Japanese idol group Kamen Joshi (Masked Girls) perform at their theatre in Tokyo's Akihabara district.
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"No!" cries Izumi, her eyes wide with alarm. "It's dangerous!" I quickly put the drink down and she shows me the spell required to break the curse. I follow her lead, making a W-shape with my fingers, waving them over the glass and repeating the magic chant. Now I can drink my glass of Witch Coke.
Welcome to Akihabara, centre of Tokyo's otaku (geek) culture, a bewildering maze of video game arcades, manga stores, and maid cafes.
On paper, maid cafes sound seedy and awkward. Men pay to chat with and be served drinks by young girls dressed as maids or schoolgirls.
Toru Hanai/Reuters
A box of a tank model featuring animation Girls and Panzers is displayed at a retail store in Tokyo's Akihabara district.
In reality, the experience is neither. Izumi, my 217-year-old maid (she earnestly explains she's a ghost who was born on the planet Spada Ark), is delightful and is probably using this job at Queens Court to pay her way through university.
Izumi's English is limited so we're communicating through Tyler, my guide from InsideJapan. The company launched this tour earlier in the year to give people an insight into Tokyo's fascinating gaming subculture.
I've opted for Queens Court's ¥2000 Fairy Set package ($27, which includes unlimited Witch Cokes and a souvenir photo. For an extra ¥600, Izumi will play 10 minutes of the classic Nintendo racing game Mario Kart with me.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
A man looks at DVDs at a shop in Akihabara.
She hands me a controller and we choose our characters: a green dinosaur for me, a blonde princess for her. As we take our positions on the start line, she turns with narrowed eyes and says: "Prepare to lose."
And lose I do. Three times in a row. I finish 12th, 10th, and 12th (out of, you guessed it, 12). She comes second, second, and first.
Before leaving, we pose for a Polaroid photo, which she carefully decorates with a felt-tipped pen and presents to me with a polite bow. It's now midday and the place is almost full. There are six guys at the bar, ranging from early-20s to mid-40s. All of them are greeted by name when they arrive and one middle-aged man in a suit is proudly showing his maid the toy gun he's just bought. "Is it for your son?" she asks. "No," he replies indignantly. "It's for me."
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
A young woman has her chosen anime character painted on her fingernails at Ita Color's Yellow nail salon, in Akihabara.
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