Tim’s Ramblings

Ahhh…the maid cafes.

I was first made aware of this about a year and a half ago and I found it…weird.

But I guess after a while I got desensitized to the whole phenomena. But until today, I really haven’t entered one. In my mind, it was kind of embarrassing to go alone….

But this trip, K wanted to go and I said sure…why the hell not? So I asked one of the guys I knew here who frequent these places (big fan of figures and Akihabara and the whole maid thing) for some suggestions of where to go and he sent me a list and a map. Of all the places, we decided to go to the very FIRST maid cafe in Akihabara. The one that started it all.

Oooooooooooooooooh

So today after shopping in Asakusa (H, I got you what you wanted!!), we headed out to Akihabara and since it was around 11:30, we decided to first hit up the maid cafe before it got too crowded.

So off we went to the Cure Maid Cafe! Click on the pic for the web page…don’t worry…it’s very very tame.

It was on the 6th floor above a store filled with those toy dispensing gumball machines. If you didn’t know where it was, you’ll totally miss it. Thankfully I already knew the location of the store and we headed on up.

As expected, we were greeted by a cute girl in a maid outfit and was told we’ll have to wait a bit. She was in a long skirt though and was pretty but nothing special. In another words, the outfit was NOT what you’d think of whe you think French Maid. No short skirt. No plunging neck line. Actually it was long sleeved and high necked. Very very conservative.

We only waited for less than 10 minutes though before we sat down. In all honesty it was kind of a let down… Nothing lurid. Nothing nerdy. It just looked like a nice little western style restaurant where the waitresses just happened to be wearing long maid outfits. We sat down, ordered some Japanese style curry, and kinda went “huh….what’s so special???”

Don’t get me wrong. The girls were very cute and even their voices were soft and sweet. Service was good…but really…that doesn’t take much. The food was…ok. Nothing to write home about. It took me a bit to fully realize what the draw truly was…and that’s the point. See…this just isn’t a place for guys like myself and K.

The key here is, if you’re a guy who’s not shy around girls…if you’re a guy that can talk to a cute girl without freaking out…hell…if you’re a guy who has the ability to look a girl in the face, especially a cute one, without losing it…you won’t fully appreciate a place like this.

The reason I found this out was, there was a dude sitting alone in the table next to us. He was a stereotyped otaku. In the US, I suppose you’d call him a geek or a nerd. You’d be right of course…but it’s not exactly the same thing….not exactly. Probably a big fan of anime and anime girls. Probably collects figures of anime and video game characters. Can talk to fellow otakus for hours about the differences and the positives and negatives about the anime series Mahoromatic (where the main character is a sweet cute robot maid girl that can kick ass) but has NOOOO idea how to relate to a living breathing woman.

This is the store for him. The girls are cute. The girls are in costume. And he can sit there and occasionally glance up to stare at them off in the distance then look back down at his food again. But he can feel comfortable doing so. No one will look at him weird, especially the wait staff. Even if he doesn’t make eye contact with them when they come over to give him a refill on his water or ask him if he wants anything they’re still really nice to him. And of course, the girls aren’t agressive at all and it’s not all “in your face” like a Hooters. Hell…if I dragged him to Hooters in the US, he’d probably totally freak out, not be able to eat a bite, and leave the first chance he gets (not that I go to Hooters either since…well….the food blows and the girls…eh….)

That’s the answer to the maid cafe popularity riddle. It allows these guys to be around their fantasy girls in a comfortable non-threatening, non-agressive atmosphere.

I can understand this. As did K. It’s not about the girls being sexy. Hell, even the guy that gave me the list actually wrote for one cafe that “it’s ok but in truth, I like longer skirts so I’m not a big fan of this place”. It’s all about the “moe” (pronounced mo-e). The non-sexual warm feeling towards cute, pure, innocent (at least in character) girls. Note…moe has evolved since then to include deviant feelings…..*ahem*…but the original use of the term was quite clean. Like the protective feeling one might feel towards a younger preteen sister.

Yes…the maid are older…but they also have that feeling of innocence and purity.

This may be a very Japanese thing and I may not be explaining myself clearly enough. But truly that’s the case. Now, if we went to the one with shorter skirts, they may have been more agressive….maybe that’s why he didn’t like it. Maybe next time I’ll check that place out. Because in all honesty, I would have no problems at all going to places like this alone. It’s actually a nice way to spend some time in an air conditioned environment and rest your feet after a day of shopping.

Maid cafes….now I know why you only really find them in Akihabara.

(-_-)

Lots of walking today. Lots of shopping and such.

But enough of that. I’ll write about that later.

This post concerns the hotties of Tokyo! (^_^)

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Long day today. It went by in a flash though. I mean….it’s hard to believe that they day is done. Crazy…

Anyway, it was a very early start as I headed over to my parent’s new apartment in Katsutadai in Chiba. I was at the station by 8am. From there I took 1 train to Shinagawa (10 minutes), then waited a bit over there to take another train to Funabashi (35 minutes). From there I had to take the Keikyu line, a local line, to Katsutadai (20 minutes because we caught the rapid). Then from there we hopped on a local bus for about 10 minutes. In all, it took from door to door a good 2 hours. Fun…

But I got there. The apartment is nice though small. It actually reminds me of my old apartment. The very very first one I ever had in Cleveland. That was pretty small too. But it’s nice. Mom has been fighting with bugs and dust and such for a while now but I’ve been told it’s gotten considerably better.

It’s a typical apartment complex. Lots of buildings and lots of people with a nice little shopping center literally around the corner which is nice. Oddly, there are ALOT of South Americans, mostly from Peru and some from Brazil there. Now, typically that won’t be bad. But apparently, because the shopping center around the corner has a beer vending machine, they will gather there to get drunk and then pass out on the ground outside the apartment and such. Not a good environment for families…..

Ah well. This is just temporary for the time being ayway. Maybe a year or two. We’ll see.

Anyway, after checking out the apartment and getting some of my laundry done there, we headed out to lunch and then to get a cel phone for dad and get one for me too under his name under a family plan. Getting these rental phones are a pain and pricey anyway. Of course we knew NOTHING of how cel phone contracts work here and it was a learning experience. Dad was being a bit difficult with the poor sales girl….not that she could do anything about it. Though, just like in the US, there’s a handling charge, and you have to pay extra for voice mail, and an extra for this and that and this and that… Yeah…as they say, “that’s how they get ya…”

But it’s ok. It’s just the way it is.

I’m still learning how to use the phone but I managed to change the OS into English so I can actually attempt to use it for real. Ha.

The phone was cheap. Dirt cheap. With the charger (which is separate…cute eh?) it came out to be 2700yen which is just about $23.50US. But this thing has god ring tones, can connect to the internet through NTT DoCoMo’s i-Mode. Has a very nice camera that can take pictures and movies. It’s a really nice phone under any circumstances. Granted there are phones costing $250+ too that can do even more. Buuuut I don’t need it THAT much…only when I’m here in Japan, so it’s no biggie.

Look, I have pictures too! Oh, and I have already put on a little charm just to personalize it a bit. I like that cat. :)

Pretty nice for a cheap ass phone eh?

Afterwards, we went back and had a nice dinner, then checked out a little summer festival for the apartment complex that was going on in the shopping center. Dancing and games and food and such. Lots of kids there too. Many girls around middle school age all wearing colorful yukata (thin kimono like dress for summer) too. Of course there were the midway games but there was one thing that caught my eye…. There were these kids playing that ring toss thing. And the sticks they were tossing to had various stuff on it like “toy” or “model air gun”(!) or “video game” and such. There was also a thing for videos. Of course, the prizes were on display too. This is literally like a setup out of the side of a van…was it legit? Sure. But not sure just how legit…. Case in point, I glance through the prizes and I saw VHS and DVD videos on display next to like a video game controler and such…but among closer inspection, they were all porn. Not like Emmanuel soft core porn…I’m talking hardcore porn. You could’t see anything but the spine of the DVD’s…but the title was pretty clear what it was.

Nice eh?

Ah well.

Anyway I will post pics of the festival later.

Tired though. Going to bed soon.

Tomorrow is K and my shopping extravaganza.

Woooooooooooooooooooo.

‘night!

Yeah yeah…this is a tad late.

But anyway, on Tuesday night after dinner with the guy I’m here with, K, we decided to walk off dinner a bit. We ate alot and we decided just going back to the hotel would be bad. It was not AS humid that night so it was hot and sweaty but not unbearable.

While walking around the back roads of Kawasaki, we realized that we ended up on the main “red light street”. It’s not really a district but more of a crowded street that’s probably about a half a mile long with cabaret clubs, strip joings, massage parlours, and other such “entertainment” establishments on both sides.

Fun.

The interesting thing here in Japan is, laws are a tad different. Prostitution is illegal. But at the same time, the police tend to turn a bind eye to whatever happens between the girl and the john. Also, contact is OK. In the US, the strip joint is about the best you can get outside of Nevada and usually the girls can touch you sometimes but you can NEVER touch the girls (..well….typically). Here, bath houses and such are quite common and they even advertise the “course” that they will do for you.

The other difference is, they can solicitate. So…as the title states…me and K were like ducks in a gauntlet of guys with shotguns during hunting season. Since we’re walking through here they naturally assume that we are in the market. Every few steps we got a guy trying to get us into their establishment. Some advertising for an all Philipino joint while another is advertising “oppai time” (breast time – I assume you get to touch and play with them for a cheaper price than normal or something…). Some other places are bars with girls that’ll drink with you (drinks that YOU pay for…and they are NOT cheap). Some are bars like that but where you get to touch and make out with the girls.

Oh, and let’s not forget the women, usually Chinese, asking us if we want to have fun. The problem is…they are NOT high quality… Well…at least K kept saying “man….they should look better if they want to have more customers” but you know…if they WERE hot and cute, they’d be working for the shops in air conditioning….

ha

Either way, it was interesting. More for him than me as I’ve seen this cover an entire section of Shinjuku in Kabukicho.

Oh, and no…we did NOT stop at any of the stores. I felt hot…sticky….sweaty…and naaaaaasty. Sure, the girls won’t mind I’m sure…or they won’t meantion it. But I will feel bad for being in the state I’m in. If I’m going to get it on with a girl, whether she’s my girl friend or I’m paying her…if I don’t feel good, I’m not going to enjoy it.

Not that I would really do this type of thing….

Yeah…

*ahem*

Anyway, there you go.

Hi all.

Yes…I’m still here. I haven’t been updating as much this trip because I’ve been dead the past few days. The humidity is getting to me. Just muggy…. However I’m hoping things will get better, especially after today when I don’t have to wear a suit anymore. Wearing a suit and walking and such really do take a lot out of you.

It’s 8am and I just finished e-mails and catching up on some work and stuff. Been up since a bit before 6:30. Fun….

Anyway, things are progressing as good as it can. Lots of work, lots of meetings, lots of translating. I think the translating tires me out the most. Especially in some of these really really important meetings where I’m using all of my concentration to make sure I don’t screw it up.

Yesterday was particularily rough for about an hour. We met with the new president of a company called PFU. Most of you have probably never heard of them. They are a company of Fujitsu and they actually develop and manufacture all of Fujitsu’s scanners. Fujitsu scanners has the world wide market share and is quite impressive. The company has over 4000 employees and he’s quite well known in the business world. Take a look at the label on the back of any Fujitsu branded scanner and you’ll see the PFU logo.

So….first off the pressure is there to make a good impression with him. That and he’s quite a sharp man and well spoken. Which means that he uses quite a bit of big words… And he will speak for quite a while before stopping to let me translate. And I have to watch my phrasing when translating for him. Eeeeeeesh… It’ll be like translating for, say, the president of Sony or something. It’s quite an honor to even meet with him. I’m not easily rattled but I DO have to use all my concentration so I don’t screw up what he says, I don’t make a bad impression, and I don’t mess up my translation of what he says so we can have a successful meeting.

I sometimes am amazed as some of the opportunities I’m presented with. For example, the past president (he retired at the end of last month) and I are almost on a casual friendly relationship. You see him walk through the building or the office and the demeanor of the other employees visibly change. They will stop in their tracks, bow deeply, mumble a greeting, and quickly go on their way. He will barely acknowledge them if at all. Meanwhile, I run into him and he’ll stop for ME, have a casual conversation, make a joke, and almost treat me like an equal. Of course I’m switching to proper formal Japanese but at the same time, there aren’t that many people who know who he is that can just stop him in the middle of the hallway.

In the end, business is business. But still, due to this, I have been fortunate enough to become known amongst some Japan’s top guys in our industry. I forget sometimes who they are and, working for the type of company I work for where the president is much more friendly and open, I sometimes forget the strict class system they have here. Craziness I tell you.

Anyway, other than that, things are moving along. Last time K, one of the new QA guys, and I had dinner and then walked around town a bit. I’ll write more about it later but we found ourselves in the….I guess it’ll be the redlight district…of Kawasaki. It’s really only a long street but it was interesting to be solicited openly for, say “oppai time!!!” (“breast time”) and such. Something you don’t really see in the US. Wait…you NEVER see in the US. Further emphasizes how uptight we really are… Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing is up for debate but stll…

Well, time to start getting ready. A slightly late start today. We’ll see how things go :)

…tired….

It was cloudy and humid today. Really frickin’ humid. Sweaty humid. Ugh…..

And I realized that I really don’t know how to do a Tokyo Tour for kids. I mean…I can do my standard stuff but it’s easier with adults. In hindsight I should have done Ueno and the museums and the zoo and stuff. But at the same time they will be on their own with their mom Monday through Wednesday so I’ll leave that up to them for later I guess.

So today I did the stuff that they probably wouldn’t do unless they go with someone who knows the area well.

We met up at their hotel and first got them umbrellas. Of course even though the weather report said rain rain rain and it DID pour this morning, it didn’t rain the rest of the day. Oh well. At least they have umbrellas now for the rest of their trip.

Went to Asakusa temple as usual and did some shopping and sightseeing there. Then went on to Akihabara were we went to Yodobashi Camera, that huuuuuge electronics store, and then had lunch at a curry joint. I was happy to find out that they liked it. I was worried there for a bit.

We then started to walk around the town but I realized then that this was PROBABLY not the best place for the kiddies. Granted the older one is 14 and the younger is 12…seeing the girls all dressed up in French Maid outfits was hard to describe…. That and on the way back we went through some of the back roads and, even though most of the stores are fine, I forgot that there are the occasional stands selling uncensored Japanese porn….out in the open…oops. I don’t think they saw it though. I don’t think…..

We then found out that the kids and their mom might not be so hot about climbing Mt. Fuji this trip… Ha. We’ll see.

We then moved on to Shinjuku to go to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. Though the view was not as impressive as it was hazy from the humidity, I still enjoy seeing the sprawl that is Tokyo. The response was generally underwhelming though…..not sure if it was from just being tired out from all the walking or if stuff like this just isn’t for kids anymore.

I always liked stuff like this, even as a kid but that might be because I was a bit different… Don’t know.

Either way, I dropped them off at the hotel to rest up and they are supposed to start heading towards my hotel (I am in Kawasaki, they are in Shinagawa) around 7 for dinner. Not sure where to take them but at least here in Kawasaki there are tons of options.

I am generally just beat…. I think it was the combination of the heat, the humidity, the crowd, (though those 3 I can handle) and trying to keep the 4 of them from getting lost… Or more importantly me losing sight of them. They were well behaved but with it being Sunday it’s crowded EVERYWHERE so I think I just got tired from nerves..

Anyway, I will post pictures later. Nothing too new. But we’ll see.

It’s gonna be a loooong few days…

So, during the tour of Tokyo today, we ended up at Akihabara as usual.

Outside of the Taito game center was a crowd watching in awe as a bunch of guys tried to one-up one another at playing the taiko drum game Taiko No Tatsujin.

First one guy did a very very very hard song on the “hell” level…amazing stuff. Then a dude came up wearing gloves and all and out did him by doing a song without any of the markers. In the past I saw a guy doing it blindfolded. Insane I tell you…

Unfortunately I was unable to get footage of those “battles” as the crowd was huuuuge. However, I was able to get footage of a guy playing both player 1 and player 2 drums on normal level with the Numa Numa song. Not as impressive as the other guys but still pretty good. Here’s a 50 second or so clip :)

Rock on drummer dudes….rock on…

Well…I’ve made it. The flight was delayed over an hour and a half but eh..it could have been worse.

Dead tired though but I’ve managed to stay awake ’till 11pm. Going to bed soon. Met up with the CTO and his family at their hotel and ended up talking business (as it usually happens) far longer than I wanted to.

Tomorrow is another early morning at 9:30am to do a slightly modified Tim’s Patented Tokyo Tour as he has a 14 year old and a 12 year old. Ya…hooo…..

But at the same time getting up early is good since then, my jet lag will be better by Monday.

Anyway, bed time. More later.

Well…I’ve made it. The flight was delayed over an hour and a half but eh..it could have been worse.

Dead tired though but I’ve managed to stay awake ’till 11pm. Going to bed soon. Met up with the CTO and his family at their hotel and ended up talking business (as it usually happens) far longer than I wanted to.

Tomorrow is another early morning at 9:30am to do a slightly modified Tim’s Patented Tokyo Tour as he has a 14 year old and a 12 year old. Ya…hooo…..

But at the same time getting up early is good since then, my jet lag will be better by Monday.

Anyway, bed time. More later.

Waiting in the President’s Club in Newark for my flight to Tokyo. Wooo.

Kinda tired. Got up at 5 for this trip though I managed to be in bed by 12 so it wasn’t too bad. Had to take care of our Japanese guests while they were in the US so I had little time to actually pack. Good thing I’m getting pretty good at the whole packing thing.

Unfortunately when I got to the Cleveland Airport, when my ticket was printed, I got the dreaded 4 S’s on the lower right….goddammit. I got randomly selected to get searched. *sigh*

So I got padded down and then the poor dude had to swab every single electronic equipment I have in my backpack…ha. Poor guy. I have a PSP, Nintendo DS, MP3 player, Bose headphones, digital camera, laptop, cordless mouse, all the power cords for the stuff listed, etc… I heard him going “more things just keep popping out of other pockets…” to the guard next to him. Oh well.

Well, time to pack up and hit up the bathroom before heading to the gate. Maybe I can find a place that sells a few of those Cliff bars. They’re a nice alternative to crappy ass airline food…

(^_^)