PuiPui:Volume1 Author's Notes
Author's Notes[edit]
I wonder if you all enjoyed this new read. Actually, as an elementary school student I had a (life?) experience with maids. There was this extremely wealthy classmate, a somewhat egotistic girl; I was invited to her birthday party, and at her place there were actually a handful of maids. All of them were around eighteen years old, with cute faces and white aprons, and they handmade the food for the birthday party. And, because they brought each of the dishes out as soon as they were done, each course of the meal was deliciously fresh. And you know, when the maids bring the food to the Ojousama, she doesn't even say "thank you" you know. They don't even make eye contact. I just thought, 'So this is the relationship between an ojousama and her servants', it was a world just like in manga. Also, the high point was that the girl's mother had gone out somewhere as they had agreed to leave everything about the party to the maids! Among the food there was this "Egg Broth Potage", which was a strange soup. In the Potage Soup, was a runny fresh egg, and I thought, "Wow, so this is what people with money eat! It's like French cuisine!" I can remember being so impressed when I ate it...but to this day, I've never again encountered a dish as unusual as that 'egg soup potage'. Just maybe, the maids who prepared it may have actually been bad cooks...It's a mystery I wonder about to myself now that I look back on it (haha).
The aspirations, misunderstandings, fantasies, and naivete (naivete?) from my childhood youth have now been realized as part of this work. Well, while there weren't any maid tea houses, the place that satisfied my dreams was the Eikokuya tea shop. It's a shop you can find in Osaka, Kobe, Kyoto, Nagoya, and Tokyo. Though it's not like a private estate, it's furnished elegantly, and the aristocratic emblem with its lion, crown, and shield is wonderful as well. More than anything, their uniforms that are like a cross between maid-wear and a nun's outfit is so pretty! It's a simple black one-piece outfit overlaid with a large white lapel. Hair tied neatly with a black hairband (absolutely essential!) and tasteful use of make-up, I felt my heart race whenever they merely came to take my order. Ah, but even though the place presents itself as a tea shop, their hidden specialty is waffles. Crispy on the outside, light and fluffy inside, they're cooked fresh, so you simply must eat them on the spot. Just thinking about the handmade waffles from those cute, elegant, and refined maids makes me thankful to be alive. The point is that freshly made waffles, compared to pancakes, have a more out of the ordinary feeling to them with a more exotic name to boot. Similar to my previous experience with the potage, I get the feeling of 'So this is a maid's flavor! This is the feeling of a master!'. And it's not even that expensive. It's not like I'm an infiltrator or anything, but I really wanted to drown myself in the feelings of a master! But, they don't greet you with 'welcome home master' (haha).
Namori-sensei, thank you very much for your wonderful illustrations. Sierra's hair looks so soft and pretty, it makes me want to comb it on Mary's behalf (haha).
May 2006, Natsu Midori @the Ritz-Carlton hotel maids' high ratings.
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