I’ll like to share my thoughts on the really interesting maid cafe I visited in Tokyo, Akihabara, in December 2010.
It’s hard to describe my experience, so I’ve found the intro video of MaiDreamin on Youtube.
The video shows the same things that I experienced. The candle, the drink, photo-taking and performance.
Here’s an explanation for the uninitiated:
The Candle and Seating Charges
The Candle is actually a timer. Pretty cool, huh?! In most maid cafes, you pay a seating charge for a set duration, usually an hour. For MaiDreaming, we paid 800 yen for an hour. After an hour, the light on the candle will go off, signifying the end of your session. At this point of time, you can opt to stop and pay your bill or continue for another hour with the same seating charge.
Food and Drinks get a Moe Power Up!
Most maid cafe sell food like omelet rice and desserts like cakes and parfait. They sell a wide variety of drinks, alcholic to italian soda, as well as hot drinks like tea or coffee. In most cases, the maids will do a chant or a Moe Power Up over your food and drinks. I later found out on the internet it is a Power Up to make your drinks taste better.
During my visit to MaiDreamin, I ordered a cup of hot tea, Almond Chocolate (yes, I thought it was hot chocolate when I ordered but it turned out to be tea!) and received the Moe Power Up. First, the Maid asked me to follow her actions. She then demonstrated her actions and words once first, and then the second time I will follow her actions and say the words with her. To be honest, I felt extremely embarrassed and silly doing the Moe Power Up but at the same time, it was also extremely fun!!
What the maids say in the Moe Power Up also depends on your food. For example, if you ordered a Bunny Parfait, the Moe Power Up will include “Pyon Pyon!” in it.
Here’s a list of words/sounds you’ll here in a maid cafe or during the Moe Power Up:
1) Pyon – the sound a rabbit makes
2) Nyah – the sound a cat makes
3) Kyun -a cute sound (This is tricky…I don’t know if this the correct explanation)
Photo-taking
You can pay for a decorated Polaroid photo with a maid of your choice. For MaiDreaming, the photo fee was 500 yen. I now regret not taking a photo with the maids. It would have made a fantastic memento!! Also, please note that apart from their Polaroid photo service, photography of the maid cafe or maid is NOT ALLOWED. You can however, take photographs of the delicious food that they service you.
Song and Dance Performance
MaiDreamin is a very different maid cafe as it has dance and song performances. The performances were great. The maids can dance really well! I was not expecting performances in a maid cafe, let alone fantastic dance performances by the maids! WOW!
Conclusion
In all, I enjoyed my first maid cafe experience, or more specifically, the MaiDreamin experience. It was really fun and I truly admire the maids’ energy and enthusiasm. It was a pity that I fell sick after that, as I wanted to visit a different maid cafe. Perhaps, next time when I visit Japan again… 
