries to hide it, fearing that her authority will collapse if someone sees her in a maid costume. An interesting story that reveals the whole essence of maid, recommended for viewing. Also other anime with maids: “Still the City Turns”, “Princess’s Favorite”, “He is My Master”, “Lady vs. Butlers”, “Hayate the Combat Butler”. The last two anime are about maids and butlers, there is also "Maid Boy" - an anime in which the GG does housework in a maid's outfit.
Cafe PomPomPurin (Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Nagoya)
There are as many as four PomPomPurin cafes in Japan! If you're a fan of Sanrio's adorable characters, you should definitely visit at least one of these places. In each of the cafes you will see the classic yellow and brown colors of PomPomPurin, but each of them has its own individual nuances in the design and menu. For example, flower curry is only available in Tokyo cafes in the Harajuku area, but in Osaka you can eat Kansai-style udon with handmade rice balls.
Of course, all dishes are united by impeccable PomPomPurin themed decor.
Address: 〒150-0001 Tokyo, Shibuya, 1-7-1 Jingumae, CUTE CUBE HARAJUKU 3F
Photo courtesy of PomPomPurin Official Website
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Cafe for girls
Maid, spreading throughout Japan, gave birth to another variety of its own - namely the butler cafe or cafe for girls. The idea is the same, except that you will be looked after by elegantly dressed butlers. Accordingly, this pleasure is more suitable for girls. It happens when guys are dressed in the same maid costumes as the girls from the maid cafe, but this phenomenon is more of a comic nature, and the guys may also find themselves scantily clad, which happens extremely rarely at some private women's party.
The visitor is always “Mr.”
The waitresses' outfits are not the only difference between the maid cafes. They call visitors goshujin-sama
, "master", as if they were the masters of the palace, and the waitresses were servants. In ordinary cafes or restaurants, when a customer enters, they say “Irasshaimase!” - “Welcome!”, and when leaving the establishment, they say goodbye with the words “Arigato gozaimashita!” - "Thank you very much!". In a maido cafe, a guest is greeted like this: “O-kaeri nasaimase, goshujin-sama!” - “Welcome back, sir!”, and they see you off with the words “Itterassyaimase, goshujin-sama!” - “Go and come back, sir!”
Maid cafe in Russia
Despite the growing popularity of the anime industry in the country, we are not used to hearing such polite and caring attitude towards ourselves. People are simply embarrassed to be treated like a master. They don’t want a personal maid to help them sit down, undress, and they don’t want to play, sing or cast spells on all sorts of tasty things. But these are the main attributes of a maid cafe; such services in Japan are the main part of the cafe’s income. With us they come to sit and look at young girls in suits.
Think for yourself: how would you react to the fact that tea is brought to you on your knees, for example. For the “Russian soul” this doesn’t really fit into the head; a desire arises to leave as quickly as possible. Well, we don’t like to be masters. Therefore, anime-style cafes exist on the basis of what already exists, i.e. On certain days, an ordinary cafe turns into a maid paradise. This format is most often suitable for holding an anime festival.
Even on busy days, the profit of such a cafe is small. Maybe the power of the Soviets is making itself felt and being a master in general is a sore subject for most Russians, but the fact remains that they pay pennies for such work, and the main income comes from tips. Perhaps it’s not just a matter of attitude, but rather the fact that most anime fans are schoolchildren and students who, by definition, don’t have much money.
Let's summarize briefly. Maid cafe is a wonderful thing! Here you can fully immerse yourself in the atmosphere of anime and experience the delights of Japanese cosplay. It’s just a pity that you can only drink tea with a cute maid in Japan. I think everyone who visits there should visit at least one such establishment and pay 500 yen (300 rubles) for a board game with some kind of make-up. And that's all. Thanks for reading!
Girls in maid costumes will please you.
April 23, 2019
Author: Yulia Matveeva
The cafe closed in October 2019
Adults, when they find themselves here for the first time, silently turn around and run away, teenagers adore this place, and their parents stop being afraid of Japanese cartoons. All this about the maid cafe “HOLY”.
What is a maid cafe?
The term “maid cafe” comes from the English “maiden” - maiden. This establishment is essentially a modern “lite” interpretation of Okiya, a house with geishas. The main feature of the maid cafe is the atmosphere of complete acceptance and goodwill. Beautiful meido girls in white aprons and butler boys in ironed shirts call the visitor only “mistress” or “mister” - “goshujin-sama”. At the same time, they are sure to get cutely embarrassed. This look is considered attractive in Japan, the birthplace of maid cafes. He often appears in anime and is very popular among anime fans.
The most important task of the staff is to create a good, positive mood for the guest. If a guest is sitting sad, this problem must be solved urgently.
Choosing between a beautiful but sad person and an ugly but positive person, we will hire the second one,
— Oleg Bystrov, PR manager of the cafe, shares his secret. Another main feature of any maid cafe is the anime atmosphere. Every anime fan has at least once dreamed of being in the universe they see on the screen. Since one of the most popular genres of anime is shonen, where characters communicate sweetly, are shy of the opposite sex and at the same time look quite sexy, such an atmosphere is also created in a maid cafe.
What about us?
At the HOLY anime cafe, the staff does not limit itself to serving at the level of a simple waiter in order to provide the guest with maximum pleasure and cuteness. Meido and butlers talk with the visitor, discussing business or study or any other topic of interest to the guest. They also play games with him, dance and sing with him, and do other cute symbolic things like anime characters. All this is free. For 150 rubles you can take a Polaroid photo with Meido, and if you pay her another 25 rubles, she will decorate a paper cup especially for you. Interestingly, in Japanese maid cafes all these interactions with maido are not just paid, but quite expensive.
To maintain the atmosphere, as well as for personal safety, staff are prohibited from telling guests personal information about themselves. Real name, age, place of residence and other personal information remain behind the doors of the maid cafe. Maids greet guests as expected, with all honors. Already from the threshold they make it clear to the visitor that they are very glad to see him and that he is the boss here. "Okaerinasai" means "Welcome Home" in Japanese. In addition to the staff, the atmosphere of the cafe itself is created. In Japan, maid cafes are not always associated with anime themes; they place more emphasis on the attitude towards the guest than on the form. In Russia, Japan is most often associated with anime, so there are many elements of it in the design of HOLY. The walls are covered with posters with anime pictures, there are figurines of characters everywhere, and anime music plays from the speakers.
Any self-respecting anime fan should have a dakimakura - a hug pillow in the shape or design of an anime character. HOLY also has one.
By the way, most of the decor was created by the cafe visitors themselves.
Our guests often bring us drawings, figurines, posters,” says Mei-chan. “They bring in especially a lot of drawings.” We even created a special folder for the creativity of our guests. True, it is also running out of space.
Mei-chan didn't lie. While we were talking, one of the cafe visitors drew her portrait and gave her the drawing.
The communication between the meido and butlers and the visitors really matters more. After receiving the gift, Mei-chan took pictures with the guests, and then performed some kind of local ritual with a group of guys at the next table: she sprinkled edible confetti on the dessert of one of them, and then squatted down and said something Japanese together with everyone.
From spectacles we move on to bread. And the desserts and all the other food here are also like in the anime. Instead of pizza or Caesar salad - mochi, onigiri, ramen.
Oleg Bystrov, PR manager, believes that the cafe has two important social functions - “to pull young people out of the Internet” and to dispel bad myths about anime in the minds of parents:
We want to show parents of teenagers that anime is not a cult. This is a normal, good culture. And we succeed - they’re just sitting there, look, celebrating a birthday with their parents. We want to show parents that their children are under supervision here, they are in their own environment and everything is fine with them, they don’t drink or smoke. Let them communicate here rather than sit on their Internet.
Maid cafe "HOLY" still remains the only maid cafe in Russia. They tried to open similar establishments in other cities, but were not successful. According to Oleg Bystrov, they “made the wrapper, but did not make the candy itself.” Over the course of a year and a half of successful existence, the cafe has gained enormous fame. The Japanese central television channel, city publics and many bloggers visited here. Now there are almost no free tables in the cafe, and the owners are thinking about expanding.
About Japanese television, gifts from the Japanese and a thief
“In November, they came to us from NHK, this is the Japanese central television channel,” says Mei-chan. — The presenter has arrived, a real Japanese! With him was a translator and a man with a large camera. They asked to tell us about our tricks, to show us the food and presentation. They liked everything and left letters of gratitude and a small gift.” “Journalists from Interesting Yekaterinburg recently came to us and also did a short report about us.” “Bloggers also come often. There was one blogger who travels all over the world and visits interesting places in every city. We were also on his list. But the most interesting thing was during the championship. A huge number of Japanese came to see us. True, many of them did not speak English, and it was quite difficult to communicate with them. One day two Japanese men came with large bags of gifts. There were clothes for the cafe, souvenirs, decorations for the cafe itself, calendars, magnets, books, keychains. They also brought paraphernalia of the Japanese team. We also decided to surprise them. But they couldn’t get a nesting doll quickly, so they gave them Alyonka chocolate and a bottle of vodka.”
“We have a banner in front of the entrance that says we are a Japanese cafe, come in. And these Japanese then also wrote in their Japanese so that the same Japanese would come to us. They also left some inscriptions on the mirror.”
“And once they even tried to steal the idea of our cafe! A guy started coming to us every day and writing something. At first we thought that he was preparing for exams. And then it turned out that he was writing everything down about us. Now he has opened the same cafe in Chelyabinsk, but we believe that it will not work.” Every visitor to HOLY is special. Therefore, when saying goodbye to him, the Meido really hope to see him again, because they will miss him without him.
Was - Has become
Over the course of a year and a half of operation, the maid cafe has noticeably changed. Compare what it was like before and what it looks like now, using one wall as an example.
PS For a year and a half they still haven’t made a toilet for visitors.
Maid cafe HOLY is located at st. Malysheva, 7. Crossroads of Moskovskaya and Malysheva. comments powered by HyperComments Read us on Telegram, Facebook, VKontakte and Twitter.
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Final Fantasy Cafe (Tokyo/Osaka)
Final Fantasy is a popular video game franchise that comes to life in the Eorzea Cafe. The cafes are located in Tokyo and Osaka, and you can stop by any of them to get a taste of the artfully designed interior. In particular, the cafe on Akihabara has gorgeous stained glass windows, Moogle sculptures and a bar similar to the one in the video game. Wait, bar? Yes, you can order alcoholic drinks with your meal if you like!!
Address: 〒101-0021 Tokyo, Chiyoda-ku, 1 Chome-1-10 Sotokanda
Photo courtesy of Eorzea Cafe official website
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Shirohige's Cream Puff Factory (Tokyo)
Shirohige's Cream Puff Factory isn't exactly a themed cafe, but rather a bakery and cafe that sells delicious Totoro puff pastries. But we love her so much that we included her on this list! It's located in Tokyo's Setagaya district, where you can dine at the TOLO cafe upstairs, which serves staples like pasta, or grab takeaway cream puffs from the bakery downstairs. If there is room in the cafe, we recommend sitting at a table and enjoying the puff pastries with a cup of delicious coffee.
Totoro cream puffs come in a variety of flavors, including seasonal flavors. Custard (classic!) and chocolate crema are available year-round, and you can also grab cookies from the bakery for your friends at home. Oh, and did we mention it's run by Hayao Miyazaki's sister-in-law? Yes, so if you are a Ghibli fan, you should come here!
Address: 〒155-0033 Tokyo, Setagaya-ku, 5 Chome-3-1 Daita
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If you can't get to Japan just yet, don't worry! We can bring Japan to you. Using ZenMarket, you can buy products from hundreds of Japanese online stores, showing your love for your favorite characters. Just click on the links above and shop the items we have in stock on the site, and if you can't find what you're looking for, contact us and we'll help you!
