"Maid Cafes" have apparently started springing up in Akihabara in order to cater to the geek (otaku) crowd. Here customers can be served by girls in French maid outfits and live out a bit of fantasy inspired by PC games. Some have said that the geek crowd is disconnected from reality, and that it is a sign of the decline of Japanese society, but I tend to mostly dismiss such doomsaying, mainly because otaku culture is such a small subset of Japan, and Akihabara's "Electric Town" consists of only a few blocks of urban space. To put that much importance on such a small place seems a tad overzealous. This is not to say that Akiba (Akihabara culture/trend) is not an important part of Japan, but it's certainly not going to throw Japan into chaos anytime soon.

Articles on Akiba:

A Comic Book Fantasy Made Real
Akihabara Becomes Geek Sex Paradise

Maid Cafe Websites:
Hiyokoya
CosCha
MidoCafe
Cafe MaiLish
Cure Maid Cafe
Mia Cafe
Jam Akihabara

Hiyokoya is a "Maid Cafe" in Akihabara. These cafes mainly cator to the "otaku" crowd that has made the electronics mecca of Akihabara their home. Inside you would be greeted by a woman in a maid costume with, "'Welcome home, Master!''. The point is that it is basically a theme cafe, where anime geeks can indulge in a bit of fantasy. A recent article by James Brooke takes the position, and I would probably agree, that these places are more about the fantasy than any actual sexual intent, and all two of them that I have been to may have had some suggestive pictures on the walls, but there is no attempt to give the impression that one could "do" anything with the girls. There is no paying for "services" and most of the people inside were talking to friends rather than oggling the dressed-up waitresses.


A picture from MidoCafe's website. This place was a rather small cafe just behind the McDonald's in Akihabara.


The bulletin board at Mido Cafe. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, and the Japanese people there seemed a bit annoyed at the thought of a group of gaijin being there, so we decided to leave. It was busy anyhow, so we looked for another one we knew encouraged picture taking, but couldn't find it. 

Our air conditioner remote is counter-intuitive from an American standpoint. The arrows themselves turn the temp up and down just like you'd expect, but the labels underneath are the opposite. Samui - cold, and Atsui = hot, so you would expect the "cold" label to be on the down arrow, and vice versa for the up arrow, but not so. Basically the logic is that if it is hot you would turn it down, so "hot" is on the down arrow, and if its cold you would turn it up, so "hot is on the down arrow. Just another one of those little quirks.