After returning from Okinawa, the next day my program held a farewell party for all of us foreign exchange students. There was a nice lunch, speeches by several students and important people from Konan University, and a few musical performances (I performed a piece on the violin). The very same day I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. I have since spent the past few days meeting up with various friends and sightseeing in the Tokyo area.
If you recall my earlier blog entry about maid cafes, well, I wanted to see how things really are, so on Sunday afternoon I headed to a maid cafe in Akihabara. Many people go to maid cafes, but some of the regular customers are unmarried, working men who have a lot of money and no wife and children on which to spend their money. In addition, however, there were many women customers waiting in line at the maid cafe my friends and I picked out. The maids were dressed not in a sexy manner but in a cute manner, with their bodies were well covered. We had some maids welcome us to the cafe, take our order, and bring us drinks, but aside from that, the interaction was limited. As in most cases, the more interaction one wants to receive, the more money one must pay, so my friends and I resigned ourselves to watching the maids interact with other customers who were willing to pay more money for conversation, drinks, and food.
One rather alarming part of the visit was the sign posted in Japanese at the entrance of the restaurant. The sign included a list of actions that were prohibited for customers of the maid cafe. Some of the actions included:
1) Asking the maid what her working shift hours are
2) Taking pictures of the maid with your cell phone, camera, etc.
3) Asking the maid for her contact information
4) Waiting outside the cafe for the maid to arrive or leave work
5) Following the maid home from work, or any other stalker-like behavior
These prohibitions suggest that this sort of behavior is rampant within this line of work. Although the pay is good, I wonder why the women who work as maids put up with these sorts of work-related risks.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
After returning from Okinawa, the next day my program held a farewell party for all of us foreign exchange students. There was a nice lunch, speeches by several students and important people from Konan University, and a few musical performances (I performed a piece on the violin). The very same day I took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo. I have since spent the past few days meeting up with various friends and sightseeing in the Tokyo area.
If you recall my earlier blog entry about maid cafes, well, I wanted to see how things really are, so on Sunday afternoon I headed to a maid cafe in Akihabara. Many people go to maid cafes, but some of the regular customers are unmarried, working men who have a lot of money and no wife and children on which to spend their money. In addition, however, there were many women customers waiting in line at the maid cafe my friends and I picked out. The maids were dressed not in a sexy manner but in a cute manner, with their bodies were well covered. We had some maids welcome us to the cafe, take our order, and bring us drinks, but aside from that, the interaction was limited. As in most cases, the more interaction one wants to receive, the more money one must pay, so my friends and I resigned ourselves to watching the maids interact with other customers who were willing to pay more money for conversation, drinks, and food.
One rather alarming part of the visit was the sign posted in Japanese at the entrance of the restaurant. The sign included a list of actions that were prohibited for customers of the maid cafe. Some of the actions included:
1) Asking the maid what her working shift hours are
2) Taking pictures of the maid with your cell phone, camera, etc.
3) Asking the maid for her contact information
4) Waiting outside the cafe for the maid to arrive or leave work
5) Following the maid home from work, or any other stalker-like behavior
These prohibitions suggest that this sort of behavior is rampant within this line of work. Although the pay is good, I wonder why the women who work as maids put up with these sorts of work-related risks.
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