Her Master’s Card

Time to start exploiting the Tokyo trip for posting fodder. This here is the Akihabara branch of an "adults' convenience store" - seven floors of adult toys and costumes. And their staff dress up in their own wares - gothic lolita, french maid, school girl sailor fuku etc etc. Except that the staff are all *male*. And the management seems to encourage them to have stubble and not shave their limbs. You know, so that no one will actually mistake them as a cosplaying member of the fairer sex?

Speaking of the fairer sex, there are actually gurls who go shopping there too. This is evidenced by the polaroids on the walls, above the costumes (one floor was just for costumes inspired by anime, sorted and tagged by series and character), of these ladies trying on the various costumes. In some of the racier photos, the ladies have their identities hidden by either placing a hand across their eyes or having a black bar drawn across so. Obviously, no photography is allowed in the shop.

Here's a poorly scanned scan of their card. And yes, they have a website. I wonder if our own local cosplayers have bought or used any of sm's wares of which the quality varies tremendously as I suspect that different animes licence out the rights to different types of manufacturers. Naturally custom made and probably hand made in Japan costumes (e.g. KISS) will command ridiculously high prices (just like Japan-made figurines, model kits and DVDs) but quality is reputed to be so good that they are apparently very comfortable to wear and actually make the wearer look good.

Well, the advantage of beautiful people is that they look good no matter what they wear (or don't wear, heh heh) - it's just a matter of how much better they look when they wear this or that. And whether they'll actually wear it:

• Hand Maid May costume - JPY 9,800
• Mahoromatic Automatic Maiden costume - JPY 12,500
• Hisui/Kohaku costume - JPY 15,000 ea
• Pretty girlfriend who enjoys cosplay - Priceless

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Gosyuginsama (i.e. Master) Card. - Zyl