Japan's frilly 'maids' go grey
Local Japanese News In English
Japan's famed "maid cafes" featuring coy young girls serving tea in frilly aprons and bonnets have been given a new twist -- a cafe of unsmiling, grim-faced grannies reflecting a fast-greying nation.
Tokyo's Ikebukuro district now boasts Cafe Rottenmeier, named after the disciplinary housekeeper in the hit 1970s anime series Heidi, Girl of the Alps, and has been drawing some 500 customers daily during weekends in November.
Patrons are greeted with a terse "welcome home" by an unsmiling Fraulein Rottenmeier lookalike before being scolded for slouching in chairs or for not removing their coats in the cafe's warm, cosy environs. (AFP)
Source: cleanup