Akihabara festival: Maids are the spotlight of the event!

I guess this would be the coolest thing that I have ever heard if you are going to the holy grail of the otaku culture and mecca for electronics, Akihabara.

The folks in Akihabara — Akihabara Electrical Town Organization and the Akihabara Tourism Promotion Association — will hold a 3 day event which will boost its tourism and commerce, of course that is the Akihabara festival that will start on March 21.

What will happen is that any tourist or anyone who will shop to their selected duty-free shops — a minimum amount of 1000 yen — are entitled to a raffle that includes nah your typical devices — like tablet PCs, but what is impressed me is that if you got the coupons from that raffle, you can use that at maid cafes where young waitresses will dress or cosplay on a Victorian setup and treat you as their masters just like on those anime series, how cool is that? VIP style, right?

Well aside that hospitality, there will be a performance by idols along the streets, at the same time temporary maid cafes will also be set-up to give sample on what is the maid culture is all about. A 3 day pass for the Akiba Cultures Theater and six other venues where idols will perform costs around 5,000 yen.

What I'm impress about this is that, they are bridging different Japanese sub-pop culture to the masses which is not common in other countries.

Guess, Japanese culture is one of the coolest culture that I've ever experience.

By the way, let me post some selected duty-free stores that is offering that raffle, here are the following:

- Akky International
- Laox and Onoden

So I guess I'll be seeing you guys next month then.

Cosplay Scene at 2011 Ozine Fest Anime Figure Special

Cosplayers once again spotted at the 2011 Ozine Fest Anime Figure Special. Friends and member of their clan, gather to share again their interest on their hobby— which is cosplaying —and show to the public their crafts. I was very lucky to take pictures of a gathering of the group Cosplayers Society.


Cosplay Competition and a singing competition was held at the same day. A total of 96 participants showcased their skills at the same time their crafts to to the audience.

Here are some videos of the singing competition.


Before the cosplay competition started, an appearance by Mayumi; singing two songs from her album and remaining two are from anime titles. Here are the videos of her performance.


Here are videos of the cosplay competition.


Here are some images of cosplayers take outside and inside of the event. Feel free to grab the pictures. Enjoy! Credits also for Dave Perez for his other images.