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Culture
Maid in Japan
By Andrew Teasdale
Checking out cosplay in Akiba
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Visitors to Japan cannot help being impressed by the amazing design and comfort of Japan's railway system. The system was originally built for the Tokyo 1964 Olympics with Official Development Assistance loans which were only repaid in the last decade. The tracks are suspended above Japan's cities and carry overworked and overcrowded passengers—who fall asleep on their plush velour seats—to their workplaces in the city center and then back to the countryside with almost impeccable precision.
But Japan's most amazing achievement is surely its girls. Whether walking alone with poker faced expressions or giggling in twos or threes, Japan's girls are mesmerizing. On my first Sunday in Japan I sat in a spacious Starbuck's in downtown Fukuoka for two hours just taking them in.
The attention to detail they pay to their appearances boggles the mind. There is nothing random in their selection of clothing or accessorization: it is all designed to create a precise overall effect. Make-up is applied flawlessly and every hair is in place. Even their gestures and voices are skillfully calibrated for optimum appeal.
Nobody does girl like Japan. It all comes down to their obsession with “kawaii,” or cuteness. Nothing is more important to Japanese girls than kawaii. But one would be foolish to conclude that Japanese girls are only cute.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I happened to catch a series on Japanese television which gives an inside look into the psyche of the Japanese girl. Produced a few years ago, “Maid in Akihabara” (a five part production which can be viewed on YouTube) is an entertaining look at “Otaku,” or geek, culture in the Akihabara district in downtown Tokyo. The story centers on a former bar hostess who flees the “mizushobai” world and ends up working in a “cosplay” (from costume and play) shop where the servers all wear maid uniforms and serve Otaku with a demureness that none of us here in Vancouver could ever imagine.
Our heroine is a quick study and soon masters the buttons to push in order to please her customers. But her past catches up to her when two yakuza named Kinkaku and Ginkaku come to find her and threaten to shut down the shop and take way the only place in which the Otaku and the maids feel at home. This tragedy is averted only when our heroine digs deep to display her true mettle. At the heart of Japan's adorably cute girls is the soul of a samurai.
My curiosity piqued by this funny and somehow touching series, I jumped on the train to Akiba to check out the maid scene after getting a hot recommendation for a bar called Our World. A girl dressed as a maid was handing out flyers a couple of streets up from the station. She gave me a map and circled the shop. “It's above a PC shop” she said with a curtsey.
With map in hand I walked past the electronic stores for which the area is known and spotted the cafe's sandwich-board sign on the sidewalk. I took the small elevator up to the 4th floor to find that there was already a line forming even though it was just past 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning. I stepped behind four or five Otaku who are almost identical looking: short and skinny with glasses. I asked one pretty girl and two cool-looking guys who got off the elevator with me why they are interested in maid bars. “Well we came to Akiba so we wanted to experience it properly” one of the guys said. Just then a waiter came out and handed us little plastic clipboards with a short explanation in Japanese saying that there is a 700-yen service charge and that every guest must order a minimum of one drink. A girl in a maid suit came out and said “Welcome back home Master!” We smiled at this welcoming.
Once inside I was given a seat at the counter beside an otaku. A super cute maid came over and I ordered a ginger ale and curry rice. I asked her if I can take her picture but she said sorry, pointing to a sign on the counter. “One shot pictures, 500 yen.”
''Okay!” I said.
“Do you have a request for a maid?'' she asked.
“You!” I said.
“Domo arigato gozaimasu!” she said. I am not the only one who wants a momento. Everyone including two girls went up to have their pictures taken with their favorite maid. A guy in a hot pink shirt and hat went up to get a shot to add to his almost full folder of a slew of maids in different poses. Finally I was called up to the front stage to have my shot. The maid asked me what pose I wanted to do with her. I decided on the “rock on!” sign and I showed it to her. We did it together laughing and a few minutes later she dropped it off at my seat with a message written in marker. The otaku and I waited patiently for almost thirty minutes for our drinks. Finally he let out a sigh and checked his watch. One minute later our drinks were at the counter.
“This drink is plenty tasty but if we add love it will become twice as tasty!” the maid said. She showed me a cute gesture and said “please do as I do.” I formed a heart sign mimicking her and we both moved our hands to my drink. “Please enjoy master!” she said, bending my straw towards my glass. My plate of curry also came. “Any requests master?” The maid asked me if there was anything she could write on my curry, holding a squeeze bottle of ketchup.
“A polar bear!” I replied.
“That's tough but I will try my best!” the maid said modestly, but she drew a perfect semblance of a polar bear, replete with paws, on top of my rice and we did the love gesture again. I asked for my bill, thoroughly satisfied. “2,600 yen,” I was told. I left thinking Japan isn't so expensive.
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