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

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)
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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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Cafe Favorite Piece: Find your favorite pieces!

I should spend more time with this blog.  There are still many concept cafes out there that I should write about.  If I'm not quick enough, I might loose an opportunity to write about it forever.  Many cafes emerges, yet close in this industry.  Favorite Piece is one of them.... it "officially" closed this month.

The cafe was famous for bagels, and the waitress was dressed in bakery looking costume.  While the cafe was filled by favorite pieces of everyone, what is my “favorite piece“?  Probably the precious time that I spent with the people there.  Including the regulars, people there were nice and welcoming.  Combined with the warm cozy environment, you would have felt at home once you get used to it.  I always enjoy having some deep discussions about concept cafes and family restaurants with cute costumes.  Especially owner of this place had waitress experiences in various cafes and restaurants, and her knowledge in this field is one of the kinds :-)

While the place is "officially" closed, it seems like FP plans to continuing periodic events here and there.  If you can read Japanese, follow there tweets and find out the latest updates!

Cafe Favorite Piece
http://favoritepiece.com/
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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/
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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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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/
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