Chapter 113
Akihabara.
A place that used to mainly sell electronic goods but has now become the holy land of otaku. Like a mecca, it is somewhere every otaku is expected to visit at least once.
The four (+1) set foot in that place. Akihabara Station was packed with people moving through suffocating crowds. Countless office workers, ordinary people, otaku, and everyone else were tangled together, creating not only the heat of summer but also the heat of humanity.
“Why are there so many people?”
It happened to be summer. It happened to be morning, with the sun already high in the sky. It wasn’t quite the hellish subway rush hour, but there were far more people than in Hongdae or Myeongdong at their busiest. They took the full force of Japan’s heat and somehow crawled out of the station.
“I’m dying. It’s so hot.”
“I feel like I’m going to be boiled to death.”
The two people complaining were Iseo and Seoha. Though she didn’t look it, Hyein also had wrinkles etched between her brows. The only people in the group even trying to move were Myeongjeon, a mental old fogey thinking things like, ‘If you calm your mind, winter is summer and summer is winter,’ and Hyuna, who was more delighted to have returned to her ‘spiritual homeland.’
“Come on, come on! Let’s get moving! We don’t have much time. There are so many places to see!”
Seeing Hyuna behave in the exact opposite way from usual, Myeongjeon wondered just how happy she was. Then again, there was probably some joy in finally visiting a place she had only imagined until now…
“Hmm… Is it really that great?”
“Huh?”
“No, never mind.”
Myeongjeon glossed over it and walked through Akihabara, looking around at the streets.
Countless people came and went along roads closed to traffic. There seemed to be more Westerners and Chinese people than Japanese. Aside from that, it looked like an ordinary street, but the things attached to the signs and other surfaces were not ordinary advertisements. They were anime characters, game advertisements, and the like, which made the scenery seem a little different.
‘Back when I was young, animated films and things like that were targets for the government to crack down on… It’s a little strange to see how big they’ve become. No, was that limited to the Korean government?’
Even when he was young, Japanese manga and similar things had occasionally made their way into Korea through smuggling. Back then, he had thought they were all made in Korea, or at least that was what people claimed.
After looking around at various places, the group’s pleas, exhausted by the heat, led them to… none other than a ‘maid café.’ They had gone to the most representative and famous one, a major maid café with branches everywhere.
‘Come to think of it, will these people even enjoy something like this? Maybe they’ll hate it instead?’
Hyuna had suddenly begun thinking that way after bringing the group there. She had somewhat overcome her inferiority complex after seeing the girls enjoy the otaku songs they performed at the school festival, but emotions rooted deep in one’s bones did not disappear so easily.
“
How many people are there?
”
“
There are five
.”
“
Are you Korean?
”
“H-hi.”
The table they reached after being greeted by the energetic maids was quite large. A Korean-language menu was handed to them. But before looking at it, Hyuna first discreetly examined the others’ expressions to see whether anyone disliked coming here.
“What an interesting place. Is it some kind of tourism-oriented café?”
“It seems so.”
Fortunately, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Iseo was taking pictures of the maid café, which they were seeing for the first time, while Seoha carefully studied the menu. Suyeon and her daughter were discussing the café.
Hyuna breathed a sigh of relief inwardly and looked down at the menu.
Admission: 770 yen. Set Course: 3,080 yen. Dessert Course: 2,860 yen. Drink Course: 2,310 yen. Full Course: 3,960 yen. The prices were so high that it was hard to imagine this was a restaurant.
At first, Suyeon had been fine with the place, but the moment she saw the prices, she shouted, “What kind of scammers are these people? Why are the prices like this?” and suggested they leave. However, everyone except Suyeon began ordering whatever the maids recommended, saying they might never get another chance to enjoy things like this.
“
Miss, how about the live option?
”
“What is she saying?”
“She’s asking whether we want to watch a live performance. Apparently, if we order it, they’ll dance and perform up front. It’s 1,320 yen.”
“They charge for that too?”
Ignoring Suyeon’s grumbling, Hyein said, “Then we’ll have that too, please.” And so they ended up spending more than 150,000 won on five full courses and a live-performance order.
“
The young ladies at this table have ordered the full course!
”
As soon as they ordered the full course, the maids rang handbells and shouted it out, like an Apple Store on Garosu-gil.
Hyuna’s face turned red with embarrassment and bewilderment. But the maids did not stop there, showering them with praise to an extent that made it seem as though they intended to suffocate their customers with shame.
The other customers looked over to see what on earth was happening. Seoha fled to the bathroom in an instant, while Suyeon desperately stared out the window, refusing to face reality… Iseo and Hyein, meanwhile, smiled brightly and waved to everyone else as if they were in a parade.
It was the service they had only heard about, where a picture was drawn on omurice. Excluding the two people who had already half-lost their minds, Seoha and Suyeon, the other three energetically shouted the chant along with the maid.
“おいしくな～れ, 萌え萌えきゅん!”
(Oishiku nare, moe moe kyun!)
‘Is this the “home country” I’d only heard about?’
As far as Hyuna could tell, there was no obvious difference between the maid café services in Korea and Japan.
In some respects, Korea was actually better. For example, the maids looked so busy that they couldn’t make small talk at all. They also didn’t draw pictures on drinks, and sometimes recommended additional menu items or gacha. In those respects, Korea had its advantages.
‘But it feels like something is different at a fundamental level…!’
It was something she couldn’t explain, but Hyuna felt that way regardless. Then again, how important could the fundamental nature of a maid café really be?
“Is this where you come to enjoy things like this?”
Once the various activities that were practically traditions of maid cafés had ended, Suyeon, who finally seemed to have regained her senses, asked that question. Hyuna nodded and pointed at the menu.
“As you can see here, there’s a souvenir… a commemorative photo. This is called a cheki, and you take a photo with a maid. And we ordered the live earlier, so that should be starting soon too…”
“Why take a photo with a maid?”
“Uh… just because? As a souvenir…?”
Suyeon wore an expression that said she couldn’t understand. Hyuna thought that was only natural. Judging by the nearby tables, the maids’ gestures, and their reactions… it was almost as though the maids wanted to take commemorative photos with Suyeon, rather than Suyeon taking one with them. They simply couldn’t approach because Suyeon was sitting there with an air that said, ‘I hate everything about this.’
“I feel dizzy.”
“Are you feeling sick?”
“No, that’s not what I mean…”
Seoha had blurted out a trendy phrase and earned concern from her mother, Suyeon. While they were talking, all the lights in the café suddenly went out.
“What?”
“Ah, this… I think it’s the live.”
“The live?”
“The one we ordered earlier. I think those people are about to perform over there…”
Hyuna held up the glow stick they had been given earlier. When she bent it in her hand, it lit up brightly like a cheering light stick. The maid beside them saw it and smiled as she demonstrated that they were supposed to wave it while cheering.
“
Everyone, please shout, ‘Music start!’~! Then, se-no~!
”
“
Music start!
”
The male customers on the far side of the shop let out a booming shout. Along with that sound, the maids began dancing on a small stage set up inside the shop. They worked hard to put on cute voices as they danced and sang.
“Why am I paying with my own money to torture myself?”
While everyone else was cheering enthusiastically, Seoha unwittingly muttered that. Silence briefly descended over the table.
* * *
“I don’t think Japan is a country you should visit in summer. It’s so hot I can’t live.”
Iseo muttered that. Hyuna’s tour of Akihabara had left everyone drenched in sweat, and even after showering at the hotel and coming back out… the discomfort of the heat remained.
“The more you keep chanting ‘hot, hot,’ the hotter you’ll feel. You won’t stop feeling hot until you stop thinking about it.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
Myeongjeon offered Iseo advice born from a lifetime of experience, but Iseo didn’t seem inclined to accept it. Well, she would understand once she had lived a little longer. After another twenty years or so, she would think, ‘Ah, so Suyeon was right back then.’
“Is this the Shimokitazawa you were talking about?”
“Yes.”
Myeongjeon answered Hyein’s question. Shimokitazawa. Just as Korea has Hongdae, Tokyo has Shimokitazawa. It was a place teeming with live houses, known as the ‘holy land of culture and art.’
This was the place Myeongjeon had suggested they visit. Hyuna had asked him some strange question about whether they were going on an ‘anime pilgrimage’ because the area appeared in some anime or other, but he had no such intention at all. He simply wanted to show the band girls…
The path they should take.
“Where do you think the world’s largest music market is?”
“The United States.”
That was Seoha’s answer. Myeongjeon smiled slightly and asked another question.
“Then what’s the second-largest market?”
“Uh… Somewhere like the UK?”
“No, Japan.”
In response to Hyuna’s answer, Seoha corrected her. She was right. The world’s second-largest music market was Japan.
“And Japan is growing its own music scene based on the size of that market. That’s why I wanted to bring you here today.”
Myeongjeon continued walking as he spoke.
“I’m not saying the bands in the Hongdae scene lack skill. There are plenty that could do well enough in Japan. Take the bands that competed in Invasion 2024, for example. A band like Mystica, the one we competed against, has a level of skill that would be hard to find even in Japan.”
Nevertheless, the Hongdae scene was declining. There was only one reason: the music market was too small. Because of that, the Korean music market had developed in a direction that excluded rock.
“That’s why I wanted to bring you here today. We’re doing pretty well in Korea. But if we want to grow further, increase our earnings, and do more… we’ll inevitably have to reach beyond the Korean market and expand overseas. Naturally, Japan, our neighboring country, will obviously be the first target.
Then what about Japanese rock? Not just listening to it on records—what are the live performances like? I wanted to experience that with you all. That’s why I brought you here today.”
Myeongjeon finished speaking and stopped in front of a live house. He hadn’t chosen any particular live house. He had simply picked one where a show seemed likely to start soon and where they could probably get in because it wasn’t sold out. In other words, he had chosen ‘anywhere.’
“Then let’s hear what Japanese bands are like.”
Myeongjeon said that and descended the live house’s stairs. The faint tension before a performance, something they had all experienced many times, could already be felt from the entrance.