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Markets in everything, Japanese edition
The Otaku are at it again:
So the niches are always getting narrower. Maid cafes have been the rage for about four years now, and a true otaku would never be satisfied to go to any old one. There must be a fetish about the experience. Perhaps you'd like to put your head on the maid's lap and let her groom your ears. "Let me show you an extra-special level of nuttiness," Lewis says. He leads me to a shop called Candy Fruit, where a maid cafe once stood. It's now a shop selling glasses to two specific breeds of client: women who want glasses to wear with their maid uniforms. And men who want to buy their glasses from a woman in a maid's costume wearing glasses.
The entire article is interesting.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 3, 2008 at 01:45 PM in Travels | Permalink
Comments
The entire article is useless without accompanying photographs.
Posted by: ed bowlinger at Jun 3, 2008 5:10:37 PM
Wow. I can only think of two possible explanations here:
1. Bruce Wallace is a liar. I don't want to imply that, because he writes for a living and reputation is very important, and I know nothing of him besides this piece.
2. Japan is actually another planet, or perhaps another dimension.
In general I consider myself a little geeky; I like Star Wars way too much, and I know the words (and chords) to a heluva lot of Bob Dylan songs. I was even once fairly addicted to Starcraft, for crying out loud. I like Radiohead, and movies about superheroes. But this, this is just insane. Japan is insane.
Posted by: d.cous. at Jun 3, 2008 5:45:52 PM
d.cous,
Having lived briefly in Tokyo, the article is a rather artistic framing of reality. It somehow doesn't seem insane when you're in the midst of it all.
Posted by: Yonnie at Jun 3, 2008 8:23:46 PM
oy. Is it just me, or is there something very deeply wrong about this whole thing?
Posted by: Steve at Jun 4, 2008 12:54:14 AM
Btw, I went there today and the article seems to be quite true.
Posted by: Tyler Cowen at Jun 4, 2008 3:53:47 AM
I've been to a maid cafe in Kobe, and let me tell you, its ridiculous. Lots of poorly dressed Japanese geeks in there on their laptops, having super quiet maids wait on them. I speak Japanese pretty well but I couldn't understand
the waitress who was serving me and my friends, because she spoke so softly and used really polite language.
I asked her to "dumb it down" a bit for me and then I was able to order...but I didn't ask her to write my
name in ketchup on my omelet, which costs extra, nor was there an offer of anything beyond that, like the
article states.
Posted by: Erik at Jun 4, 2008 9:31:23 AM
a glorious four-block-wide stretch--just beyond the tracks--of about 200 drinking shacks in rows of two-story buildings. Most accommodate no more than half a dozen drinkers. ...One bar caters to 1960s British music. Another to Humphrey Bogart. There's one that celebrates pro wrestling. Jazz. French cinema. It's bar culture by otaku...
It's the Long Tail of Bars!
Posted by: Timothy at Jun 4, 2008 1:47:23 PM
