Geisha and Maids

What do geisha and maids have in common? In Japan, they are sought after, stared at, and much photographed.

In Akihabara (Electric Town) in Tokyo, or the electronics district, there is a maid phenomenon going on where cafes, restaurants and casinos have women who dress up as maids and call customers "master." We chanced upon a maid casino and saw many maids handing out flyers on the street to restaurants and god know what else. Akihabara is known to cater to those with fetishes and the maids are just the latest way that the otaku (nerds) are indulged. I asked one maid if I could take a picture of her and she emphatically gave me an "X" with her fingers, so I declined to snap a photo.

Here are a couple of maid photos from the Web:
http://www.hdrjapan.com/akihabara-maid-picture/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/drguid/2018997380/
http://japanwindow.com/index.php?showimage=341

In the geisha district, geisha sightings are what people live for. Whenever a geisha would pop out of an alley, there would be much twittering and snapping of pictures. I felt sorry for the poor women who were swarmed by paparazzi as they simply tried to get to work. I snapped a couple of photos, then decided it was rude to pop my camera flash right in their faces. Besides, between me, Jonathan, Tree and Kevin, we had enough photos of these beautiful women. So CJ and I just waited at the side of the road as two geisha walked by. I murmured "komnbawa" (good evening) and asked CJ to do the same. The normally harried and passive geisha actually smiled and waved at CJ. It was a nice moment.