Emma the Maid

Day Two, with Shibuya taken, the company encircled electronics and maid district Akihabara in a sharp pincer movement. As you can see from this file photo, foes abounded in various anime and Victorian disguises of pure cunning, reminiscent of Professor Fox* himself.

Many a maid handed out coffeehouse advertisements to the throng, where one could sup the devil’s bean whilst being waited upon in an embarrassingly fawning manner by young women in prim and proper scullery garb (complete with aforementioned musical-score-embroidered knee socks). A maid of pink hue directed us to a lady-friendly maid café, so the chaps and I headed to Cute M Maid Cafe for a pot of tea and tiffin. Peruse their website, as it features photos of the maids who work there. Usually a hang-out for manga geeks, this maid café was also abuzz with couples and ladies, as well as the young lads. The maids were sweetly polite, and awkwardly subservient in their bowings and ministrations (or rather, *we* felt awkward watching this performance, which caused much blushing, nervous tittering and regarding each other with goofy expressions, as if we uncovered naughty piccies pinned to the door of our grandmother’s lav. Or some such). I had Lady Grey tea, whilst the Sgt supped English Breakfast, and Sir S made merry with the devil's nectar. The tea was fine and the cake was delish. It was noted that this maid cafe did not greet the clientele with "Welcome home, Master" and used the normal shop-talk lingo when waiting on us, the exception being a choreography of bowing when delivering beverages and nibblies to our table.

Interestingly, here in Nippon a popular manga and anime is "Emma", the story of a bespectacled, Victorian maid who is, may I point out, employed by an esteemed household, not by a Maid Cafe. Her readers tend to be school-aged girls and boys, not the avid Maid Café tea drinkers, or as they are known down my way, “Earl Greys”.



* Who recently has been appointed Dean of Cunning University, Oxford.