This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

You step into a café. You hear “Welcome home, honorable master” spoken by an attractive young woman wearing a ruffled and flounced maid’s uniform. If you aren’t involved in one of those Victorian role playing murder mystery games, chances are you’re at one of the “maid cafes” in Akihabara, Tokyo’s central electronics district. Catering to the mostly male pop culture fans known as otaku, maid cafes are staffed by ingenues standing by to provide tea and sympathy and cake and sandwiches– among other things. The maids will write messages to you in ketchup on your food or give you a foot massage or even clean your ears if that’s your pleasure. You might say it’s an industry that’s “maid” to order for Japan’s burgeoning population of lonely, single technophiles.

With thanks to Mindy Varner for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.