Gyaru-themed Café Opens in Shibuya

Gyaru Café Opens in Shibuya

Tired of your typical maid cafés, hostess bars, or places with a generally intimidating atmosphere to the uninitiated? The new gyaru (gal in English) themed café 10sion (read as Tension) has opened to hopefully combat this.

Founded by Galt Pop, the bar is themed around the gyaru community but not the bronzed women that have gained notoriety in Japanese pop culture. Rather, the bar focuses on an exaggerated “girly” image as the all-female staff consists only of fashion-conscious girls. What sets 10sion apart from the other themed locations is that everyone treats you as a long-time friend so there isn’t the need for polite speech or pretentious atmosphere that might make some people uncomfortable. In fact, it’s not allowed to use keigo (honorific Japanese language or “proper” speech) to help enforce the casual atmosphere.

The café is rather small with 7-member staff and there are a variety of things for you to do including playing games with the girls. One game you could play is called shinken-shirahadori where a gal tries to hit a guest on the head with a sword but if the guest catches the sword, they are rewarded with a free drink. You can also get the “Gal’s eye makeup experience” where the gals do makeup for you, fake eyelashes included. The service is a female-only option, however. It’s also still a café so you can also eat here. While it seems that 10sion is more female-centric café, men are allowed to enjoy the café but are required to pay an extra fee of 1,000 yen per hour.

This is not the first gyaru themed establishment in Shibuya, though. Near 10sion is the GirlsAward-owned Beauty Café. Much like 10sion, Beauty Café has the same objective of keeping a casual atmosphere but instead of a small and cozy environment, it is a 3-story affair. It is part beauty parlor, part café, and part bar, each on a separate floor.