Japan Day 16: Our Awkward Experience at a Maid Cafe メイドカフェ  in Akihabara (Last Day in Japan)

Our last day in Tokyo was short, and did not afford a lot of time to do things. We packed up our stuff and checked out of our hostel (left our bags at reception). We walked to Akihabara with the intent of trying to find a Maid Cafe to have our last meal at. It took a lot of nerve to finally decide to choose one, and go in.

As a disclaimer, I’m not sure we fully understood the concept of a maid cafe. We thought it was just another form of themed cafe… but we are still uncertain, even after our visit.

We chose a cafe, and the very excited maid ushered us into an elevator to get to the second floor cafe. The cafe was almost deserted, with the exception of one male customer who was visiting alone. We sat down at our table, and the friendly maid tried to describe the way things worked. The language barrier proved to be very awkward for both us, and the overly polite maid. We kept apologizing to her for not understanding, and she kept apologizing for her English skills. The whole experience was essentially an apology-off between two overly concerned Canadians and an incredibly polite Japanese lady.

“Sumimasen” “Gomenasai””Sumimasen” “Gomenasai””Sumimasen” “Gomenasai”…… etc .

I think they kept trying to sell us additional things, but we didn’t fully understand.. which I guess saved us some money.

I ordered the rice omelet, that came covered in ketchup. IN addition, as soon as the food arrived, the maid drew a cute cat on my omelet with even more ketchup….

Jives ordered the curry, which looked adorable! It was dressed up as a teddy bear in a gravy bathtub.

The maid kept coming over to try and talk to us while we ate.. but it was so difficult for all of us. She mostly just spent her time sitting beside us, watching us eat. However, we did bond over a mutual love of Studio Ghibli!

The maid also helped us to “bless” our food with a specific set of hand gestures and cute sayings….. I think.

We had to leave in order to catch our flight in time, so we missed the group performance. We were not that sad to be honest….

Overall the Maid Cafe experience was interesting, and I am glad we did it. I wish we had known more Japanese…  I probably will not be going back for a second visit.

We grabbed our backpacks, and took the Express Train back to Narita airport. Narita to New York, New York back to good-ol’ Toronto! (To Book Train Travel in Japan Click Here)

Thanks, Japan!

We certainly had the adventure of a life time! Jives’ first time travelling abroad was an amazing success! I am glad to say that he has agreed to go on many more trips!