Probably, the maid cafe with the best classical maid outfit: Cafe Cicaro. Unfortunately, you only get to see them once a while. Why? It is a nonregular maid cafe event, and when it opens next is up to how three sisters of Cicaro feel like :-p
This time, Ai, the youngest of the three, decided to open a tea party for everyone. Quite chaotic but fan party it was.... her charm seems to have attracted many people to this small party. She was innocent yet bizarre as usual. When I was there, she said her oldest sister's era was over, and was ripping apart a picture of her sister that she drew. X-(
This cafe first appeared as an event in one of the university festivals in Tokyo. I heard the dress was made by the students in clothing studies. I love the dress of this cafe... probably my most favorite classical maid outfit in Japan now! After the festival, they opened the cafe twice in Akihabara rental cafe, Cafe Triomphe. This time, they opened the cafe in Cafe Favorite Piece, a new concept cafe in Akihabara.
If you want to go to this special maid cafe, you should keep your eyes on their blog, or their twitter account. While it is up to your luck if you get to come across their next event, I highly recommend this cafe for English-speakers. When I went there before with my friend from US, he said Ai was speaking very fluent English. You probably will have no problem there even if you cannot speak Japanese ;-)
Cafe Cicaro
http://ameblo.jp/cicaro/
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Schatzkiste -Chapter 2- : Vocaloid Card Game
My favorite maid cafe, Schatzkiste. Yes, it is the same cafe as in my very old post, but it is now chapter 2. It used to be an attick filled with master's memory... now it is a private library built by masterless maids!
I like this place as an “otaku's salon“. In chapter 1, this cafe was truly tiny like an attick, thus it was common to sit on the same table with strangers. Even though people don't know each other to begin with, eventually, people start talking or playing board games together. Sometime, someone who you sat with might open up a door to a new world that you never experienced otherwise. Of course, most of the times they are otaku related :-p
This culture has been inherited to chapter 2. Even though the place is much bigger now, they located two 6 seated tables in the middle of the cafe. People who sat on these tables communicates with each other. Just like old days. ;-)
Today, I took paid holiday and went there alone. I found VOCALOID card game there, but no one whom I knew was there at the time. I invited two other customers who was there to play the game with me. A maid came to teach us how to play the game. In a few minutes we were enjoying the game together. Even after the game, I was talking about old Akihabara with the guy whom I was playing the game with. Yes, we were the strangers only minutes ago. I think it is rare to have such an experience in Tokyo nowadays.
For those of you who is looking for not so-called maid cafes but genuine classical maid cafe, this is it! You might want to go with Japanese speaking friends.... unfortunately, two English speaking maids are quitting soon X-<
Schatzkiste
http://schatz-kiste.net/
Map
I like this place as an “otaku's salon“. In chapter 1, this cafe was truly tiny like an attick, thus it was common to sit on the same table with strangers. Even though people don't know each other to begin with, eventually, people start talking or playing board games together. Sometime, someone who you sat with might open up a door to a new world that you never experienced otherwise. Of course, most of the times they are otaku related :-p
This culture has been inherited to chapter 2. Even though the place is much bigger now, they located two 6 seated tables in the middle of the cafe. People who sat on these tables communicates with each other. Just like old days. ;-)
Today, I took paid holiday and went there alone. I found VOCALOID card game there, but no one whom I knew was there at the time. I invited two other customers who was there to play the game with me. A maid came to teach us how to play the game. In a few minutes we were enjoying the game together. Even after the game, I was talking about old Akihabara with the guy whom I was playing the game with. Yes, we were the strangers only minutes ago. I think it is rare to have such an experience in Tokyo nowadays.
For those of you who is looking for not so-called maid cafes but genuine classical maid cafe, this is it! You might want to go with Japanese speaking friends.... unfortunately, two English speaking maids are quitting soon X-<
Schatzkiste
http://schatz-kiste.net/
Map
I am back!
Hello everyone. I'm back!
Yesterday, I was talking with my Maid-cafe friend in one of the older maid cafes, Mai:lish. We were talking about how maid cafes are misunderstood among general population. Most people think moe-moe style cafes are the only maid cafes that are out there, or some people even think it is some weird perverted thing... X-<
In my opinion, maid cafes, or in a broader term "concept cafes", are one of the most interesting Japanese sub-culture now out there. While more than a decade has passed since the first maid cafe was born in Akihabara, the culture is still filled with a frontier spirit! Each cafe is very unique: if you go to one of the cafes and you don't like it, try another one. There is a high chance that you will find another one very different, and you might LOVE it!
My maid-cafe friend told me that there are many people outside Japan who are also interested in maid cafes, but the information in English is very limited and people don't know where to go. He said I should create a web site in English about maid cafes. I remembered I already had one :-p
I will change the style a bit from my previous posts. I will take "diary" style instead of "review" style. I will not be a reporter but one of the customers, and write whatever I felt in free-style. This way, I think I have a better chance not killing this blog, and continue posting new and fresh information to English-speaker people out there. If you have any specific questions, feel free to leave a comment to my posts. I will try to answer to them as much as possible.
Anyways, I am about to go to Akihabara now! See ya!
Yesterday, I was talking with my Maid-cafe friend in one of the older maid cafes, Mai:lish. We were talking about how maid cafes are misunderstood among general population. Most people think moe-moe style cafes are the only maid cafes that are out there, or some people even think it is some weird perverted thing... X-<
In my opinion, maid cafes, or in a broader term "concept cafes", are one of the most interesting Japanese sub-culture now out there. While more than a decade has passed since the first maid cafe was born in Akihabara, the culture is still filled with a frontier spirit! Each cafe is very unique: if you go to one of the cafes and you don't like it, try another one. There is a high chance that you will find another one very different, and you might LOVE it!
My maid-cafe friend told me that there are many people outside Japan who are also interested in maid cafes, but the information in English is very limited and people don't know where to go. He said I should create a web site in English about maid cafes. I remembered I already had one :-p
I will change the style a bit from my previous posts. I will take "diary" style instead of "review" style. I will not be a reporter but one of the customers, and write whatever I felt in free-style. This way, I think I have a better chance not killing this blog, and continue posting new and fresh information to English-speaker people out there. If you have any specific questions, feel free to leave a comment to my posts. I will try to answer to them as much as possible.
Anyways, I am about to go to Akihabara now! See ya!
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