JAM AKIHABARA: They'll be back.

In my last article, I mentioned that JAM AKIHABARA is going to close.  Indeed, they closed on 6/17.  Good news is..... they'll be back!

On their official twitter account, they announced that there is a new owner who is willing to take over the tradition of JAM AKIHABARA.  On the day the announcement was made, twitter was flooded by the hash tag "#JAMが大好きだ" or "I love JAM".  I can only imagine how joyful news it was for all JAM regulars known as JAM-min (JAM-tribe).

Let's look forward to the rebirth of JAM.  I cannot wait to write another article about JAM.  Probably the title will be "JAM AKIHABARA: Rebirth of the Monumental Cafe" ;-p

JAM AKIHABARA

http://www.jam-akiba.com/

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JAM AKIHABARA: End of the Monumental Cafe

In my room, there are maid figures from “Maid Cafe Collection”. It is a series of character figures which was released in year 2006, and these characters are wearing the uniforms of the maid cafes that actually existed back then. One of them is JAM Akihabara. It is one of the older maid cafes that existed since 2004. If you know Akihabara maid cafes well, you should have heard about it at least once. It is one of the historical maid cafe that surely has contributed to the maid cafe culture.

What makes JAM Akihabara unique? I think the answer is its regulars. There are regular customers who call themselves JAM-min or “JAM-tribe”. They are very close to each other, and they hang out even outside the cafe. They have tight bond, yet they do not build up the unwelcoming atmosphere to the newcomers, thus you will not feel exiled even if you are not part of the tribe. As a maid fan who believes one of the important function of the maid cafe is hang-out place of otakus yet it is important not to build up the atmosphere that is tough for newcomers to come in, I think JAM Akihabara was one of the ideal case of the maid cafe.

JAM was also very “handy”. The price was reasonable, and it is open until 5AM before weekends. If you feel like you want to stop by somewhere to have a glass of beer, JAM was always the place to go.

Unfortunately, the place is closing down mid of this month. I can only imagine how heart-broken Jam-mins were. When the announcement was made, twitter was filled with the memories of JAM. I am also one of “Schatzers” or regular customers of Schatzkiste, and I am certain how shocked I will be if I loose Schatzkiste.

Until the day it close, I am sure the place will be filled with JAM-mins and maid cafe enthusiasts. However, if you are in Japan and have a chance to stop by Akihabara, I highly recommend you to stop by this place, and remember one of the greatest historical monument of the maid cafe culture.

JAM AKIHABARA

http://www.jam-akiba.com/

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Royal/T Café: Beyond the Realm of Otaku

Looks like a maid cafe is not unique to Japan any longer.  Along with growing attention to Japanese pop culture, maid cafes are emerging around the world.  Royal/T Café is one of them.  It is located in Los Angels.  Yes, United States of America, my friends :-)

Last month when I was in LA for business, I visited there for the first time.  It was my very first experience visiting a maid cafe outside Japan.  How was it?  Well.......  it was nothing like any maid cafes that I have seen in Japan.  Indeed, I am not sure if I should call this place maid cafe, or pop culture cafe.

The bright interior with a tall bare wood roofing provides fresh atmosphere to the cafe.  Walls are decorated with modern art pieces, and there is a small shop area where they sell cool fashion & pop culture items.  There is a DJ booth where actual DJ was playing club music as BGM.  Customers were all couples or families: I think I was the only one who was there alone.  Yes, waitresses were all dressed in maid costumes and there were Japanese style foods and drinks on the menu, but I did not feel any sense of "otaku" that I feel in many maid cafes. :-p

I think Royal/T has evolved maid cafe out from realm of otaku, and took it to the completely different level where anybody can visit and enjoy.  I think it is an interesting case to study when we talk about evolution of the maid cafes.  While I don't think this will be the final form of the maid cafes, it will surely be one of the future forms.

Royal/T Café
http://www.royal-t.org/
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Soup Curry Kamui: Hardcore Soup Curry from Hokkaido!

Another biased opinion about maid cafes & restaurants: cute costumes, bad food & drink.  WRONG!  If you have such an image on maid cafe & restaurants, go to Soup Curry Kamui.  Its soup curry is too good that you don't care if the waitress is wearing maid outfit or not.  (Although, please pay attention to her maid costume....  It's also great! ;-)

Indeed, the waitress is dressed in the maid outfit only on weekends & holidays, but I always go there even on weekdays just to have a great soup curry.  I even know some of my friends who go there, order curry soup without rice, and just drink it off like a juice.  It is that ADDICTIVE.  They use some serious spices, which is turned into anthropomorphic (or gijin-ka) characters by customers, and all these character illustrations (40 of them!) are displayed on the wall of Kamui.  (And you will be surprised how fabulous these illustrations are.)  You can pick spiciness of the curry when you order: I've only gone up to 5-kara or 5th level spiciness, but I think you could go up to 30-kara.  I have no clue how hot the 30-kara curry would be, or even if a human can survive that level......  I am looking forward to take my college roommate from Indonesia there one day and have him try 30-kara (He LOVED spicy foods :-p)

Also, they have periodic collaboration menu with other concept cafes or magazines/blogs, which they call "love-collabo".  The upcoming ones include the collaboration with my favorite Pondichery Etoile, that I am really looking forward to.  Indeed, I was quite surprised that they were going to collaborate with the cafe that is on the other side of Tokyo: very interesting how "connected" the concept cafe community is :-)

As I mentioned, the waitress there only dresses in the maid outfit on weekends.  There are two types of costumes: Kamui-original maid costume that was recently made, and the costume of legendary maid cafe Cafe Primevere that used to exist in Hokkaido.  There is a deep story on why they are using Primevere costume...  Why?  Well, I might mention about it some other time.....

Where Kamui is located is on the other side of the river from Akihabara station, where people consider more as "Kanda" rather than "Akiba".  However, I call this area "Akihabara frontier", since small but excellent maid-style shops are emerging in this area.  If you go to Akihabara next time, don't just wonder around that station area which is fully developed & organized.  Just cross that river and step forward, and be a pioneer!

Soup Curry Kamui
http://www.soupcurry-kamui.com/index.html
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The Granvania: 1-coin lunch!

If you want to make a quick stop in Akihabara and visit a maid cafe, probably Granvania is the one.  It is right by the Electric Town Exit of Akihabara station, right under the railways.  (There are two other maid cafes also right by the same exit, but I personally don't like those, so don't confuse with those :-p)  It used to be an old cafe called Corona which already existed when I first started going to Akihabara back in my school days, and its antique interior & Corona coffee still remains in Granvania.  While it calls itself "European Guild-style Restaurant", they serve decent food in a reasonable price, and they also serve alcohol.

I love this place since their weekday lunch is soooo reasonable.  They have set meals with soup and salad, and it only cost 500 yen.  Yes!  One coin!  The quantities are decent (of course in Japanese standard in case you live in a country like US where everything is LARGE :-p), and they taste good!  I also ate there last Monday, when I took paid holiday and went to Akihabara. ;-)

I often see people from abroad visiting there.  I heard from one of maids that they do have English menu for people who cannot read Japanese, so I highly recommend this place also to all of you who cannot read or speak Japanese.

The Granvania
http://the-granvania.ciao.jp/
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