"Okaerinasaimase goshujin-sama!" ("Welcome home, my lords!")

One evening last week, Chilean college student Margarita Jimenez joyfully greeted her first "lords" — a group of American tourists — at a maid cafe in Akihabara, Tokyo's mecca of otaku culture.

After taking their orders, Jimenez, wearing a frilly dress and meticulously coiffed hair, carried a tray of drinks to the guests with a careful gait.