On the 14th of August, around 30 maids from maid cafes in Akihabara gathered and splashed water on the pavement of Kanda Shrine in Tokyo.
A way to cool off on a hot summer day
This event is called Uchimizukko 2016. It has been held every summer since 2004 to sprinkle water on the ground to cool down the heat island effect of the metropolis. It has become a seasonal tradition as local maids from Akihabara are the main attendees. “Uchimizu” is an ancient Japanese way to sprinkle water around the house in the summer. People use this method in order to cool down the hot atmosphere. After this event the ground temperature of the shrine dropped down to 30.6°C from 33.7°C.
Maids at Maid Cafes
The "Maids" here are not real maids. They work at maid cafes where customers are their "master" or "lady" and treated like one. E.g. when you walk into one of those cafes the maids say loudly "welcome back, master!" with a big smile. It is basically a cafe serving beverages but the waitresses are dressed like a maid and can sometimes talk to you, sing or do a cute pose for you. There are also many different styled maid cafes such as Japanese-styled maid cafes with maids wearing a kimono, or rude maid cafes where angry maids yell at you and spill drinks on your pants. However, most maids wear a short skirt with an apron, a petticoat, hair accessories with frills and stockings.
Why Akihabara?
The first maid cafe opened in 2001 in Akihabara. Since then the popularity has exploded in the area. Then it expanded into the rest of Japan and now even into other countries. But there are not as many as in Akihabara. Why are there many maid cafes in Akihabara? Akihabara was originally a famous electric town with a lot of electric parts supplier shops. Then the sub-cultural part developed and the town became a world mecca of Otakus. (Otaku = someone who is deep into something like anime, computer games, idols, computers, comics and so on.) The maid cafe customers are mainly these Otakus as the maids are thought to be the embodiment of girls in digital worlds, comics or animations.
Host of the Event
The host organization of this Uchimizukko event is licolita that was established as NGO based in Akihabara, Tokyo in order to contribute to the society by doing what they like. They decided to combine maids with global warming and cool down the city and the people by splashing water and the smiles of the maids.