(quick edit)
So, in mid December I was due to fly to Japan for my holiday, at the same time a close friend of mine who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer was placed in a hospice and shortly after passed away. Personally it had quite the impact though I’m by no means the most affected and I’m some what accustomed to this kind of thing. It seemed particularly unfair though as he hadn’t done a number of things he really wanted to do such as visit Japan and see the idol groups he enjoyed or experience the barmyness of maid cafe’s in their natural habitat. So that was more or less the setting for my visit, a certain level of melancholy at loss and obvious excitement of visiting the city I enjoy the most. Also knowing I was going to miss my friends funeral was eating at me.
So Japan, all my plans more or less went down the toilet rather quickly, not that I minded I didn’t really have any plans anyway. The hotel was fine, though it was too hot and sleeping was a pain in the arse, I can’t really remember what I did that first day, did I just go straight to Akihabara and hit the maid cafes? Probably. But I can’t quite recall.
Anyway first couple of days I hit up random maid bars and revisited LittlePSX, I like LittlePSX but I think it’s a better place to visit with friends, the maids are often busy with regulars or playing darts. I also visited an odd samurai style cafe, a Chinese vampire bar where I met a nice French guy that worked as a graphics designer, a place called O Cha Cha Cha which was wonderfully fun and their uniforms were lovely, a conversational maid bar where the adorable maid used all her powers to muster her English teaching – she did very well! Now a number of these places all operate together and I’d found them because there was a nice alcove where you could smoke in one of the buildings in the main stretch of backstreets (you can find it by heading up the main street and crossing the main road at the crossing in the middle, then going right into the back streets, it’ll be on the left in the second block) now this place ended up becoming my “home away from home” but not immediatly.
The cutest vampire
Things kind of fell into place on the second or third day of meandering (cleaners came to do the room around eleven so I’d normally escape by then and watch all the people setting up the stores in Akihabara, funny stuff to watch to be honest.) So I get nabbed going into Pinky Cafe by one of the maids stood outside waiting for customers, they have an English menu and everything – though it doesn’t have a number of important things on it like the live request info. Anyway nice place, the maid Minami was cute and all was good, I can’t remember if it was Chi or Pinori who was there as well but whatever. I’d been looking for this place called Yaenmeikyo and this time around didn’t notice but it was on the next floor down – doh, it wasn’t until I ran into a bunch of Yanks at the Rose and Crown (this place became a fall back location – a: I could get a internet connection to softbank and b: I could get a pint + c: it was cheap.) I’m a simple date really.
Anyway back to the yanks. So we got to chatting and they weren’t complete dicks, let’s face it that’s the most we can ask for in other human beings, so they wanted to go to a maid cafe and so I took them to pinky cafe, there was singing and it was a birthday and the maids were adorable – this may have been the first day Chii was in… probably was. Anyway they go and I spot Yaen – I seem to think I went there quite late but it was probably around 7 but maybe that was another day… anyway I find Yaen this may have been the day before but who cares it was a month ago. I go in they explain the system (sit at the counter, costs blah amount per hour get at least one drink an hour… Cool, that’s the kind of system I’m down with and fucking hell I’m British and you only sell half pints for the price of a small moon orbiting a gas giant.) Now I sit at the counter, people are talkative and the atmosphere is both divey and lively, these are things I look for in an establishment, the wheels were in motion for my wallet to get sucked dry. Now then, after the first couple of people clear too chaps come and sit with me, Jun and Taka, these guys were fucking awesome and cermented the fact that I’d probably be here a lot. The err Vampires in on the first day were Noa kun, Nat kun and Chaki chan. Noa-kun gives of this all in charge boss type character. Chaki is an adorable odd ball who loves sponge bob square pants and having a whistle that sounds like a steam engine is perfectly suitable. Nat Kun is a boyish character that drinks beer and is genuinely amusing (Nat chan is quite adorable.) I should mention that Yaen was a new thing for me, while LittlePSX was all about darts and drinking so I was used to the late night alcholism it was still that kind of classic idea of a maid kisa. Yaen however you can buy drinks for the Vampires/maids, interesting. Also a heavy push on selling bottles of sparkling white and Dom Peri, again interesting, I didn’t quite feel the need to go that far at that very moment but it seemed something relevant to remember. Anyway the first night passed on without incident. The second night not so much, but by gones be by gones (no I didn’t get ridiculously drunk and throw up on one of the girls.) This may have been the first day I encountered both Ren and Chika, Ren being completely wasted and kicking down toilet doors. Chika generally trying to keep her under control. This place amused me a lot.
The following days ended up with me completly falling for the adorable Chika-chan, she’d get mad if she ever translated this as she’s quite bashful/shy but translation is unlikely, she is adorably cute, ideal hight, build, hair, eyes, nose, ears and smile. Plus she’s kind, patient, emotive and smart. Ah I forgot, she also has a wonderful voice, and it was a joy listening to her singing away to anisong and she was remarkable when she did Heavy Rotation at the countdown. Gah. Nothing sillier then getting a crush on a maid. The days roll on and I have a lot of pictures of Chika-chan, I met some more vampires (Yui chan, Sakarako, think I also met Ame san in this time until Christmas.) On the 24th I had readied my wallet to purchase a Don Peri for Chika she insisted we wait till midnight for her birthday – which of course I did. At this point I was smitten, such is life. Anyway I’d met lots more people by then Zacky, Shu, Jack, Tama, the crazy guy that ripped his brother t-shirt, and all sorts of other people.
The following days more or less followed the same process, get up, go to Akihabara, hit maid bars, then go to Yaen around when Chika was starting, I did go late one Sunday as I’d went to see Alice Project (an awesome experience I would strongly recommend anyone doing), and she was pretty annoyed lol (we have to remember much of this is probably character but it’s charming none the less) I also met Pyonko who was quite adorable and very demanding as a character. Also met one of the people from Makoto up stairs, she was crazy and came down to Yaen to relax post work. Good fun, can’t remember her name though - I’m awful with English names come on I only have limited memory space.
On the 25th I went for Christmas dinner in Roppongi at the Pink Cow, it was a nice meal, but fucking hell I hate Roppongi. Seems there are some interesting people that go to certain meet ups that would be useful contact material for networking, but really – I hate Roppongi. I also wanted to get a countdown ticket at Yaen – really fucking bad, and it was still Chika’s birthday celebration so I bailed on the dinner at the earliest moment possible and rushed over to Akihabara – batteries rapidly replenished. I picked up my Countdown ticket and bought lots more drinks lol.
On the day of the Countdown I ventured else where to buy a present for Chika, a pretty necklace, I thought it suited her. Anyway, gave it to her that evening and she seemed pretty happy with it. We ended up drinking all the cafe pari, so I was left with an excess of change, which I promptly spent on 22 chekis of Chika lol. Jun and Taka went to the convini and returned with a present for me, a folder to keep my chekis in lol. Also they took me to Sushi and the shrine after we’d left – saddly we missed the vampires lol. That probably had something to do with looking for Zacky who’d passed out in a restaurant.
At some point before that I met Melon-tan who had recently returned from Europe and spoke good English, she had this misconception that I was flash with cash – not the case not the case at all T_T not a rich man…
I’ll just fast forward to the supposed last day (as you can imagine all the intervening days were drinking with Chika and killing time at other maid venues and seeing Alice Project), we had a leaving party at Yaen, took group photos, there was an hour or so where I just got to drink with Chika before everyone else arrived. I handed out farewell letters for the Yaen cast, Chika and the people that had made me feel at home. It was a pretty wild night, and I think it set me back 100,000 yen. lol.
Then it was home time, and I missed my plane and my visit was extended a couple of days lol. It was like a long hangover lol. Chika wasn’t working so I couldn’t really get into the vibe and the bank had put a temporary hold on my debit card and nowhere in Japan takes western credit, well my credit anyway.
So that was that, I came home with a burning desire to study Japanese, a much longer twitter follower list, and a nagging fear that Chika will graduate before I get back to Japan lol.
Oh well. Onwards to adventure!
Lots of other bits and pieces happend, I met an interesting guy who runs a company out there, there was Malfroi and his crazy drinking and sushi visit. All sorts
A quick review of maid locales
LittlePSX – still a great place to kill time, the prices when compared to later entries are low and you can play the odd game of darts. Though the uniform is a bit frumpy lol.
Maid Cuteness – 3/5
Uniform – 2/5
Drinks – 4/5
Food – 4/5
Overall – 3/5
Mononopu – Pricey set menus, cute maids, I went there when it was proper cold.
Maid Cuteness – 4/5
Uniform – 3/5
Drinks – ? dunno was on a set menu
Food – 3/5 normal stuff
Overall – 3/5
O Cha Cha Cha – Again cute maids, talkative, part of the same group as Makoto, Yaen, Nyaro and, Pinky.
Maid Cuteness – 4/5
Uniform – 4/5
Drinks – 3/5
Food – 4/5 – good maid food, entertaining bentos.
Overall – 4/5
Makoto – A samurai place where all the Girls are dressed as guys. Loud and good fun but not my scene. Open till 5 most nights. Props to Sensei!
Samurai Cuteness – Hard to gauge – a good place for girls to go I think.
Uniform – 3/5
Drinks – 4/5 (I think you get good sized beers)
Food – 4/5 – good maid food, entertaining bentos.
Overall – 3/5 (unless the boy girl boy thing is your thing then likely 4/5)
Pinky – A live themed bar, the maids are adorable, if you go say hi to Ren and Pyonko for me lol.
Maid cuteness – 5/5
Uniform – 4/5
Drinks – 4/5 (I’ll let you in on a secret, the bottles are cheaper here then else where in the building.)
Food – 3/5 Nice maid fair.)
Overall – 5/5
Yaenmeikyu – A wonderful place, open till 5 most nights, home to the cutest vampire lol.
Vampire cuteness – 5/5
Uniform – 5/5
Drinks – 3/5 (expensive – best like tequila and champaign)
Food – 4/5 (The maids cook the food on a little stove, it’s terrifying late at night, you can also get udon from Makoto)
Overall – 5/5
