Chiba & Akihabara

Accompanied my friend Germ to Chiba to look at cars. We were at a Nissan dealer and there was a test drive circuit complete with a traffic warden (?!!) Really unnecessary! There was only one lane in the circuit. Well, guess it creates more jobs.

After that we walked to Makuhari, a city in Chiba, and ate Chanpo (like san mee but blander) for lunch. There're factory outlets in Makuhari - Kate Spade, Coach, etc, but still too expensive after 50% discount. Then we attempted to find the elusive Seaside Park. Elusive because we couldn't find the seaside part of the park. Nevertheless, it was a nice park with lots of people playing baseball catch.

Went to Akihabara (think Sim Lim Square but on the scale of a city) to find a maid cafe. I read some reports that maid cafes was a growing trend in Akihabara and I wanted to have a look. Didn't know where they were but we were greeted by a promising sight once we stepped out of the station. There were girls dressed as maids and a giant pikachu giving out promo tissue packs! Surely we'll be able to find a maid cafe...

Found that the streets of Akihabara were sealed off to vehicles.

After some directions provided by an electronics store that had salesgirls dressed in cosplay outfits, we found 2 maid cafes. Both did not allow photographs to be taken in the cafe unless you paid money and one charged an entrance fee!! We had to queue for nearly an hour to enter the one with free entrance. (There was a queue even for the one that charged an entrance fee!) The cafe served drinks and a limited selection of food items. It also had an amusement menu, e.g. play a game, or order a performance by one of the maid waitresses. Apparently, the maid waitresses address customers as "master". During our meal, one of the maid waitresses put up a dance performance. The music was like cartoon action hero music and the waitress danced with cutesy anime fighting actions.

Cannot take photo in the cafe, so here's a pic of the poster...haha! Check out the cafe's website: http://www.maidin.jp/

Verdict: The food was nothing great and on the pricey side (as can be expected). Unless you're desperate and just want to look at girls dressed as maids (in which case you can always go to Harajuku where you can see them for free), once is enough just for the experience.