French, Maid, Cafe

I got to speak French for the first time in two months today, and it was wonderful.

It's funny how the thing I miss most about home is speaking French. Despite being an Anglophone Montrealer, I do feel like the French language is part of who I am, and having no one to speak to in French these last few months has been really weird. Tomorrow I have a date with an old friend from McGill who is also in Tokyo on exchange, and I'm pretty excited. I haven't seen her since April, so it should be a lot of fun :) (and she was my French-partner on the telephone tonight, so more French... yaay XD)

In other news, yesterday I went to a maid cafe in Akihabara with one of my friends. I love maid cafes... I don't really care about the fetishistic aspect of it all... I just think the uniforms are super cute, and the service is really good. The one we went to yesterday was called "Hand Maid Cafe うさぎの森L<->R" . All the maids were dressed up as 'bunnies' and it was adorable. Before we went in, we had to agree to a couple of conditions. For one, photography was prohibited, which was too bad because of how cute everything is... but I was expecting that. Another condition was that we couldn't smoke in the restaurant because, it was a "forest" and smoking causes fires, and they would all die. When the cashier told us this, she wiped away a fake tear with her bunny ear. It was so cute! We agreed to these conditions and a couple of others and waited our turn to enter. When our bunny arrived, she grabbed a lamp, turned it on, and guided us to our seat, reminding us to watch our step, "because it is very dark"...which it wasn't at all. The whole ordeal was just too cute.

We could have taken purikura photos with our favourite bunny for 600¥ if we wanted, which we didn't, though I totally regret it now lol. If I go back, I might purikura next time lol.

It was by far the nicest of the three maid cafes I've been to to-date. For one, it was a huge restaurant. The decor was really cute, too, and was very reminiscent of a Disney themed restaurant. They also had a stage where they would sing time-to-time. What was interesting about this one is that I felt like it catered to all kinds of people. When people think maid cafes, they often think creepy old men with maid fetishes. The clientele in this one, however, was made up of a variety of different kinds of people. There were a couple of men who were there on their own, but there were couples, pairs of women, groups of guys, and a couple of us foreigners too. They even had an English menu at the entrance, which is always a welcoming sign. The bunnies at the counter seemed a bit worried when we first appeared, because they themselves didn't speak English, but once we told them that they could speak to us in Japanese, the whole thing went fine. I was actually really impressed by how much I understood of what they were saying to me ^^

Every part of Tokyo has a different feel to it. Some I like, some I like less, but it's all part of the grand experience of experiencing the entire city. Akihabara has a nice feeling to it. Not only are the people generally pretty nice, but it has a nice nostalgic feel to it as well. I don't think I'll ever become an anime fan again, but I can appreciate what Akihabara is and what kind of people it caters to. I dunno... I just feel a sense of general acceptance in the air when I'm there... Maybe that's why it's a popular place among the rejects of society... And as one of those people who has never quite fit in, I feel like maybe Akihabara likes me too ^^