maid in culver city

by rameniac | 16 Apr 2008

Okay, this isn’t precisely ramen-related, but I figured it would appeal to a fair segment of the rameniac readership. After all, ramen, anime, and cosplay go together like beans, eggs, and blood pudding in an English breakfast. So last Saturday, I had the good fortune to attend the opening of Royal T in Culver City, Los Angeles. Touted as America’s first-ever “maid cafe,” Royal T featured an exhibit of superflat artwork from the likes of Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara and cosplay French maids making like it was Akihabara Electric Town during a Yodobashi Camera fire sale. 

Actually, it was somewhat disappointing; the maids don’t give you hand massages, nor do they play video games with you like they (apparently!) do in Japan. Most of them weren’t even Japanese, but heck, where are you going to scare up enough honest to goodness bijin gyaru to play the part this side of the Pacific? Something definitely got lost in translation, and what remained was more of a monument to the fetishization of Asian pop culture by artsy hipsters than anything else. If I’m ever in the mood for tea and scones, maybe I’ll go back, but right now, there’s hardly enough MSG on the menu.