MAID CAFE

Maid Cafe - Sometimes referred to as Meido cafe or Cosplay restaurants. Article includes Maid Cafe pictures and locations.

Since around 2000, cafes called "maid cafe" have opened in Akihabara and more recently a few in Shinjuku plus others in major Japanese cities like Osaka and some others around the world. In maid cafes, typical manga-style maids serve tea and cakes. In Japanese these are referred to as "Maido" or "Meido" cafe. When a customer enters the café, the maids typically give a flattering greeting such as "Welcome home, Master"(お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様!) in order to play the role of a house servant. Unlike "ordinary" cafés, maids serve customers as if they were their masters. For example, staff sometimes kneel on the ground to mix sugar or milk in teas or other drinks. The purpose of the maid cafés and their service is to make customers feel at home and relaxed. Although exemplary customer service is typical of Japan, maid cafés take special care to pamper their patrons.

Maid promoting maid cafes in Akihabara, Tokyo.

In some maid cafes you can pay extra for a maid to play a simple game with you or have your photo taken with them. Many maid cafes restrict the length of time you can spend there without placing additional orders or paying to play games. There is definitely no sexual overtones about the whole situation. The maid in the Maid Cafe fills a similar roll in Japanese society as the Geisha did in the past; they are both entertainers (Geisha literally means entertainer).


YouTube video about Maid Cafe's

Additional Services - Maid Cafe

Some Maid Cafe have started to offer additional services including hand, foot, shoulder and back massages. In the later two the person receiving the massage does not remove their clothing.

While the maids in the posters advertising these cafes are very cute, don't expect that all the maids will look that cute. There is no doubt though these maid cafes are very popular. Even on a Monday night when many were closed, the wait to get into one that was open was 90 minutes!

Why so few pictures? Generally you are not allowed to take pictures in these cafes or of the maids out on the street promoting their cafe. There are some Meido Cafes that do specifically allow this, but there is a fee for this service.

(Article based on Wikipedia article and used under the GNU Free Documentation License)