“Welcome home, Master” – This is will be most likely your greeting when entering a Maid Café (Meido Kissaten).
One famous phenomenon that arises in Japan and gained worldwide attraction is the concept of Maid Café. It is a kind of cosplay restaurant in which waitresses dressed in maid costumes act as servants, and treat customers as masters and mistresses. It is not just cute hospitality that you will be overwhelmed, yet the drinks and food prepared is very unique.
Even though the first Maid Café was opened in Akihabara/Tokyo in 2001, they became increasingly popular and spread throughout Japan in a few years. The maid costume is mostly based upon the costume of French maids, often composed of a dress, a petticoat, a pinafore, a matching hair accessory, and stockings. In addition cat ears, bunny ears, large ribbons and additional decoration is added to the mix.
Most maid cafés offer menus similar to those of more typical cafés. Customers can order coffee, other beverages, and a wide variety of entrées and desserts. However, in Maid Cafés, waitresses will often decorate a customer’s order with cute designs at his table. One popular dish is omelet rice (Omuraisu), where on top of the omelette faces and manga characters are drown by the maid with ketchup.
There are many rituals and additional services offered at many Maid Cafés. Maids greet customers with “Welcome home, Master / My Lady” (Okaerinasaimase goshujinsama / ojousama) and offer them wipe towels and menus. Sometimes they ask the customer to say “moe moe kyun!” while bouncing hands like rabbits over the drinks. These kind of interactions with the maids aim to make the customer relaxed and relief stress from the daily work routine.
Maids will also kneel by the table to stir cream and sugar into a customer’s coffee, and some cafés even offer spoon-feeding services to customers. Recently maid cafés also offer other services such as dance performances, singing karaoke together or taking photos together on a nostalgic polaroid photo. Customers can also sometimes play rock-paper-scissors, card games, board games, and video games with maids as well as prepare arts, crafts and many more fun activities. You even can request your favorite maid to perform for you some type of fun and cute activity (P.S.: Anime character acting is very popular)!
Fukuoka is also home to several well known and popular Maid Cafés. One of the more popular ones is called “Tenjin Style” and just a few minutes away from our school.
“Tenjin Style Maid Café”
Address: Tenjin 3-1-12, Chuo-Ku, Fukuoka City, 810-0001 Japan
Opening hours: Noon-22:00
Interested in checking out this Maid Café in person? Visit our website at www.meijiinternships.com to explore unique internship opportunities in Asia. Enjoy your limited time as a master!^_^v
Useful Vocabulary
Okyakusama (お客様) = Most polite form calling a “customer”
Meido (メイド) = Maid
Meido Kissaten (メイド喫茶店) = Maid Café
Okaerinasaimase Goshujinsama/ Ojōsama (お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様 / お嬢様) = Welcome Home, Master / My Lady
Nīhai (ニーハイ) = Stockings
Ribon (リボン) = Ribbon
Nyan (にゃん) = Meow
Moe Moe (萌え萌え) = Cute Noise done by the maid and usually appreciated by customers
