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Feb 14 2011 15 Comments

Maid(s) in Japan

Far from the brief fad it seemed destined to be, the maid cafe business surprisingly keeps battling on, with spin-offs from the original theme, such as vampire varieties, amazingly keeping the customers coming back.

But with so many cafes in operation, competition is understandably intense, and as such, it’s fair to say that flyer distributing maids are now as common on Akihabara’s corners as gadgetry. Or even camera carrying geeks.

Akihabara maid

Categorized: Food and Drink, Photography

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Biggie says

    2/14/2011 at 9:08 am

    awww, she looks like she’s gonna bite your finger off!

    Reply
  2. Marc T says

    2/14/2011 at 10:34 am

    Yes – unwritten rule not to take their photos without permission or donation. Or both.

    Reply
  3. Tiger Tsuki says

    2/14/2011 at 11:33 pm

    Ooh! If looks could kill! 😉

    Reply
  4. Oli. says

    2/15/2011 at 1:54 am

    She looks so ungry!

    Reply
  5. Oli. says

    2/15/2011 at 1:56 am

    (angry)

    Reply
  6. Grass Jelly says

    2/15/2011 at 3:41 am

    Yes, I made the mistake of casually taking a picture of a “maid” without asking her permission… out in public… standing in the middle of Akihabara… promoting her employer’s establishment. Of course, I only learned of this after the fact and was left wondering why she gave me a distressed/dirty look.

    Reply
  7. Lee says

    2/15/2011 at 7:51 am

    Haven’t been to Akihabara in a long time, and I wasn’t aware of this either. Has this always been the case?

    Reply
  8. Marc T says

    2/15/2011 at 10:05 am

    Not certain that it has always been the case, but it has been for as long as I have known – a few years!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/15/2011 at 7:16 pm

      Thanks. Good to know.

      Reply
  9. Grass Jelly says

    2/15/2011 at 10:25 am

    From what I have been told, they do not want their pictures taken. Period.

    This is my theory: unlike cosplayers who are dressed up for fun/as a hobby and may welcome the attention, to these girls this is a job and it is simply unwanted attention. I would also wager embarrassment plays a role.

    Reply
  10. Joel says

    2/15/2011 at 3:16 pm

    “WTFudge are u looking at?” hahahaha.
    That’s what most people can certainly think if they are caught by surprise when taking a photo.
    Or maybe that is just her way of looking, anyway, it’s quite artistic though, any picture in tokyo times is!

    Reply
    • Lee says

      2/15/2011 at 7:18 pm

      Thanks Joel. Yeah, I was a bit disappointed the way she was looking, but at the same time I really like the photo.

      Reply
  11. gunmagirl says

    2/15/2011 at 8:36 pm

    chances are there are others in her life who don’t know about her work and she’d like to keep it that way

    Reply
  12. Thomas Vye says

    2/16/2011 at 7:58 am

    Oops, I have loads of none permission maid pics (and host pics for that matter!) …but I didn’t want to get their permission because I don’t want to photograph poses…90% of them you can’t see faces anyway, so I can always hope they just won’t offend in that way).

    Reply
  13. DarknessMatterS says

    2/17/2011 at 4:27 pm

    i bet she is a Masochist XD

    Reply

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