Nihonsei: Maid Cafe

Konnichiwa minna-san! Ogenki desu ka? It's time once again for NIHONSEI! This time we explore the wonderful world of Maid Cafe!

Maid cafe is a type of cafe where the waiters/waitresses dress like butlers/maids modeled after the French maids which often composed of a dress, a petticoat, a pinafore, a matching hair accessory (such as a frill or a bow), and stockings. This is a subcategory of the cosplay cafe popular among otakus in Japan. To give you an idea, a customer is regarded as a master or mistress in this type of cafe. The waiter/waitress will act as servants and will approach the master in typical moe fashion. The first maid cafe was establish in 2001 at Akihabara. The name of that cafe was Cure Maid. Since then Akihabara spawned lots and lots of maid cafe that is still popular to otakus until today.


a maid serving her master

In a typical maid cafe setting, the master/mistress get to choose a servant. Don't get the wrong idea, this is not like those cabarets your perverted minds are generating right now. One Tokyo maid cafe recently published a list of ten rules that customers should follow in a maid cafe.For example, customers should not touch a maid’s body, ask for a maid’s personal contact information, or otherwise invade her personal privacy (by persistently following her or waiting outside the café for her to enter or exit). One common rule in a maid cafe is that photographs of maids or the cafe interior are forbidden. However, customers usually have the option of paying an extra fee in order to get his or her photograph taken with a maid. The maid will then hand-decorate the photograph for the customer.


The famous omelette rice which the maid can write anything you want using ketchup

Now, master/mistresses may pay additional fees for services like dancing or perform something cute. Maids will also kneel by the table to stir cream and sugar into a customer’s coffee, and some cafés even offer spoon-feeding services to customers. Increasingly, maid cafe offer grooming services, such as ear cleanings and leg, arm, and back massages (provided the customer remains fully clothed), for an additional fee.Customers can also sometimes pay to play card or video games with maids.


Maids handing out flyers in Akihabara


maids performing in front of their masters

Other maid cafes tend to add gimmicks like Imouto (little sister) theme or Battle Maids theme that attracted more customers. So if you get a chance to go to Japan, recommend visitng one of its maid cafe to experience being a master for just a short while.

Here is a video of a maid cafe ad to give you an idea: