Soooo the day after Harajuku we went to Akihabara! We decided to progress from crazy fashion to crazy otaku. Akihabara, or Akiba for short since the name's so freakin long, is like the den-den town of Tokyo. Or, to be more accurate it's actually the other way around since Akiba is *much* larger. It was definitely one of the most crowded places we visited, probably second to Shibuya. So many electronics, a 4-story adult-entertainment store, arcades and of course--maid cafes! We were determined to find a nice maid cafe, especially since most of the people in the group had never been to one. Here I shall tell of one of the most awkward experiences I have had in Japan. We had found a small cafe tucked away down some random road, and were greeted by some of the maids who escorted us. It was small, but we figured we would try it out. Bad decision! We should have known by their lack of uniform dress, and the sketch location, but it had just opened or something because it was a total disaster. When we arrived, some lady working there yelled 'English?' and we told her Japanese was fine. The maid who waited us reading off a script and stumbling over her words, and to top it all off the food was expensive! I know this sounds harsh, but you really go to these types of cafes for the experience, and it's just not worth it if it's not perfect. But that's the hard part, see, is actually *leaving* a maid cafe. It's like they have you cornered. Maids are just standing around looking at you, and they even hang around the elevator and the entrance. So we sucked it up and Gaijin Smashed the place; just fled out avoiding any eye-contact. Pretty embarrassing, but how are we to know? We're foreigners...
So anyway, we ended up finding one of the most famous cafes in AKB, where the maids all wore cute outfits and had shriekingly high-pitched voices and even said little 'spells' before giving us our food. The catch is that you have to pay like 1000 yen just to sit there for up to 2 hours, and they make you order food or drinks twice. Since everything on the menu is about 500-1000 yen, it was pretty pricey. But I'd say it was worth it. It was crowded and smokey and I felt a bit rushed by the maids, but overall it was too cute of an experience to have passed up on! Depending on the food, the chants change, but one that stuck with me was 'oishiku nare moe moe kyu~!' which basically makes the food more delicious by making cute sounds. Yeah, everything was moe-moe rabu-rabu nyan-nyan kyuu~to! But it was... another maid cafe experience. Must say the one in Osaka was more personable and way cheaper, but Akiba was fun nonetheless.
So anyway, we ended up finding one of the most famous cafes in AKB, where the maids all wore cute outfits and had shriekingly high-pitched voices and even said little 'spells' before giving us our food. The catch is that you have to pay like 1000 yen just to sit there for up to 2 hours, and they make you order food or drinks twice. Since everything on the menu is about 500-1000 yen, it was pretty pricey. But I'd say it was worth it. It was crowded and smokey and I felt a bit rushed by the maids, but overall it was too cute of an experience to have passed up on! Depending on the food, the chants change, but one that stuck with me was 'oishiku nare moe moe kyu~!' which basically makes the food more delicious by making cute sounds. Yeah, everything was moe-moe rabu-rabu nyan-nyan kyuu~to! But it was... another maid cafe experience. Must say the one in Osaka was more personable and way cheaper, but Akiba was fun nonetheless.
Also, sorry for the lack of pics! We couldn't take any with the maids(standard policy), and nothing else really caught my eye. So here's a pic of me standing next to the Bandai center, which was actually in Asakusa, but it seems to fit with the otaku vibe...
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