It's humid today in Tokyo, so I would love to eat a big salad for my lunch. When you eat salad, what kind dressing do you like most? I really love Japanese dressing (we say "WA-FY" dressing). It's very popular in Japan. Actually, at my company cafeteria, Japanese dressing has to be gone faster than others at the salad bar. Here is the recipe. Substitute sesame oil for regular oil and add some sesame seeds, and it is called Chinese dressing in Japan. Both of them are good for tofu, boiled chicken or roast beef sauce. Yummy desuyo!
I told you Billy would come sooner or later. I got this new this morning! Yes, he will come here on the 20th. His schedule in Japan is filled up already with a lot of TV shows and interviews. すごい人気だね。I found this one "Parody of Billy's Bootcamp" by Shingo Katori on TV show SMAP SMAP.
Crazy...this is really crazy. I thought the maid cafe would be a temporary boom, but still they are popular and they provide new services. Not only in cafes, there is maid reflexology, maid beauty salons, maid ear cleaning service, etc. I found a new one today: it's maid sleep sharing! (orz....) They said the maid will come to your home and enjoy TV, videos, and games together with you, as well as sleeping together with you. They also have such options as ear cleaning ear and pillowing your head on her lap, though they never allow cameras, never touching and NEVER MORE. Well... okay maybe shy and lonely maid fans will use this service. I will check this site again later.
Did you know the new sport "extreme ironing?" Here is the article from the BBC and here is the video from YouTube. I knew about it because Yahoo Japan picked the official site of "Extreme Ironing Japan." They have an official iron and official iron table and here are their playing photos....hmm, what are the rules? How I can win? No shrink or form of ironing?
looks like that crazy!
Posted by: cleaning service seattle wa | Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 04:38 AM
The recent anime convention Fanime had a "maid cafe." In that cafe, people dressed up as maids (or least in one case a butler) and served food. I remember seeing a video of one Japanese maid cafe. The "maid" talked about being an anime fan. And I guess some anime fans have an interest in anime characters who are maids. If someone wants to cosplay as a maid that's their choice.
Last year at fanime, two ladies dressed as maids, were selling food. If I remember correctly they said they liked the maid genre of anime. They were trying to raise money for their school club. Someone told them that they were not supposed to be selling food. I think it was competition with the food vendors plus food safety. But apparently they could take donations. I was glad they were there since the food vendors had closed after about 8pm. This year there was a maid cafe, and I was told that those two ladies were on staff. The maid cafe was very popular. I don't know if one could call it exotic dancing. It seemed more like a formal setting. If anything the maid cafe reminded me of what I read in the book GEISHA: A LIFE. The author mentioned that hte Geisha were to provide intelligent conversation, so they had to research the field of their client, such as art or philosophy. The author of that book also did not care for that novel "Memoirs of a Geisha." I guess there are different types
of "maid cafes." Some maid cafes provide an oppporunity for anime fans to cosplay and earn money. In other words work as a waitress and cosplay at the same time.
But other "maid cafes" or "maid services" are somewhat questionable, to put it mildly.
I think the maid cafe were originally intended for Japanese otaku not gaijin. But an article in one magazine said the real otaku would not bother to go to such a cafe. They are hermits. So what happens is foreign tourists go to maid cafes to see Japanese otaku and run into other tourists.
When I took a Japanese history class, the professor mentioned that there places where
women dress up as waiters and pretend to be the ideal man. So I wonder if "butler cafes" came before maid cafes?
Posted by: Guy | Monday, June 25, 2007 at 01:39 PM
Most of my favorite salad dressing are
1. Goma Dressing
2. Wafu Dressing
Yes there are a lot of gaijin in my university, some bad people always take the hold bottle of goma dressing back home.
And i really hate this people, dont ask me to mention what are their nationality.
Posted by: Sutanai | Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 01:00 PM
I was very curious about the salad dressing recipe. When I read it, though, I had to laugh -- that's my favorite kind. My wife frequently makes this, but she doesn't have a name for it. And I agree that sesame oil tastes very good in this; its rich, smoky flavor works quite well with the soy.
Posted by: bshock | Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 07:21 AM
As a "Western" woman (North American) the concept of "maid cafe" is very hard for me to understand. Why would ANY woman feel this is all she has to offer?? I have never been to one and never plan to, but I have seen websites about them and it seems that mostly gaijin perverts (anime otaku no otoko no hito) go there just to "fantasize" about and oggle the girls...ISH!!! ~ Totemo hidosugiru (disgusting) desuyo! :(-
Of course in North America there are many women who take jobs as exotic dancers or "hostesses" just like in Japan, but in North America many people find this kind of work very shameful and other women tend to look down on and disrespect women who choose such "work."
Are maid cafes considered "sleazy" by most Japanese, and the women who work there not respected, or this an accepted part of Japanese (Tokyo specifically) culture?
Posted by: Heidi | Tuesday, June 19, 2007 at 06:46 AM