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maid in japan
a business idea for down under?
Cross-dressing maids add spice to Tokyo cafes
Reuters
Published: Tuesday, April 15, 2008TOKYO – “Welcome home, Master,” a group of French maids sings out, bowing deeply to a customer entering their maid cafe.
This could be any of the dozens of maid cafes dotting Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district, where geeks engage in role-play with girls dressed as French maids. But don’t be fooled by the frilly pinafores: all of the maids here are men.
In this novelty-hungry market catering to Japan’s free-spending computer and comic book fans, cafe owners are coming up with ever more exotic formulas to satisfy booming demand.
A man named “Mew-zou” dressed as a maid puts ketchup on an omelette for a customer at “Hibaritei” cafe in Tokyo’s Akiharabara district April 12, 2008. The cafe, which servers are all men dressed as maids, only opens its door in irregular basis at various locations in Akihabara district, once merely a Mecca for electronics buffs but now the centre of the capital’s “nerd culture”.
I do this for a change since I have an ordinary job,” Miyuu Kurusu, one of the cross-dressing maids working at the cafe, told Reuters. “I love talking to people, enjoy wearing cute costumes and get a kick out of it when people tell me I’m pretty.”
It all started when the manager of “Hibari Tei” cafe, named after a bird, asked a few cross-dressing men to fill in for women working at a different maid cafe. To his surprise, no customer found out they were being served by a male waiter.
“The maids are too pretty to be men,” said 33 year-old businessman Takao Mochizuki, who also cross-dresses while on vacation.
Maid cafes generally do not offer sexual services. Customers order typical cafe fare such as coffee, tea and sandwiches, served by giggling, girlish maids. In addition, they can ask the maids for special, non-sexual services, such as drawing pictures on an omelette using tomato ketchup.
“These maids know how to look good – more so than real women!” Yoko Iwata, a 33-year-old customer, enthused.
Maid cafes first emerged in Akihabara some six years ago. They have grown into a booming business and are a core part of the Japanese “otaku” or “nerd” industry believed to be worth nearly $2 billion.
Like Kurusu, most waitresses at the cafe have day-time jobs so the cafe opens only on weekends, depending on the maids’ availability.
The cafe caters not just to Japanese geeks but also to fellow cross-dressers, tourists and even couples.
“I think there are many Japanese cross-dressers and they actually look good,” said 24-year-old maid Chazuke. “They’re just not out in the public yet because most Japanese used to be hesitant to cross-dressers.”
© Reuters 2008
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1 Reply
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hi…. Virgina. well well that was neat thank you for that …noeleena
