Cosplay restaurant
A cosplay restaurant ( Japanese コ ス プ レ 系 飲食店 , Kosupure-kei inshokuten ) is a type of restaurant that emerged in Akihabara , Tokyo around the year 2000 and belongs to the otaku scene.
The most typical are cafes with waitresses in a maid look , the maid cafes ( メ イ ド 喫茶 , meido kissa or メ イ ド カ フ ェ , meido kafe ). The employees wear maid or school uniforms , with a certain cosplay style being adhered to in each cafe . They follow a kind of role play in which the customer is the master and the waitress is a servant. The employees greet customers with “Welcome home” ( お 帰 り な さ い ま せ , okaerinasaimase ) and address them as “rulers” ( ご 主人 様 , go-shujin-sama). The service is particularly courteous by Japanese standards: drinks and food are served on your knees, even the coffee is stirred for the customer.
The waitresses make sure to behave cute and moe and to express themselves as positively and admiringly as possible in conversation with the guest. Polaroid photos with the waitress are possible for an additional charge. Typically, these are posed from anime selected by the customer and decorated with drawings or a dedication. You can rent (some) maids and photo studios by the hour to photograph the maids in costumes and poses of your choice.
Maid cafes are mainly found in Tokyo, Akihabara and Osaka in Den Den Town . But outside of Japan there were / are isolated Maid Cafés, e.g. B. in Canada .
A more recent development in the maid café scene are mimikaki salons ( 耳 か き エ d テ , mimikaki esute , dt. "Ear-stick beauty salons"), in which costumed female employees clean the customers' ears - a traditional gesture of intimacy in Japan. Hand and foot massages are also offered.
The male, rarer version of maid cafés are butler cafés ( 執事 喫茶 , shitsuji kissa ), in which young men serve in tails or similar clothing.
Individual evidence
- ^ Steve Levenstein: I Maid Café Serves Up Japanese Weirdness in Cold Canada. In: Inventor Spot. October 5, 2007, accessed March 24, 2008 .
literature
- 決定 版! メ イ ド ポ ー ズ 集, グ ラ フ ィ ッ ク 社 , 2006, ISBN 978-4766117530 (An illustrated book with popular maid poses)