Interest

Tokyo's Maid Train Returns in January

In collaboration with the railway event company BS Visual, the Seibu Railway system began offering tickets for its second "Maid Train" one-day trip last Friday. The tour package's timeframe is expanded from last year, and guests will travel from Tokyo's Seibu-Ikebukuro station to Saitama's Seibu-Chichibu station on January 14.

A total of nine maids will serve up to 300 passengers on the new Red Arrow Classic train. Six of the train's seven cars will each have one maid, and three "support maids" will also tend to two cars each. Guests will be able to interact and take pictures with the maids. In addition to food and drinks, games and other activities, the service will offer time for sightseeing in Chichibu's mountainous region. For the tour package to go forward as planned, there must be a minimum of 200 applicants who each pay 5,500 yen (about US$70) for adults or 5,000 yen (about US$64) for children ages six to twelve. People can buy tickets on the tour's website until January 3.

The average age of last year's train riders was 34.5, and 94% of the passengers were male. Tickets for the 360 seats sold out in about two weeks. Tokyo's Swallowtail butler café also partnered with the Kinki Nippon Tourist agency to offer a "Butler's Express" train service last December.

Source: Yahoo! Japan News via My Game News Flash