Week Two: Sean and Jennifer

For our duo of the group, Jennifer and I decided to pay a visit to Maid Cure located in Akihabara. Not only is the cafe famous for giving off a stereotypical quiet, peaceful, and prim-and-proper vibe, it is also the work place of a character of the famous Love Live anime series that has taken quite  abit of the world by storm. As a result of having some affiliation to the Love Live series, the cafe has bits and pieces of Love Live decorations in the front of the cafe near the cashier.

Apart from the small hint of influence by the popular idol anime, Maid Cure is also different from the normal cafes you find in Calgary, namely Quickly's and OCup, in the sense where not only the maids, but also the guests are expected, and do, give off a high-class vibe, which almost makes it feel like this is a cafe for the high class - and what more to contribute to this feeling when they serve tea in the white conventional teapots, with a fairly normal (but overpriced) menu. The price of the items were very much standard to any other cafes in Japan in general, although these drinks and foods are on average slightly more overpriced than those in Calgary. However, the effort that was put into the preparation of these foods were definitely on a higher ground that those of Calgary's aforementioned cafes. Furthermore, although this is probably to protect the privacy of both guests and the maids, we were not allowed to take (many) pictures without the maids first checking the contents of the picture to deem if they were appropriate, but we did get a few to post in today's post.

Did I mention the cafe was promoting a quiet, peaceful, and prim-and-proper vibe? Well we were the only table whose voices can actually be heard by others - and we were whispering too! The cafe promotes a very quiet environment that actually allows people to work in. We noticed a few people with their mini laptops typing away at something - what, we didn't know, but we could easily infer it was for some sort of work.

Maid Cure, unlike the other cafes that surround and sprung up in Akihabara is definitely different because it has a very quiet and relaxing atmosphere, whereas the others in general are filled with noises, and the invasion of others' privacy (including one's own voice) isn't frowned upon.

The cafe is tucked away on the sixth floor of a building with shops primarily selling anime goods. We actually almost walked right past the cafe if it weren't for our eagle eyed friend who pointed it out. The first floor had an impressive amount of Gashapon machines which made it near impossible to walk away without giving it a try.

Neko Atsume gashapon from the first floor.

If you can make it through the first 5 floors without spending all your money you are rewarded with being greeted politely by a waitress in a floor-length Victorian style maid outfit. The interior of the cafe gives off a homely, rustic atmosphere with trellis-like dividers inter-woven with vines set between tables for customer's privacy. All the furniture is made from wood, and piano music is played in the background to add to the atmosphere.

Narrow stairway up to the cafe.

Front entrance of the cafe, and yes I did ask for permission despite what the sign says.

After being seated and ordering our food. I noticed everything from the napkins to the tea cups, saucers, plates, spoons, forks, knives all had Cure Maid Cafe meticulously engraved onto them. I ordered waffles and tea, and the maid carefully set out our food and poured our tea for us. Jaylene's food was decorated with a rabbit in chocolate syrup. After being taken care of in such a refined and cared for manner it's not hard to see why Cure Maid Cafe is still around since it's creation. And why it can be proudly called the first maid cafe erected in Akihabara. I feel that you can fulfill your want to be cared for but not be smothered in attention at this cafe and that is why these places are created, to momentarily be in a space where the outside world and troubles can be forgotten for a short while.

You can't see it in this image unfortunately but all the silverware is engraved with the words Cure Maid Cafe like the sign at the front entrance.

Jaylene's dish with the rabbit decoration.