G’day Folks! Hope this blog post finds you well. One of the most known districts of Tokyo is a place called ‘Akihabara’ or ‘Akiba’ for short, which a lot of people want to visit when they come, including myself.

Akihabara is known for being the home of alternative Japanese culture, a centre for electronics, a place for gamers, the home of AKB 48 perhaps Japan’s most famous girl band with 48 members, and of course home to the Maid Cafes. You can find Maid Cafes I believe elsewhere in Japan, but Akihabara is where you will definitely find the majority of them and at their highest density.

Despite a number of trips to Japan and living there for over 2 years, I never tried a Maid Café, although I was always curious. From what I understood you go to a Maid Café and girls dressed extravagantly as maids served you diligently, laughed at your jokes, played games with you and served you strange bright coloured drinks. As a basic summary. Generally aimed at young men, with very little English spoken. Some cafes would I think cater to ‘kinks’ – I think there are some that almost reverse the roles and the maids yell at the customer and demean them.

Over the years they have become a fascination for foreign visitors and there are a number of cafes which I think water down the experience a bit to make it more palatable and also cater to female customers also. One such chain is the At Home Maid Café, which has a number of cafes in Akihabara and beyond. So I thought I would give it a go.

I entered the ‘Don Quiote’ buildings in Akihabara. The café was on the 5^th floor I think it was. Don Quiote is an interesting department store full of costumes, games, plush toys and more. Oh and gashopon machines – toy capsule machines. On the top floor is a theatre where AKB48 do regular performances. You may need to book online and it so happened there wasn’t a performance that day and there wasn’t one with available seating for around a week, but if you want to catch AKB48 in its current generation, you can actually see them performing live!

The At Home Maid Café may not be the totally authentic experience, but it still was pretty unique. I paid around $35AUD or $22USD for an hour (it’s timed) and that came with a photo with one maid and a drink and cake. There was plenty of English information, a couple of the maids spoke English and one used google translate.

There were benches and chairs in front of a stage, and there were a number of people there including a foreign couple and one girl by herself. I was told I was the master and received a card as proof – female visitors are denoted ‘Princess’.

The maids are all dressed like something from anime and you can see there is a very strict dress code and they are paid to be ‘genki’ – basically energetic and happy – the whole time. I do wonder what possesses someone to do a job like this. At the end of the day apart from the foreigners who try it as a curiosity, most patrons are regulars I suspect. Falling ‘in love’ with a maid is a no-no, but it happens. Probably regularly.

My drink arrived and I had to guess what colour it was. I guessed green, but it was pink. The cake was a rainbow cake (of course) and was certainly full of sugar. Not a lot happened on stage whilst I was there. Other patrons looked to be having deep conversations with the maids. It was interesting to think that in an environment that just felt totally ‘fake’ for want of a better world, guys would pour their hearts out to the maids. Perhaps, in a culture such as Japan which can be so isolating, this was the only time they could talk to someone like this?

It was the day before my birthday and if you’re there on the day before or after (or on) your birthday you get a bonus – in my case I got a photo with all the maids there that day. To be honest I felt self-conscious and a bit awkward. Actually that’s how I felt most of the experience. You are not allowed to take photos (or video) of the maids, although I was able to take a couple of shots of the food.

So in short, if you are looking for a nutritious meal, don’t come to a Maid Café. Actually to be honest the only reason I would suggest as a tourist to go to a Maid Café is basically curiosity.

What else was there to see in Akihabara. Well, there are loads and loads of shops with electronics, computers and the like. If you are into your games, especially retro games and the systems needed to operate them, you should head to a store called ‘Super Potato’. Floors of games to buy many that use Nintendo 64s, wii, Sega whateveritis and other game consoles. The top floor is full of Japanese 80s game which can play for a few hundred yen which was kinda cool.

Eating – you can’t go past Yaro Monster Ramen. That’s some seriously good and big ramen – I couldn’t finish the bowl.

Also I checked out a Manga Café – which actually is like a mini-hotel where you rent out little rooms with chairs or mats (no beds, but you could make do) and you borrow manga and read, and each room has a computer too so it’s also an internet café of sorts. I may revisit this for a later blog.

And also there are so many game halls, I lost a few hundred yen at those stupid ‘skill tester’ games where you try to pick up a plush toy with a robot claw. And of course, walking around is fun. It was raining on that particular day but on a sunny day you will probably see a number of maids outside the cafes and in the street advertising for their café. Again photos are not wanted.

Anyways. Thanks for popping by and there will be more Tokyo to come! Take care wherever you are in the world – May the Journey Never End!