Lewis Poyntontrials.com Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 TOKYO (Reuters) - "Welcome home, Master," says the maid as she bows deeply, hands clasped in front of a starched pinafore worn over a short pink dress.This maid serves not some aristocrat but a string of pop-culture-mad customers at a "Maid Cafe" in Tokyo's Akihabara district, long known as a Mecca for electronics buffs but now also the centre of the capital's "nerd culture"."When they address you as 'Master', the feeling you get is like a high," says Koji Abei, a 20-year-old student having coffee with a friend at the Royal Milk Cafe and Aromacare."I've never felt that way before."Maid cafes dot Akihabara, which has become a second home for Tokyo's "otaku" -- roughly translated as "geeks". They're known for their devotion to comics and computer games and can easily be identified by their standard outfit of track suit, knapsack and spectacles.In the cafes, girls dressed in frilly frocks inspired by comic-book heroines wait hand and foot on customers, mostly male, who might have once been obsessed with naughty schoolgirls and nurses.At one cafe, maids get down on their knees to stir the cream and sugar into the customer's coffee.At Royal Milk, diners can follow up a meal with a range of grooming services, including ear cleanings.Maids at some of the more attentive shops even offer to spoon-feed customers at their table.Maid cafes have mushroomed since they first emerged about four years ago, evolving from cafes where waiting staff emulated characters from a popular series of role-playing video games, often dressed in schoolgirl-inspired uniforms.Shops where computer-generated characters came to life to serve coffee to gamers have since morphed into establishments serving customers ranging from teens to septuagenarians.Akihabara now boasts around 30 maid cafes that cater not just to male geeks but also to couples, tourists and the merely curious.FANTASY ESCAPEPatronage is also on the rise among young women, some hoping to snag a geek and turn him into Prince Charming in a real-life imitation of last year's hit movie "Train Boy", a love story set in Akihabara that also became a popular TV series."These cafes offer a chance for men oppressed in their daily life to escape into a fantasy world," said social commentator Tomoko Inukai, adding that the phenomenon hardly helped to promote gender equality in a largely male-dominated society.For some of the "maids", who are often as keen on comics and games as their customers, the job is a kind of virtual world."Being a maid is all-consuming," said Hinaka, a maid at Royal Milk Cafe who goes only by her first name."I'm not acting like a maid here, I am one."Besides serving diners from a menu of inexpensive cafe fare, Hinaka also offers fully clothed massages, and for 9,000 yen (43 pounds) customers can chat with her in a private room cluttered with comic books, character figurines and animation DVDs.The average age of the maids at Royal Milk is 20, and an appearance of innocence is a priority."The concept of these cafes, where women who are physically and emotionally immature serve male customers, is not surprising given the fetish for young women among Japanese men," Inukai said.Hinaka at Royal Milk gets plenty of stares as she moves around in a black dirndl-inspired pinafore worn over a white shirt, which is tied at the collar with a big ribbon that matches her billowing, short pink skirt."Sitting here and admiring how pretty the girls are is like admiring a flower," said Kinuko Nagahama, a 29-year-old woman sitting alone at the cafe. "If I were a few dress sizes smaller, I'd love to work at a place like this."Hair salons in Akihabara are also cashing in on the trend.At one such establishment called "Moesham", stylists dressed as maids give shampoos and cuts to a mainly male clientele not intimidated by the salon's decor, which resembles the bedroom of a young girl besotted by hearts and lace.A few customers even come three or four times a week for a shampoo, said Yuki Todo, stylist-manager at the shop.Yasunori Tomita, a 32-year-old salesman and first-time customer, said, "I don't have a girlfriend at the moment so getting pampered by maids will have to suffice for now."Source = http://today.reuters.co.uk/newsAkihabara, for decades the home of the world's cutting edge technologies and a magnet for visitors to this country, has over the past few years also transformed into a Mecca for the country's geeks and freaks collectively referred to as otaku.And with this change has come a series of unrelated cafes staffed by waitresses who wear maid outfits, a favorite of the socially challenged nerds keeping Akihabara afloat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 (edited) Right so this pleases perverted men from hong kong with a tendency for under age girls nice only in the asian pacific Edited February 7, 2006 by pinky@shitbmx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Poyntontrials.com Posted February 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 43 pounds is a lot of money to chat! Pinky, their young but not under age.For some reason it reminded me of some guy in wales who set up a topless baaabers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pinky Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Pinky, their young but not under age.yes I realise that but things like which resembles the bedroom of a young girl besotted by hearts and lace. does make you wonder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poopipe Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 It seems a little odd to us I'll grant but you just can't draw parallels between what we do and what they do in the far east. It's not all that long ago you'd have been offered a choice between a duck, a boy and a girl for your pleasure when you went to stay at a posh japanese bloke's house. They just do things differently out there.Personally, I'm well into pretend schoolgirls (with the emphasis on pretend) and french maids so I think it's a great idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trials_pimp Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Yea but dont forget, in Japneese Culture its customed for the woman to pleaseure the men with nothing in return.They are still seen as sex slaves in some areas. The Man must allways come 1st in certain cultures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RicH_87 Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 OT: anyone seen the family guy where peters like "aww you know thats my internet porn day", then it cuts to him sat naked in a cyber cafe. HAHAHAHAH! awesome. .... anyway, yeh everyone should know the japanese are weird, surley everyone has seen there tv game shows, getting naked and being abused is normal over there, so this doesn't suprise me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Clark Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Japanese culture really fascinates me, I'd love to go there and spend a few months, everythings just so different from the rest of the 1st world countries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Greenthumb Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 yeah ok, this is natural over there but it does kind of worry me.Bit perverted to say the least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbra Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 Right so this pleases perverted men from hong kong with a tendency for under age girls nice only in the asian pacifichong kongs in china is it not Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomN Posted February 7, 2006 Report Share Posted February 7, 2006 hong kongs in china is it not Yes it is..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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