Maid Cafe event serves up immersive, social experience in Japanese culture

Members of UCLA’s Japanese Animation Club adorned themselves in classic maid and butler costumes with accessories like bunny ears to create a fairy tale-themed event.

JAC hosted “Fairy Tale Maid Cafe” on Saturday at the Los Angeles Tennis Center Straus Clubhouse, allowing attendees to immerse themselves in a cafe atmosphere alongside JAC members dressed in maid and butler cosplay. Traditionally, maid cafes focus on maids providing entertainment while guests eat food, but the club decided to make their rendition more of a social event, allowing both guests and members to have fun and participate in activities, said Nick Ku, a fourth-year mathematics/economics student and the president of JAC.

“Maid cafes in Japan are a little bit more focused on the maids serving you or getting pictures and stuff like that. What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to make it a more social kind of environment,” Ku said. “It’s not so much the maids but the food, the games and all this stuff together.”

Every hour, maids or butlers greeted incoming guests and escorted them to a table. At the table, guests chatted or played games with the maids while they waited for their food. As the guests ate their meals, JAC’s dance group Kirigami provided further entertainment by dancing to Japanese songs, such as “Romeo and Cinderella” by Hatsune Miku.

Ku said he tried to incorporate elements from traditional Japanese maid cafes when planning the event. He said a common activity in maid cafes is taking polaroid pictures with a maid, so the club brought a polaroid camera for patrons who wanted a commemorative photograph.

Ku added he planned activities that are popular in Japan, such as pachinko, a Japanese version of pinball. JAC members also cooked and served Japanese dishes, including Japanese curry and dango, a sticky rice ball that can have a sweet or savory glaze. The event provided arts and crafts, in which guests made a teru teru bozu, a small ghost charm made of white cloth that brings good weather.

Alison Ou, a third-year psychobiology student who attended the event, said she had never heard of maid cafes before but enjoyed the cafe’s friendly, homey atmosphere. She said the opportunity to socialize with the workers lent a sense of human connection to the cafe that a typical restaurant lacks.

Alumnus and cafe guest Tam Nguyen said he knew about maid cafes but had never been to one. Based off JAC’s event, he said he enjoyed the social aspect in which workers sat down with him to talk while he ate.

“Everywhere I’ve been in my entire life, you just talk with your friends,” Nguyen said. “But this is the first time I’ve had the workers sit down with me.”

Although some people may be concerned that maid cafes objectify women, JAC publicity chair Julie Vuong said the club tried to dispel the common preconception. The fourth-year biochemistry student said maids at cafes in Japan are sometimes flirty with guests, but JAC’s event was more of an opportunity to make friends.

“You don’t want to make the maids feel like they’re there to be this person’s fantasy — we’re there because it’s immersive,” Vuong said. “It’s taking a break from the school environment to have something that’s little bit weird, still friendly, still warm.”

Ku also said he hoped when guests came to the event, they would realize maid cafes are not about objectification. He said the club spent weeks preparing for the event with the ultimate goal of creating a venue in which guests and members could enjoy themselves.

“We’re just trying to create a social atmosphere, trying to spread awareness of Japanese culture and have a fun time with this whole thing,” Ku said.