Notes from Nippon: Prized Garbage

Fernando Ramos October 25, 2010

Akihabara can be a dirty place. Whether it be posters for the latest high school mini-skirt parade or the no fewer than two multi-story “novelty item” stores that hug the town’s entrance, there certainly is a case to be made for that. Harmless wish fulfillment wasn’t the concern on September 20^th, though. Takaya Kobayashi, Chief of Environmental Education of Chiyoda Ward, and a small group of maids had something of a far more literal idea of grime.

“While most people associate maids with Akihabara, I would be overjoyed to have larger events like this spread a new culture,” said Kobayashi, addressing a relatively small crowd of people gathered at Akiba Square in the relatively up-scale UDX building.

Of course, the event wasn’t just cleaning for cleaning’s sake. This was merely the climax of the “Akiba Maid Contest,” a campaign run between several different competing cafes over the summer months. Customers voted with their feet (and wallets) to determine which maid of which café was the “#1 Moe Maid in Akihabara,” with cash prizes for the lucky leading lady.

Although the crowd barely cracked two dozen, there was an infectious spirit in the air—enough to cause a crowd to gather around the edges of the modest barrier set around the “stage.” Not least of which were the front-row seaters prepped to cheer on Mari of the casino-themed Akiba Guild, who received the runner up prize for her efforts. Also getting plenty of enthusiastic cheers were Honorable Mention Izumi from the self-explanatory basicBar bB and, naturally, Grand Prize Winner Mizuki Osaki from Gentoukan, a European-styled café.

“To be honest, I’m so surprised that I still can’t believe it!” said Osaki, upon receiving her 100,000 yen (about $1200 US) prize. As could be expected it was followed by a photo shoot for the general crowd, a relative treat given that most maids tend to be camera-shy when “on the ground” and authorized souvenir photographs in their respective cafés averaging at $5 US a shot.

After that was said and done, everyone on the ground picked up rubber gloves and trash tongs to take to the streets. Tokyo is a remarkably clean metropolis and Akihabara is no exception, but it still falls victim to the countless flyers for the hundreds of different shops that will inevitably go astray. The scene was watched with bemusement by passers-by on the crowded Monday holiday street, given the contrast between each of the three leading ladies, their respective fans flanking them, with both enthusiastically pointing out litter as an overseer occasionally shouted “Clean-up in progress!”

Just another surreal sight in a land engineering the unreal.

Mr. Kobayashi, in a commencement address to the proceedings, said, “Even if the Akihabara Pedestrian’s Paradise were to finally reopen in October, to be a pedestrian doesn’t mean doing what one pleases. If we can all do our part to prevent littering then we can create a paradise where our maids can move about freely.”