Maid trains

[gmat]

Title says it all.

 

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/seibu-railways-to-introduce-maid-trains

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

Here's the homepage:

http://www.maidtrain.info/

 

The event coordinator company that runs this operation, BS Visual, also did the maid train operation on the Hitachinaka Kaihin Railway. They focus on other railway-themed events, also.

 

Their corporate HP:

http://www.bsvisual.co.jp/index.html

[Kabutoni]

Things like these make me mad and give me a headache. Smaller companies chipping in this nonsense, okay, to save their hide, but larger companies as Seibu. Almost makes my blood boil and makes me less fan of Seibu even more.

[clem24]

Things like these make me mad and give me a headache. Smaller companies chipping in this nonsense, okay, to save their hide, but larger companies as Seibu. Almost makes my blood boil and makes me less fan of Seibu even more.

 

I don't know about you but suddenly I am a huge fan of Seibu.

[gmat]

I apologize, Toni Babelony, I thought that this would be something unusual concerning Japanese trains. I guess that's why I didn't add any other comments.

 

Sorry,

Grant

[Kabutoni]

I apologize, Toni Babelony, I thought that this would be something unusual concerning Japanese trains. I guess that's why I didn't add any other comments.

 

Nooo, no no no. No need to apologize! I also once pointed this out on the forums: http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,2761.0.html (Hitachinaka and Kashima Rinkai RR)

 

As I said, I don't disagree with the fact that smaller companies are getting on with these kind of marketing tricks, but it makes me upset to see big companies like Seibu doing the same thing. Maybe it's like those trains from JR East running around in Akiba/Mo'e stickering for some obscure animation, targeting lonely guys with a thing for under-age girls.

[westfalen]

I wish there was a way Queensland Rail could do this but outside Japan it would be politically incorrect in so many ways.

[spacecadet]

As I said, I don't disagree with the fact that smaller companies are getting on with these kind of marketing tricks, but it makes me upset to see big companies like Seibu doing the same thing. Maybe it's like those trains from JR East running around in Akiba/Mo'e stickering for some obscure animation, targeting lonely guys with a thing for under-age girls.

 

Most maids aren't underage (they're just college girls), and they're not just for lonely guys.  My wife actually dragged me to a maid cafe a couple of years ago and it was almost all couples in the cafe.

 

I don't have any problem with this train.  I sent the link to my wife and she said she wanted to ride it.

[Mudkip Orange]

I'm very much in favor of this.

[bikkuri bahn]

Most maids aren't underage (they're just college girls), and they're not just for lonely guys.

 

I've had students (who are underage), who on their days off, like to dress up as lolitas or goth lolitas and go to town- they do it for themselves, not to titillate others.  Another example of the maid theme is the family restaurant Anna Millers in the Tokyo area- the waitresses wear maid uniforms with short hemlines. Many of the customers were families and elderly folks, didn't see any pervs.

[Kabutoni]

As I said, I don't disagree with the fact that smaller companies are getting on with these kind of marketing tricks, but it makes me upset to see big companies like Seibu doing the same thing. Maybe it's like those trains from JR East running around in Akiba/Mo'e stickering for some obscure animation, targeting lonely guys with a thing for under-age girls.

 

Most maids aren't underage (they're just college girls), and they're not just for lonely guys.  My wife actually dragged me to a maid cafe a couple of years ago and it was almost all couples in the cafe.

 

I don't have any problem with this train.  I sent the link to my wife and she said she wanted to ride it.

 

I wasn't saying/implying maids working there are under age (would also be troublesome for legal reasons I guess). I was comparing the feelings I get with the described example.

 

Also, elderly folks: I don't know about that. Most fans of, for example, Morning Musume are elderly men... The wife just gets dragged along not to make the husband look bad. One could excuse it as a cultural difference, but I tend to look at those modern phenomenon with huge scepticism. I'm afraid it's becoming one of those newly invented traditions, with a traditionalistic and female oppressing after-taste.

[gmat]

I think that Anna Millers in Japan is no more. The ones in Jiyugaoka and near Komazawa Park closed a couple of years ago. I miss their Dutch Apple and Pecan Pies. There was also one near Shimokitazawa but that one closed even earlier. I think that the Jiyugaoka one was the original.

[spacecadet]

I've had students (who are underage), who on their days off, like to dress up as lolitas or goth lolitas and go to town- they do it for themselves, not to titillate others.  Another example of the maid theme

 

Never compare a lolita to a maid :)

 

My store sells lolita clothes from the actual Japanese brands, so we're technically part of that industry and know a lot of the people who wear it (both in Japan and the US - including some of the famous ones like Misako Aoki).  The difference between the two is that lolita is a fashion, the maid thing is cosplay (usually for money).  You'll make a lolita very angry if you say she looks like a maid :)

 

Anyway I know your reply was from some months ago, but I missed it at the time.

[bikkuri bahn]

Never compare a lolita to a maid :)

 

Quoting out of context there, but point taken.

 

I think that Anna Millers in Japan is no more.

 

Actually, there are at least two stores still in operation- at Landmark Tower shopping center in Yokohama MM21, and across the street from Shinagawa Station, near the Prince Hotel complex.  I hear you about the Pecan Pie- one of my comfort foods...

[Guest ___]

Title says it all.

 

http://www.japantoday.com/category/lifestyle/view/seibu-railways-to-introduce-maid-trains

 

Best wishes,

Grant

 

 

 

To mew this just seems stupid. Price point being ridiculously high. Trains are one form of otaku, and maids are another. Neither should be combined. That's like mixing bowling with stamp collecting.  As a ばかおたくのでんしゃ　I personally DEMAND to see stations, and operatung crews resemble girls from Tetsudou Musume. Anything else would be like watching a Star Trek movie starring Delta Burke as Captain Kirk, and Bob Dylan playing the part of the a jefferies tube. Hell might as well start letting coopers forge brake shoes while they're at it.

[gmat]

Bikkuri Bahn,

Next time I get near Shinagawa Station, I'll look it up. Thanks for the info. How recent have you seen it?

Thanks again,

Grant

[spacecadet]

Price point being ridiculously high. Trains are one form of otaku, and maids are another. Neither should be combined. That's like mixing bowling with stamp collecting.

 

I don't get that they're really trying to combine two different kinds of otaku, to me it just sounds like they're taking the maid cafe experience mobile.

 

If it was in the United States, and it was like a "Hooters Railfan Experience" or something, then that might be a weird combination.  But this is Japan; there's nothing strange about a train to anyone, so I don't think most people would think they're trying to combine two different otaku experiences.  I think it's more just putting maids into a part of daily life where most people wouldn't normally expect them, so it just adds a little novelty vs. just going to a maid cafe, which is probably getting passe now.

[rpierce000]

I really remember the food, not the girls, and I was a high school boy when I started going there.

 

I think for a gaijin it is just a chance at some pie that tastes like home.