Phase 6: "Moe! Moe! Kyuuuuu~n!"

I knew what I wanted to do today the moment I woke up around 7 AM this morning. It was back to Akihabara one last time to re-visit the game centers, spend some $yen, and perhaps go for a couple more odd Japan-only experiences. The guys last night told me it was perfectly normal to go to a maid cafe by yourself, and I'll admit my curiosity was more than piqued. What exactly are these things, and why are they so popular in Akihabara? It was time to find out.

The second I left the hotel, it started raining. And not just drizzling... POURING. I got soaked in the time it took me to get from my hotel to Tokyo Station. Fortunately for me there were stands selling kasa (umbrellas) for about $10 each right below the train platforms. $10 might seem a lot for an umbrella, but these were good quality umbrellas.

Once arriving in Akiba, I made a beeline for one of the only restaurants open at the time, a tempura and korokke (potato croquet) stand. You ordered your food via a vending machine which would print a ticket, and then you would take the ticket to the cook, who produced your food a few minutes later. I ordered the krokke and soba set, which was quite good, and a lot of food for under $6. By the time I was done with brunch (since it was around 10:30 AM by now), the rain had become less severe and it was much easier to walk the streets of Akiba. The warm soba broth in my belly helped as well, I'm sure.



Scoped out the new and used game shops one more time to make sure I didn't miss anything I wanted, and ended up picking up one last import Wii game. This is mostly due to the fact that my shooter itch got woken up by playing too much Otomedius, and it needed to be scratched - badly. I noticed that Shikigami no Shiro 3 was just ported to the Wii and was on sale here, so I yoinked a copy. Sadly, I could only find it in one shop and the asking price was a bit over $50, but I figure I'll get enough use out of it to warrant the cost. There are over 10 playable characters and the game has a co-op mode as well. By now it was getting late - roughly noon - and I'd need to be back relatively soon to meet my uncle.

There was just one thing left to do to make my Akihabara experiences complete....... The maid cafe. Oh boy.



Now, normally I have major moral issues with things like this. I was VERY uncomfortable the single time I was dragged to a strip club during my fraternity days, not because of the fact that there were nude girls walking around, but because there were nude girls _selling themselves_ (not completely, but close enough) walking around. And the idea of paying someone for sexual attention (or any kind of personal attention) in some form really doesn't sit well with me at all. But given the fact that this was the last time I would be in Akihabara, and from what little I knew of maid cafes that the experience was not a perverted one, I took a deep breath and stepped inside...only to be immediately greeted by no less than 5 chirpy college-aged girls dressed in maid outfits saying (in Japanese):

"Okaerinasai, goshuujinsama!" ("Welcome home, my lord!")

I really don't know how to begin to describe this place. I'd have to say 20% 'attention sales' and 80% 'themed restaurant'. It really wasn't as uncomfortable as I thought it was going to be, since it was not dirty and perverted - at least in the usual sense. Most of the clientele appeared to be around my age, and there were just as many girls as guys. Pictures were forbidden, of course, and each seat had an hour time limit (apparently some customers will sit and gawk at the waitresses without ordering stuff). They gave me a translator at first along with Kae, my designated waitress, and then realized soon after that they didn't need the translator, which was nice (for me) because I could finally get some conversation practice. Time for some fun. I asked which dessert was the tastiest and Kae recommended a fresh chocolate cupcake which was shaped like a rabbit. I also ordered an iced coffee, since this was a cafe after all.

The weirdest part of the whole thing is not their food menu, their mannerisms, or the loud j-pop playing in the background. The strangest part has to be their "extended services" menu. I can understand paying for a commemorative picture, that part doesn't bother me. What DID seem unusual is charging 500 yen to play a card game/board game against a maid. Weirder still...they're not allowed to accept tips even if they're offered - even though they charge for most kinds of personal attention. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

When a maid brings your food out, she "puts her love" into the dish with a cute dance and chant that varies depending on what you order. Generally consisting of hand signs and cute chirping of "nya~n", "pyun", and other onomotopeia along with a little bit of dancing, this was the most anime-like part of the whole experience, it was like BEING in one. I felt like I was dropped into a Chobits episode with about 10 real-life Chii. Not to say it wasn't weird. And no, I wouldn't want waitresses in the US doing things like this, only Japanese girls can pull this off and not seem completely strange in the process.

I had a commemorative picture taken with Kae for about 500 yen, a small price to pay for proof of my attendance at a maid cafe, and casually asked her about the meaning of "pyun" before I left. Apparently it's the sound a rabbit makes when moving its ears...interesting.

"Moe" (prononced MOH-ay, not like the Simpsons character) is the Japanese word describing the feeling a maid cafe is supposed to give you. Its meaning varies depending on who you ask. I'd translate it as the warm, fuzzy feeling you get from something you think is "cute". It's not a matter of being turned on in a sexual way - it's totally different from that, a different kind of "high". That's what a maid cafe is supposed to be about. Of course, some customers view it differently than others, and the original clientele for these kinds of places were otaku who didn't have much luck associating with women in the "real world". Now, however, it appears that they've gone much more mainstream. Regardless, it was quite the experience, one that I won't soon forget...