The Akihabara maidreamin Maid Café is one of the many popular theme cafes in Japan. It is lighthearted fun in colorful designed rooms with a funky disco feel. When a girl isn’t singing and dancing on stage, they chat with the guests, inviting them into their little dream-like world for a special dining experience. Japanese pop music circulates the room at a comfortable level of noise, providing a fitting background ambience.
While here I could see that locals enjoy the opportunity to relax and have innocent fun with the cutely dressed staff, both male and female. The adorably crafted food is obviously a big hit with the ladies, with lovable designs such as little rice bears tucked snugly under an omelette bed, a bear hamburger steak and expertly conjured up animal depicting ice creams, full of color and flavor.
When in Japan foreigners want to soak up the eccentricity and unique events that Tokyo has to offer, so this type of themed café is also well visited by people from all over the world. The staff are all very warm and welcoming, making it a safe and carefree place for foreigners to visit. Along with the locals giggling away with their maid companions, three Bulgarians on a trip to Japan for business were having a laugh and drinking beer, while bunny rabbit ears were placed on their heads.
The process of your time here will begin with one of the bubbly girls doing the ‘open ceremony’. This is done with a little electric candle that turns red, which acts as a signal to suggest full entry to the fairytale-like dimension has been completed. The maid then starts clapping and you have to do a funny little chant. After having a pleasant conversation with my new friend who spoke good English, my food arrived and she then topped it off by drawing on a cat with sauce. She then looked up at me and said ‘miao miao’, of course I started laughing.
What seems to be the aim of this particular themed café is to allow Japanese workers to forget the stress of work, escape into a more pleasurable atmosphere for a short time and have a cheerful dining experience. For the girls it is also an opportunity to escape the stress of work, but also to enjoy very cutely designed foods. For foreigners it is to have an unforgettable trip to a café, something different to write home about.
The menu is something that can be looked at for a long time at the sweet choices on offer, and comes with different set-meals and deserts. You can also pay to have a picture with the maids, which allows you to treasure the unforgettable experience of attending a maid café in Japan.
Daniel Vesey @daniel.vesey
I graduated from University of Hertfordshire in the UK in 2014, with a 2:1 in Mass Communications. I have since worked in China for a Media and PR Company as a writer and photographer and also as a foreign editor for a English website for the expatriate community in Guangzhou. I am a big fan of t...