Tokyo Times

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Odd

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Butlers and boy love

Tired of their manga and maid loving male counterparts having all the fun, Japan’s growing number of female otaku (geeks) have decided to hit back — the opening of a ‘butler cafe’ graciously getting things going.

swallowtail butler cafe

The Swallowtail coffee house in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district is decked out like an English manor house, with customers subserviently greeted with a “Welcome home, Madam.” A concept that may seem a little odd, but it’s one that appears to have a ready-made audience, Emiko Sakamaki, the woman behind the eatery, explaining, “When I visited a ‘maid cafe’ last year, I thought there should be a cafe with a similar concept for women. And I saw people post some messages on the Internet that they wanted such a butler cafe. I thought the cafe could be accepted.” And accepted it has been, with tables being fully booked until May 12, the management asking customers to make reservations online to guarantee themselves a table.

Swallowtail’s vast majority of visitors it seems are women in their 20s and 30s, with Ayako Abe of K-Books — which runs the cafe and has several shops that sell manga depicting love between beautiful youths — explaining the market for such establishments by saying, “Our shops’ prime target customers are not women in their teens and 20s, but those in their 30s and 40s who got used to ‘boys’ love’ comics while they were young, and come to the stores with their daughters.”

Not that any such ‘boy love’ goes on whilst beverages are being served, with Swallowtail’s handpicked group of 20 ‘butlers’ having spent a month studying about various kinds of tea leaves and how to make a good cuppa. A training program however that may need a few minor adjustments, with visitor Noriko Suzuki commenting, “The butlers looked nervous serving tea and cake, but I liked the ambience of the coffee shop. I felt like I was peeking into the world of girls’ manga comics dealing with butlers.”

A focus on the cafe’s decor and atmosphere that Sakamaki-san believes differentiates the likes of Swallowtail from the decidedly less sophisticated places catering for males. “Men would not mind if maid cafes use cheap tables and pipe chairs as long as the waitresses are pretty”

A comment that may,

maids japan

or may not be true.

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Hand job heterogeneity

For any frustrated male in Japan hankering for something other than his own handy work, a myriad of options are available; specialist outlets boasting a vast array of lifelike latex lady parts and even mechanical masturbators.

japanese handjob

However, for the bloke who’s a little bashful about buying such things, a homemade alternative is available; some cups, a few sponges and a bit of lubricant being the only requirements.

Yes, that’s it. A packet of plastic cups and some cheap kitchen accessories are all that’s necessary. And as the pictures below demonstrate, conjuring them into a captivating cranny is equally straightforward.

wanking aid

Then with the aid of a cleverly folded futon, it’s just a matter of getting the height and angle right.

futon

And away you go.*

For more details just click here. The text is unfortunately entirely in Japanese, but there are several more pictures — even an animated one. None of which contain actual genitalia, although whether such an omission makes it safe for work or not is debatable to say the least.

And if all that’s not enough, go and check out what the same enterprising chap can muster up with a bit of fake hair and some dodgy briefs.

briefs

*Reading material optional

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Pampered pooches

Canine clothing is one thing, even dog dye could be deemed acceptable — at a push.

dog dye

Yet the current pet boom in Japan has resulted in ever more lavish treatment for the nation’s pampered pooches, a prime example being Copin Dog Mediness in Nagoya, a fitness centre that amongst other things has a pool for dogs undergoing rehabilitation — or more extravagantly, an aid to those merely looking to shed a few extra pounds.

pet therapy

And if that wasn’t enough, once fit and svelte, it’s often straight on to the Wanwan Zoo in Okazaki, where for 4,000 yen (20 pound) and upwards, man’s best friend can enjoy the benefits of a beauty clinic; aroma oils and allergenic shampoos making the visit a very pleasant one indeed.

However rumours that an establishment in Tokyo is set to top all of this with a rather more ‘personal’ service would appear to be true.

tokyo wank

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Manga misdemeanor

Whilst way short of the staggering 2 month stint achieved in Niigata last year, Kiyoshi Ikeda recently made a valiant attempt at the staying-in-a-manga-cafe-for-as-long-as-possible world record, living in such an establishment for a very respectable 34 straight days.

manga
some manga

Before being arrested for fraud in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the 37-year-old had enjoyed the relative comfort of a ‘1,000 yen for nine hours’ room; his only problem being a distinct lack of food, as after a grilled beef dinner on March 10 he had been surviving on only coffee and toast each morning. Well, that and the cafe’s lack of washing facilities, unemployed Ikeda resorting to washing his underpants in the room’s washbasin.

a washbasin

Being a regular at the cafe combined with rotating shifts amongst the staff meant Ikeda’s secretive sojourn initially went unnoticed, but after finally being rumbled for non-payment he was unceremoniously handed over to the police; the paltry 16 yen in his possession being well short of the bill — a hefty 150,000 yen (720 pound). Not that the comic connoisseur showed any repentance, Ikeda-san brazenly boasting, “I ran out of money and I thought I’d stay there until I got kicked out.”

Categorized: Odd

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Fowl play?

People riding home with their weekly shopping piled precariously in their bicycle’s basket is commonplace.

Middle-aged men on the other hand utilising the same mode of transportation to relocate birds of prey, isn’t.

owl

(click image for extra eccentricity)

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Convenience store chainsaw misdemenour

Customers treating their local convenience store as a library of sorts is far from uncommon, with many spending considerably more than a few minutes leafing through magazines and manga. That said, Ibaraki resident Yasumasa Matsuzaki managed to take such brazen browsing into previously uncharted territory — visiting the same Seven-Eleven store everyday and reading to his heart’s content.

However after an eye-straining 3-hour stint at the magazine rack last Wednesday, the manager of the store finally lost patience with the 70-year-old, telling him to either buy or bugger off. Perhaps predictably Matsuzaki opted for the latter, but his chainsaw-wielding return was somewhat less expected, the rabid reader revving the motor and shouting to the manager, “I’ll cut you to pieces!”

japanese convenience store

Thankfully Matsuzaki-san didn’t carry out his threat, instead opting to leave the (still running) chainsaw at the store’s front entrance and go back to his reading; the mystified manager explaining, “He was still reading magazines even after I called police.”

After the culprit was taken away, Seven-Eleven spokesperson Nobuyuki Miyaji explained that customers reading for long periods of time wasn’t unusual, but Matsuzaki was an extreme case. Also adding, “I’ve heard that he wouldn’t leave the store, coming every day and lying on the floor eating food.”

Sustenance purchased in the shop or brought from home in the form of a packed lunch wasn’t disclosed.