About Butler Café Swallowtail ~ 1: personal rambles
I decided to put all my butler flail over here on my blog after having posted stuff on facebook. But I want this to last long and I want people to be able to find it by tag and stuff. All in all my blog as been half dead lately. Not that I think many pleople ready it anyways after I left GACKT fandom *lol*. Actually I would like to post this in my Japan blog but......seriously, this heaps of rambles.....I don't wanna translate them into German, too x_X
What is 執事喫茶 Swallowtail (Butler Café Swallowtail)?
[Read more (click to open)]
It's a café situated in Ikebukuro in Tokyo. It's a tea house with fantastic tea and awesome food served by servants in butler clothes. (I'll say "butlers" in in future to make it easier, I guess, but actually they have many ranks, which I'll introduce another time!).
In the following posts I will talk a lot about it. I'll guide you through how their facilities look, tell you what I know about their staff and service and and and. If you are interested, just scroll to the end of the post and choose the "= Butler Café Swallowtail" tag to get all swallowtail posts of my blog.
Enjoy reading!
So let's start with one of my recent entries I posted on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kchannouta/posts/416086448497816 . A personal ramble on what went wrong on my visits! You might want to know that I went on 29th of July - 1st of August 2013. Yes....four days in a row. I just planned one visit, then ended up booking a second and then ended up going two more times. I surprised myself. It's not like me, but hell, I enjoyed it so much and it were my last four days in Japan, so I thought either now or never!
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Sorry, more butler flail today *lol*
Just stumbled over a report/blog on it. I shall quote!
(http://amiamiblog.com/amiamiblog/2013/8/19/swallowtail-butler-cafe-serves-up-a-touch-of-class)
"The only thing you need to know when coming here is that you do not do anything yourself. Your butler will seat you, put your napkin on your lap, serve you, pour your tea, take you to the restroom--everything! No photos or usage of cellphones are allowed in the café. You are not even allowed to stand up by yourself! If you need to get up for any reason, you must ring the bell to call over a butler who will then escort you. Breaking any protocols will most likely send the butlers into a panic."
I absolutely LOVE the last sentence, because YES it sends them into a state of panic while they incredibly try hard to not show it and yet fail. X'D You can see it in their eyes and the way their movements change. It's ADORABLE!
Why do I know this? I don't remember to have come through any of the four times I went without messing up something *lol*
Day 1) Hannah (hannah_arashi) and me managed to mess up outstanding Kagami-san with our nervousness. It went over on him so he spilled water. I'll never forget his expression. X'D Later I massacred my scone. A butler's duty is to make sure his lady doesn't embarrass herself, so they take over their education, too. Hence, Kagami-san stared at my plate and then pointed out that this is not how you eat your scone X'D ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. And when going to the toilet I forgot the serviette on my lap and it fell down, so I acted on instinct, turned around to pick it up. Kagami-san gasped for breath calling out that I shall leave it to him. Unfortunately I was already in the middle of the movement so I ended up picking it up. (x///////x)
My.....I really messed up the first night! And that while having one of the highest ranked and most splendid butler of the house on our service! Good he didn't see how Hannah and me dropped food back on our plates because the dessert was partly very slippery and we were just ridiculously nervous.
Day 2) Hannah and me had our serviettes drop like.....3 times all in all. *headdesks* We both got new ones brought and when Hannah's dropped again she picked it up while nobody was looking XD. And we ended up being picked up to leave while I was JUST stretching over the table to get hold of Hannah's cup because I had wanted to see if the handle was really as small as she said. Tamaki-san and Shinomiya-san found it rather cute to watch how WE panicked XD. They ended up encouraging me to go for it and try/finish Hannah's tea and take it slow (since it was hot) with the both of them standing left and right of us. jgdmhgfdmz,zdgnfsmhf,hf......oh my!
Day 3) oh......I actually didn't mess up in that sense although I couldn't memorize the name of my butler *sobs* and his friend. And I yet send him into states of embarrassment by complimenting him *lol* Not to mention that....eh.....well I'm so obsessed with Kagami-san's tea "Mirage" that I must have looked overly happy breathing in the scent and nipping on it. Some butlers standing at the other side of the room were watching me with big eyes, as I realized. X'D I tell myself that I've been looked at by butlers and customers because I'm foreigner!
Day 4) I sent poor Haruma-san into panic by misunderstanding that coming to dinner time means you can only order from dinner menu and I'm vegetarian so he ran back and forth to make arrangements with the kitchen staff to then double check with me! X'D heavens! It made [my friend] Peng Pheng worried, too, about if the situation could be solved! Sorry dear, but I believe we still had a great time!
Sorry everyone, I can't properly get over it yet. *lol* This place, fade and my friends in Japan and all over the world. I simply feel that I found something precious there and want to return at least once more although I just left. It's the great gift of things coming to an end: you realize even more what they mean to you. (^o^) And you find out a lot about yourself. Because there are reasons why you like things.
However...you know.....it's good to be passionate about things! It's healthy! And it's good to follow your curiosity and take care of your needs.
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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the pictures!