A maid promoting a maid cafe in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan. Akihabara is a popular place to buy anything electronic, but there are also many manga (comic) stores. The obsession of the otaku (geeks) with manga featuring maids led to this peculiar popularity of maid cafes. Generally speaking, you go to a maid cafe to hear people singing karaoke to cute anime cartoons, and to be served coffee and snacks by girls dressed as maids. They will probably do a little performance about putting their love into what they brought to you. It's cute and harmless and in no way sexual. In case you're wondering, no you're not allowed to take photos in the cafes. If you're female, you might be able to pay a fee to dress up as a maid yourself and have a video taken of you in costume singing karaoke. All the anime are in Japanese though!