Week Three: Jennifer and Ryan

For this week Ryan and I decided to visit the counterpart of the prim and demure maid cafe that was the Cure Maid Cafe and went to Maid Cafe maidreamin all for the sake of fulfilling Ryan's dream of going to this kind of cafe at least once. On our way to the cafe we ran across Maid Cafe Shangrila which was dedicated to adorable maids with a fuller sized figure, their mission is to promote positive body image which I can fully get behind, no pun intended.

Signboard outside Maid Cafe Shangrila.

Five of us had decided to go to the maidreamin, when we were ushered up the narrow steep stairs up to the second floor I was feeling a little apprehensive about this experience because I've watched YouTube video's of other people's experience with maid cafe. They were all always over the top which made it embarrassing to watch never mind experience firsthand. Imagine to my surprise I was totally alright with the entire experience. The maids were in cute little uniforms with their squeaky high pitched voices that was just the right kind of squeaky that didn't grate at my nerves.

Narrow steep scary stairs.

So sketch.

We all decided on the desert course which included a drink, desert, a little gift, and a picture taken with a cute maid (which would of course be the entire reason for going). Our drinks and deserts came out and they had us chant a little "spell" to make them delicious, which was probably one of the things I was most dreading. It was done in a more modest manner than what I had seen in videos so I was quite pleased.

Little rubber key chain that came with the desert combo.

So customized.

I'm very amused by the fact that the wet napkins are also customized.

After a little bit, a maid came by with animal ears and placed it on our heads, Ryan got an extremely full looking pair of bunny ears, which he looked absolutely fabulous in. I got a smaller pair of bunny ears, and one of our group Gaby got bear ears, We finished our cute animal parfaits and we all got our pictures taken individually with a maid and were all asked to make cute poses.

Ryan looks like he's not sure how he's supposed to feel about this.

Buncat hybrid, much cute.

Umm.

So much cute.

After this entire experience I couldn't help wonder why there are things such as maid cafes that exist, then I remembered how the maids addressed us all as masters, mistresses, and even princesses. Despite my initial thoughts before going, I was not all that embarrassed being addressed in such a way. I came to realize it was all in good fun, if I take the experience too seriously I'm completely missing the point of the maid cafe. Being in that cramped little cafe with other people also sharing the same experience, I came to understand we were in a created space occupied by cute girls in maid outfits who play a fun role to make a fun experience for people to get away from all the bustle and hustle of daily life. It's just one of the many different ways people keep themselves entertained after a hard day of work. For some curling up with a good book and escaping into the world printed on the paper, for others it's heading out for a night out in town with friends having good food and drinks. With so many different kinds of people in this world it's interesting to see how different people find different things to do to occupy their time.

It should be illegal for food to be this cute.

I think this bear is missing a nostril.

Maiddreamin is perhaps the antithesis of the disconnected experience found in cafes back in Canada. Unlike the monotonous experience of ordering a drink or snack from a disinterested shop keeper, waiting for you order to finish and finally departing from the store.
The experience at Maidreamin began outside of the door. A small Maid outfitted person was calling in customers from the streets. Opposed to Canada the people working at the cafe actually actively call in customers, spending many hours just advertising their respective shops on the streets. After being brought into the shop by the maid we were greeted with an incredibly small shop. After being seated in a very cramped table we were waited upon by maid with an unnaturally high voice. The maid spoke to us in English, probably based upon the general gaijin appearance of our group. Another difference from cafes in Canada is that you must pay a cover charge for just being seated in the cafe. The cover charge is 500 yen per person per hour.
 After explaining the cover charge the maid explained the menu options for the cafe. Within the realm of my understanding there were two main options for what you could order. option one was the food option which came with a drink, a gift, a meal, and an photo with the maid(also probably a desert but i forgot....)for some where in the mid 3000 yen range.
The other option which every one at our table went with was the desert option. The desert option was around 2200 yen and contained a drink, a desert, a gift and a photo with the maid. Each of the deserts was a parfait in the shape of some sort of animal with. The drinks were just the standard drink menu in most Japanese restaurants melon soda, cola etc... For the gift we were each given an maid outfit keychain. After placing our order we were told to perform some moe ritual. The reasons for the ritual are beyond me but I digress. Having completed the ritual  we waited for our deserts to arrive, nothing really special happened. Eventually the deserts arrived, They were good.....