Akihabara

My urge to explore somewhere new took me to Akihabara, electric town.  It was as described, a place where you can choose from a wide selection of electronic goods, manga, video games and ofcourse visit a famous Maid Cafe.  When I read about the maid cafes online, I thought they would be quite entertaining - as you enter a cafe a girl dressed in a maid's outfit (or school girl/nurse/fairytale/whatever) greets you with "welcome master" and provides a service very similar to the more traditional geisha girls.  They kneel on the floor, mouthfeed you and even give you a foot massage in some places - hmmm creepy.  When we set off we intended to visit a cafe for the experience but when I got there and saw the tired  promo girls dressed in quite ridiculous and unsexy outfits trying to get customers, the glamour left the idea.  We went into an 8 floor manga shop which also provided some surprises - the manga comics (for men and women) were quite sexual in nature and on the 'ladies' floors' there were a lot of comics illustrating gay men touching each other - I couldn't work out whether it was aimed at the ladies' or not as I saw some girls happily flicking through them.  Whatever floats your boat though, it didn't bother me - just opened my eyes to manga even further.  On the top floor the was a maid cafe - a long line had formed made up of single guys, friends and couples - a mixed clientele.  I peeked my head round the corner and heard loud screeching and what I think was singing, on the video screen, girls dressed in cosplay outfits were shouting into microphones and dancing.  I spotted a western couple (I think they were American/Canadian) leaving quite swiftly - they glanced at each other in a bemused fashion and shock their heads.  To be fair my boyfriend and I did the same, but it was more to do with the loud screeching than anything else.  Maybe next time.......