Wow, just saw an article about Meido Cafes in Japan. Here are a few great snippets:
“When they address you as ‘Master’, the feeling you get is like a high,” says Koji Abei, a 20-year-old student having coffee with a friend at the Royal Milk Cafe and Aromacare.
“I’ve never felt that way before.”
I can’t identify with someone who has never been referred to as “Master”.
Patronage is also on the rise among young women, some hoping to snag a geek and turn him into Prince Charming in a real-life imitation of last year’s hit movie “Train Boy,” a love story set in Akihabara that also became a popular TV series.
Lollerskates, you can believe anything you see on TV.
“Being a maid is all-consuming,” said Hinaka, a maid at Royal Milk Cafe who goes only by her first name.
“I’m not acting like a maid here, I am one.”
Yes, the brainwashing was a success!
Yasunori Tomita, a 32-year-old salesman and first-time customer, said, “I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment so getting pampered by maids will have to suffice for now.”
I think that pretty much sums it up.
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> I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment so getting pampered by maids will have to suffice for now.
And I thought that having a girlfriend was about pampering her like a maid! Or wearing itchy scarves. :P
> Yasunori Tomita, a [soon to be unemployed] 32-year-old salesman and first-time customer, said, “I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment so getting pampered by maids [receiving a nasty phone call from my horrified mother] will have to suffice for now.”
Had to fix that.
Reminds me of hooters. Turning a geek into a “Prince Charming” is called psycho rape – in my book at least.
The whole phenomenon just creeps me out.
I once saw a program on TV about maid selling Oden in Akihabara. From this show, one can easily see how scary the whole ‘Maid phenomenon’ has become. These girls actually go out of their way to change their voice and personality just to be a ‘Maid’. That means they go around talking in little girl’s voice and starts acting like they are 12 year olds. *shudders*.
I think it’s interesting. I would love to go to one of those cafes just to see what it’s really like.
My only problem is that I have a very dominant personality and I don’t know if I could sincerely call anyone “master.” I am more of the mistress myself, and most quiet nerdy guys are submissive.
As for Densha Otoko…Sometimes it works out real well, guys. (o^^o)ãµãµã£â™ª
I am seriously disturbed by this. O_o The weird things you find in Japan…
I vote for the “psycho rape”. I recently d/loaded some videos on tokyotosho (maybe a bit old, but valid in the contents) about Japan, about shopping, music, fashion trends etc.
My humble opinion on this is that the Japanese are the “ultimate victims” of any kind of mass-manipulation. Thet’s maybe the price you have to pay when you have a such a huge economic growth in a relatively small time window. They’re trying to buy everything they can to have at least a _glimpse_ of happyness, and they’re letting moral values down the drain. It’s a quite global trend, but the Japanese, radical as they are, are pushing this to extremes, as they usually do. This “maido” stuff is simply a variation of prostitution, you can buy sex-dolls for sex (very common in every part of the world, of course) or you can buy maido-dolls which will clean your ears after they’ve served you tea. The basic concept it’s the same, the form is extremely *weird* in this case I believe, but…Japan sometimes redefines the word “weird” to new “exciting” extents….
That’s my 2 €cents (and gomennasai for the long post, and maybe not-so-flashy english…)
> Wyk72:
Maybe I went to the wrong parts of Japan (the wrong parts being pretty normal areas in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagano, Yokohama, etc.), and met the wrong people (very polite, conservative families), but I really didn’t think it was as crazy as people might think. When I landed in Japan, there wasn’t any huge banner with colorful lights and cute girls in costume to greet me. Everything seemed pretty normal. Some stuff is wacky and yes the culture is different but I never really found anyone to be lecherous or extremely strange. In fact, the majority of the Japanese people seem to have HIGH moral values. I wouldn’t say their societal values are going down the drain. It is frowned upon to be too affectionate in public, though the younger generation will hold hands and whatnot now. A lot of culture and rituals still exist that are based on a respect system. You can even look at the language as an example of this system. Above all, you are to be polite, not litter, obey the law, be a good citizen, etc. I didn’t really find a lack of morals…I know there are some gritty places in Japan, but there are those everywhere in the world. And I would certainly say Japan has a long way to go before it becomes as “loose” as the U.S.
And I don’t think these “maid” cafes are as prevalent as you’d imagine. Japan is bigger than these select districts of Tokyo or Kyoto or the other famous scenes. Way bigger. I didn’t find the average person in Japan to be that “radical.”
My 200 yen.
I didn’t absolutely mean that Japan is the “country of all immorality” – I don’t have such narrow view of things. I still think that the Japanese are “radical” in the sense that they often take a concept, or an ideal, to extremes (per example, take Garten’s comment). That’s not necessarily bad. We were commenting on a phenomena that seemed significative to me, and I made my own considerations, that’s all.
I see, I guess I interpretted things more strongly than you intended.
Some things are taken to the extreme, yeah. I just want to make sure people don’t get the wrong impression (especially if it is negative) of Japan.
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