Cross Dressing Maid Cafe

This is old news in the Otaku’s world but I’m sure there are people like me out there somewhere and this definitely only can be done in Japan. The latter statement is something that you must keep in mind. I think most of you are aware about maid café. Originated from Japan, maid café is first set up to satisfy the need of Japanese otakus’ fantasy of having cute maids (resurfacing in live action based on their favorite anime and manga) serving them tea and cakes. This business is very lucrative considering it rings cash register of 2 billion dollars per annum (based on the news I just heard on TV and I’m still amazed on how this niche industry can churn this much amount of money).

Never mind about this, what makes me itch to post this is the twist that they come out with this maid café theme. Now in 2008, they have cross dressing maid café (the article is in Japanese, but you just need to see the pics to know what I mean). That’s right, now they’re dressing up pretty guys (those bishounen) in maid costume to serve you tea and cakes. Click this link if you’re still not sure what I’m talking about. This is definitely a heaven for those otakus out there in Japan where cross dressing is apparently nothing to be ashamed of and even considered funny and kawaii. You can see this phenomenon from their drama (eg. Princess Princess D and Hana Kimi are a few out of many out there) and variety shows (eg. SMAPxSMAP), even SMAP are happily doing the cross dressing act every now and then in their own variety show (check this link, where Shingo immitates Paris Hilton). What made me even want to laugh when I saw the news is that in the café, they even sell the pics of the maids so that you can stare your favorite maid’s face all the time outside the café muahaha… yes, this is only can happen in Japan.