LD's Guide to Japan

Buddhist temple resorts to cosplay to draw in visitors

Apparently the Ryohoji temple, in a suburb of Tokyo, was so hard-up for visitors that they decided to setup a temporary cosplay/maid cafe.  Only in Japan.  The shocking result: they have seen a sizable increase in the number of young male visitors to the temple.  Read the article here.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a maid or cosplay cafe (mom), go read this and/or this, or just do a google search for “maid cafe” and you’ll see tons of articles and pictures.  It’s one of the many Japanese cultural things that’s cute on the surface, but really creepy the more you learn about it.