With her frilly green dress and white lace gloves and about to serve tea under a chandelier in a small Tokyo store, Naru Naruse looks the perfect French maid.
The store, named Candy Fruit, sells designer eyeglasses. Naruse is part of a mushrooming fantasy world in Tokyo's Akihabara neighborhood, where make-believe maids are spilling out from their original novelty cafes to lure mostly male customers to reflexology centers and souvenir stalls.
"I always wanted to wear a cute costume," said Naruse, one of eight maids who work at Candy Fruit. "Now I can wear this out in the open." She declined to reveal her age, saying all the maids in Akihabara are perpetually 17.