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I’m sure there will be a lot of goshujin-sama (Masters) and ojo-sama (Mistresses) (*1) out there who don’t know what Maid Café terms like “gokitaku” and “odekake” mean, so I’ve attached a few footnotes at the end to help you follow along.

@homecafe is more than just a regular café, it’s an entertainment café. At a regular café, how good the food and drinks taste, the level of service and the overall comfort of the store are the most important factors. For the maids at @homecafe, however, the most important thing is making the Masters and Mistresses happy and having them truly enjoy themselves from the bottom of their hearts ♡ At @homecafe we offer services that you won’t find at regular cafés, like the pictures that the maids will hand-draw on top of your omuraisu (rice omelet) (*2) in ketchup, mixing up the mikkusu-juusu (mixed juice) (*3) together with the Masters/Mistresses, and various “actions” that we all take part in and enjoy together. When Masters and Mistresses “gokitaku” (return home) (*4) for the first time and they “odekake” (step out) (*5) with big beaming faces saying “This was fun! I’ll be back again!” it makes me incredibly happy to see. To make other people smile, you have to be able to smile yourself first! It might sound a bit clichéd, but smiles breed smiles! So that’s why through good times and bad, I’m determined to always smile and enjoy my profession as a maid.

We also have a lot of Masters and Mistresses visit us from overseas, even though at @homecafe we don’t hand out flyers on the street like some other places. Which means that most of these visitors will have either looked us up online or read about us in guidebooks or on travel sites. They’ve accepted maid cafés as a part of Japanese culture and it really feels like they don’t just come to our café because they think it’s odd or novel, but because they know about maid cafés and they want to experience maid culture firsthand for themselves.

In recent years, I’ve received more and more offers to attend events overseas and I now get quite a lot of opportunities to interact with all the Masters and Mistresses outside of Japan. Most of my work overseas will include waiting tables at the local maid cafés, giving lectures on maid culture, and stage performances. I travel quite a lot now so I know now that there are maid cafés all over the world! You can find them in the United States, Mexico, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Chile…basically every country that I’ve been to so far has had maid cafés, and they all seem to know who I am and they’re all so kind.
In Chinese, maid is written with the characters “onna” (woman) and “boku” (me – used by males), and when I went to Taiwan they added to this the character “ou” (king/queen), calling me the “maid queen.” And when I went to Chile, all the maids from maid cafés across South America that came to see me were calling me “hitomi sempai” (mentor), so I’ve become somewhat of a role model to them (lol).

I don’t think that maid cafés exist all over the world because of @homecafe or my influence – not in the slightest. But it makes me truly happy that people know about @homecafe and they know about me as a maid. It makes me feel like people everywhere are acknowledging this profession that I take such pride in and feel fulfillment in, and it makes me happy that I chose to become a maid and have come this far.

As I wrote at the start, I didn’t have anything in life that I particularly liked until one late-night TV show changed it all and gave me my “favorite thing.” To the people out there who are just like I was, who don’t have something they like doing or something they want to be in life yet, the time will come when you realize what that “something” is. If my being a maid can somehow motivate such people and help them discover what their “favorite thing” is, I couldn’t be happier.


Notes:

1: The customers who visit @homecafe are all referred to as “goshujin-sama” or Masters (for men) and “ojo-sama” or Mistresses (for women).

2: The proper name for omuraisu served at @homecafe is “Pipiyo-piyo-piyo♪ Hiyoko-san Rice”! Don’t be embarrassed to order using the proper name!


3: The proper name for this item is “Furifuri Shakashaka ♪ Mikkusu Juuchu.” It’s quite a popular one for first time Masters and Mistresses.

4: We see @homecafe as the house that our Masters and Mistresses grew up in ♡ So when a customer comes to the store we call it “gokitaku” (returning home). And upon “returning home” we say “okaerinasaimase, goshujin-sama/ojo-sama” (Welcome home, Master/Mistress).

5: The opposite of “gokitaku” is “odekake” (stepping out). When a Master or Mistress leaves @homecafe we call it “odekake.” When they leave, we love for them to say, “Ittekimasu!” (I’m stepping out now but I’ll be back) ♡