Schatzkiste -Chapter 2-: MAID OF THE DEAD III

Yes, it was Halloween, my friends.  Great opportunity for maid cafes to throw an event to attract customers.  One of my favorites, Schatzkiste also threw an event..... however..... in a different manner.  It was completely under the taste of the head housemaid.  It was not maids cheerfully trick-or-treating in the interior covered with cute Halloween decorations.  It was..... rather.... terrifying.  Indeed, I am sure some people did not go there on that weekend since they were so terrified by the pictures posted on the web.  It was MAID OF THE DEAD III: real zombie maids squirming and serving in the maid cafe.

It was early October when I saw scary-looking monkey in a cage hanging in the cafe.  It was a mismatch to the peaceful atmosphere of Schatzkiste.  Apparently, the monkey was brought in from a remote island by one of the maids.  This monkey turned ferocious and attacked maids, and......

The official story (sorry it is in Japanese!)
  -> http://schatz-kiste.net/eve_zombie.htm

"Infected" maids (day 1) *be careful if you are not used to scary stuff ! X-(
  -> http://yaplog.jp/schatzkiste/archive/2350

You will be surprised how "real" these maid zombies were.  As day goes by, they decay more.  I went on day 2 and day 3.  They seem to be maids-by-heart, thus even though they are now walking-dead, they still served orders and tried to make you smile by fooling around.  However, I was laughing but shaking all the time, since how they look were seriously terrifying.  I think it was my first time in my life that I experienced fear and laughter at the same time.

The cafe is back to normal and maids are back to humans by the herb found by one of the maids.  However, I am still traumatized and remembers the fear when I see maids who turned into zombies on that day, even though almost a week has passed already.

If you are a hardcore zombie fan, I highly recommend you to keep your eyes on the event announcements of Schatzkiste.  The event was the third time.  I am sure there will be the fourth :-p

PHOTO by Naottt

MILKY POT: Cozy Cafe with Great Coffee

I must admit Nagoya is a new frontier for a maid cafe.  Maileaf that I wrote in my previous post is not the only great cafe that was born in Nagoya in last few years.  MILKY POT is another one.  It is cozy, tiny cafe with a counter and sofa, but with a sophisticated classical atmosphere and great coffee.

A few blocks north from Osu area where all other maid cafes gather, MILKY POT is located on 6th floor of tiny building.  You'll be surprised how tiny the cafe is.  I don't think more than 10 people can be in that cafe including maids.  However, the size helps cafe to build up cozy atmosphere.  Two cute maids are inside the bar counter welcoming you and you can enjoy having a chat with them.  Usually, counter style cafes are more geared toward so-called "Maid Cafe" style (I call them Akihabara-style), but this cafe maintains classical atmosphere.  They are dressed in calm black & white classical style maid outfits, and will prepare & serve freshly-ground coffee in front of you.  Behind wooden hinged doors, there is a record player playing game music performed by orchestra.

Everything is quiet and calm, yet funny and entertaining also.  Maids are all unique.  I remember one elder maid told younger maid to saute onions for hamburger, but the younger one completely ruined it by overcooking it.  The elder one panicked and scolding the younger one first, but she soon started apologizing for not giving a right cooking utensils.  It was funny how she shifted from scolding to apologizing.  On another day, I saw a maid who was always goofing up. who was with another maid who wore glasses and completely appeared mature to me.  However, the mature one told me with sigh how she is the one who is goofy back in her home town, but she needs to behave mature since her colleague is too goofy.  Again, it was funny how she said that.

I believe maid cafes are definitely shifting from a craze to culture, and Nagoya is definitely playing an important role for this culture to grow.  If you are otaku who is passing by Nagoya, make sure you stop by and experience some of the latest and greatest form of maid cafes in the world.

MILKY POT
http://www.milkypot.com/
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Maileaf: Legitimate Successor of Maid Cafes

More than 10 years have passed since the first maid cafe was born in Akihabara... Maid cafe enthusiasts around me says that a maid cafe is no longer a craze but has reached a realm of culture.... If you see various maid cafes from cultural standpoint, you see unique or sometime unexpected lineage between them. Yes, maid cafes are not randomly generated entities, but rather evolving into new forms as new cafes open. I believe Maileaf, which is a young maid cafe that has been open only for an year or so, can be entitled as a legitimate successor of maid cafes.

Maileaf is located in Osu, close to Nagoya which is a capital of Aichi prefecture. Yes, it is not in Akihabara, or even in Tokyo. Akihabara is where the fist maid cafe was born. Ikebukuro is also famous for maid and butler cafes. Some of you might know Nippon-bashi in Osaka, which is another famous otaku district in west. Why Osu? Well, Osu is actually another relatively large otaku district in Japan. Located in between Tokyo and Osaka, it is building up its unique otaku culture. It is recently gaining popularity by international cosplay summit which takes place in summer. Also, Osu has played an important role in a history of maid cafes. According to what I heard from other maid cafe enthusiasts, “Okaerinasaimase Goshujin-sama”, or “Welcome back, my master.” which is the most popular and widely used greeting in maid cafes, was first used in M's Melody, the oldest maid cafe in Osu.

So, why do I call Maileaf as a legitimate successor of maid cafes? Well, this cafe has ALL. It is basically a classical style maid cafe, green but long skirt maid outfit with calm interiors. Wide variety of tea selections and excellent sweets. Excellent for classical maid lovers who enjoy calm environment. Well, then those of you who smokes and enjoys alcohol shall not go here? No. There is a smoking area upstairs where there is a bar counter and there is a maid working inside the counter. Yes, this cafe has both characteristics of classical maid cafes and moe-style maid cafes. You can enjoy tea and sweets like in classical maid cafes, but also enjoy alcohol and have chat and take pictures with maids like moe-style maid cafes. Usually, it is difficult to combine both characteristics into one cafe, but this cafe has succeeded to combine them under excellent balance.

How was it possible? As far as I know, one of the “keepers” (4 head maids are called “house keepers”) who was also a founding member of this cafe, was a HARDCORE MAID CAFE ENTHUSIAST. Worked as a maid herself, she has gone to not only Osu maid cafes, but also to the maid cafes in Nipponbashi and Akihabara. With her counterparts, she wanted to combine good parts of different maid cafes into this new maid cafe. So far, I should say they have COMPLETELY SUCCEEDED. Maileaf is now the most evolved maid cafe that has combined blood of various maid cafes in three otaku districts in Japan.

If you are over in Japan and passing by Nagoya, I highly recommend you to stop by Osu and visit Maileaf and other maid cafes. It is a definitely new frontier for maid cafes....you might encounter another new evolution of maid cafe culture.

Maileaf

http://mai-leaf.com/

MAP

Schatzkiste -Chapter 2-: Wunderkiste

One of my favorite maid cafes in Akihabara, Schatzkiste -Chapter 2-, is currently holding a collaboration exhibition with Haruna Ikezawa.  She is a famous voice actress who played a role in Mariasama-ga Miteru as Yoshino Shimazu, Keroro Gunso as Momoka Nishizawa, and so on.  Indeed, she is the first voice actress whom I became a fan of.

It is a promotional event of her new music album, fantamujika.  You get to see panels of the lyrics and comments of lyric writers/composers (sorry, they are all in Japanese!).  Also, you get to know her visions through her own selection of private books that she generously made them available in one of the bookshelves in Schatzkiste, entitled as "Ikeawa's Bookshelf".  There are special teas and sweets that are only available during this event.

It was rather awkward experience for me being there.....  I became Haruna-san's fan almost decade ago before I go to US for a college.  I became Schatzkiste's fan after I came back to Japan.  Absolutely no link between these two within myself, but they came together to hold a collaborative exhibition.  I felt like I was standing on the crossroad of two streets that I used to live on but never imagined they would cross somewhere far down the road.

Also, it was rather sentimental moment.  I was talking about my memories of Haruna-san back when I was one of her fans with one of the maids.  I almost cried.  Do you want to know what the story was?  Well..... I guess I will just keep it in my heart as one of my precious memories of the youth :-p

The exhibition goes on till 7/29 Sun., so if you are around, don't miss it.  Even if you don't know who Haruna Ikezawa is, it is worth visiting just to have wonderful teas that she selected ;-)


Haruna Ikezawa x Schatzkiste
Exhibition "Wunderkiste -A Box of Wonders-"
blog (Japanese)
Map

forget-me-not: Like a Newly Born Flower....

Just like how buds grow and flowers bloom, a small maid cafe with a magnificent potential was born in a corner of Akihara this spring.  It is called "forget-me-not".  Yes, just like a name of the flower.  Indeed, it is not just a mere maid cafe, but it is also a maid flower shop.

Located right by a small park, this newly born cafe opened just a few weeks ago.  While it is not that far from the main street of Akihabara Electric Town, you will be surprised how quiet and calm the cafe is.  Drinking a cup of coffee while gazing at the flowers by the entrance illuminated by the calm sunlight from the windows......... you easily loose a sense of reality.  I never felt so good just drinking a cup of coffee without doing anything.

Yes, you can also just purchase flowers there.  There is a "gardener" who will prepare the flowers for you.  It looks like a flower is one of a key concept of this cafe.  There are small books about flower fairies on the tables of the cafe space.  All maids have flowers on their hair bands, that is prepared for them every morning by the gardener.  Most of all, all maids have names that were taken from flowers that represents themselves.

Schatzkiste that I mentioned in my previous post apparently "produced" this cafe.  You see a lot of commonalities between these two cafes: classical hand-made(!) interiors, calm cozy environment, very sophisticated classical maid outfit...  However, the cafe is very unique on its own, and has this fresh atmosphere of newly born cafe.  I am very curious which direction this place might go.  My desire to observe the everyday changes of this place is too strong that I've been holding myself from blasting off the highway for over two hours to go to this place!

Since it is slightly off even from the side street, it might be little difficult to find this place.  Although, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS PLACE!  If you walk around Akihabara and got tired, just look for this small flower shop.  I am sure the flowers will cure both your tired body & mind :-)

forget-me-not
http://fogemino.blogspot.jp/
MAP

Cafe Cicaro: Ai's Tea Party!

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/

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