メイドin中野 — Maid in Nakano is a 店舗型 house: a physical address, not a dispatch service. It sits at 東京都中野区中野5丁目53-2, about three minutes on foot from the north exit of JR Nakano Station, in the low-rise sprawl behind Sun Mall where Nakano stops being a shopping street and becomes a neighborhood. Phone on the listing is 03-3388-0044. The genre is イメクラ／コスプレ — image club, cosplay — and the costume is fixed: frilled headdress, over-knee socks, and a greeting the shop prints verbatim as 「お帰りなさいませ、ご主人様。」 Welcome home, Master. You leave to 「いってらっしゃいませ」.
It belongs to ハレ系 (Harekei), a group whose footer claims a copyright line running 1998–2026 and whose shop map covers Tokyo, Saitama, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Kumamoto. That matters later, because the loyalty card is group-wide.
One housekeeping note before the numbers, and it's a small thing I only caught because I was reading the page twice. The site's text header prints 営業時間 9:00～24:00. The banner graphic sitting directly above it prints 9:00～23:00. The price board's last time band ends at 23時, and the Cityheaven listing also says 09:00–23:00 — so it's three to one, and the odd one out is the line a search engine reads rather than the one a customer sees. I've done all the arithmetic below against 9:00–23:00, because that's the window the shop is actually willing to quote a price for. If you want the hour after that, ask at the desk, because nothing published prices it.
The Board, Cold
Every figure below is 税込 — tax included — and taken from the shop's own 料金システム page.
| TIME | 40 min | 50 min | 60 min | 70 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00–11:00 | ¥12,000 | ¥15,000 | ¥18,000 | ¥21,000 |
| 11:00–17:00 | ¥13,000 | ¥16,000 | ¥19,000 | ¥22,000 |
| 17:00–23:00 | ¥14,000 | ¥17,000 | ¥20,000 | ¥23,000 |
Plus, printed underneath:
- 土日祝はオールタイム1,000円アップ — weekends and public holidays, ¥1,000 on everything, all day
- 延長20分：8,000円 — twenty more minutes, ¥8,000
- 指名料 2,000円～, with おまかせ (free choice) at ¥0. The shop's own fee simulator offers nomination at ¥0 / ¥2,000 / ¥3,000 / ¥4,000
- 入会金無料 — no membership fee, which is ¥2,000 of nothing at a lot of other doors
- Credit cards accepted with no surcharge; receipts issued on request
One Equation, Twelve Cells
Read down any column and each ten minutes costs exactly ¥3,000 — ¥12,000 → ¥15,000 → ¥18,000 → ¥21,000, and the same +¥3,000 step in all three rows. Read across any row and each time band adds exactly ¥1,000, regardless of how long you booked.
So the entire board is:
price = ¥300 × minutes + cover, where cover = ¥0 before 11:00, ¥1,000 from 11:00–17:00, ¥2,000 from 17:00–23:00.
Check it anywhere. 50 minutes at 17:00 → 300×50 + 2,000 = ¥17,000. 70 minutes at midday → 300×70 + 1,000 = ¥22,000. Forty minutes at 9:30 → ¥12,000 flat. All twelve cells, exact, no rounding.
That's not a price list. That's a rate plus a cover charge, and the distinction is the single most useful thing on this page, because it tells you what you're actually buying when you buy more.
The marginal minute here never gets cheaper. It is ¥300 at minute 41 and ¥300 at minute 70. Every shop that prints a course ladder is implicitly promising a volume discount, and most of them deliver one. This one doesn't, and doesn't pretend to. What changes as the course gets longer is only that the cover gets spread thinner:
| Course | 9–11 | 11–17 | 17–23 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 min | ¥300/min | ¥325/min | ¥350/min |
| 50 min | ¥300/min | ¥320/min | ¥340/min |
| 60 min | ¥300/min | ¥317/min | ¥333/min |
| 70 min | ¥300/min | ¥314/min | ¥329/min |
The morning column is a flat ¥300 straight down, because there's no cover to amortize. In the evening the same ¥2,000 costs you ¥50 a minute across 40 minutes and ¥29 a minute across 70. The only volume discount in this building is on the cover charge, and it only exists after 11:00.
Break One: The Line Bends at 80 Minutes
The published grid stops at 70. Ask for more and you enter this rule, printed under the fee simulator:
80分以上のコースは複数のコースを合算した、ダブル・トリプルコースとなります。ダブル・トリプルコースの場合はコース毎に指名料が掛かります。
Eighty minutes and up is billed as two courses stacked — and the nomination fee is charged per course. Two things fall out of that, and the second one is nearly invisible.
The obvious one: nominate on a 90-minute booking and you pay 指名料 twice. At the ¥2,000 tier that's ¥4,000; at the top tier, ¥8,000.
The buried one: if the price is two courses added together, then the cover charge is also charged twice. In the morning that costs nothing, because the cover is ¥0 — 80 minutes is ¥12,000 + ¥12,000 = ¥24,000, still a flat ¥300 a minute. But in the evening, 90 minutes prices as ¥14,000 + ¥17,000 = ¥31,000, which is ¥300×90 plus two ¥2,000 covers.
Which does something genuinely strange to the value curve:
| Evening (17–23) | Price | Per minute |
|---|---|---|
| 70 min | ¥23,000 | ¥329 |
| 80 min | ¥28,000 | ¥350 |
| 90 min | ¥31,000 | ¥344 |
| 100 min | ¥34,000 | ¥340 |
The 70-minute course is the best per-minute rate on the evening board, and everything longer is worse. Not a little worse — 80 minutes at ¥350 a minute is the same rate as the shortest, most cover-heavy course in the building. The per-minute cost falls steadily from 40 to 70, jumps at 80, then starts falling again. Same shape at midday, where 70 minutes at ¥314 beats 100 minutes at ¥320.
In the morning band, none of this happens. Flat ¥300 at every length, forever.
So: if you want a long booking, take it before 11:00. That's the single highest-value sentence I can extract from this board. The morning isn't just the cheapest hour, it's the only hour where the shop's own stacking rule doesn't quietly tax you for staying.
Break Two: Extension Beats Booking Long — Sometimes
Twenty minutes of 延長 costs ¥8,000, or ¥400 a minute against the ¥300 you'd pay for the same twenty minutes booked up front. Read alone, that looks like the standard in-room penalty, and the standard advice would be: decide before you go in.
But the double-course rule changes the comparison, because booking long has its own costs. Compare 70 minutes plus an extension against a 90-minute booking, morning band:
| Nomination | 70 min + 延長20分 | 90 min booked (40+50) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| フリー (¥0) | ¥29,000 | ¥27,000 | Book long, −¥2,000 |
| ¥2,000 | ¥31,000 | ¥31,000 | Dead tie |
| ¥3,000 | ¥32,000 | ¥33,000 | Extend, −¥1,000 |
| ¥4,000 | ¥33,000 | ¥35,000 | Extend, −¥2,000 |
The crossover sits exactly at the ¥2,000 nomination tier. Below it, book long. Above it, the second 指名料 costs more than the extension premium and you should walk in on the shorter course.
And in the evening, where the second cover charge lands too, even a free-choice guest breaks even: 70 minutes plus an extension is ¥23,000 + ¥8,000 = ¥31,000, and a 90-minute booking is also ¥31,000. Identical money.
Short version: book long in the morning, extend in the evening. One caveat I want to be honest about — nothing published states whether an extension triggers a second nomination fee. Every figure above assumes it doesn't. That's the one number I'd get confirmed at the desk before it matters.
The Sale That Undersells Itself
Running 8月1日(土)〜14日(金) is a スーパーSALE, and it is the reason to pay attention this fortnight. It applies to the 50-minute course, フリー限定 — free choice only, no nomination — and it does not combine with anything.
| 50 min | Standard | SALE | Actual cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00–11:00 | ¥15,000 | ¥13,500 | ¥1,500 — 10.0% |
| 11:00–17:00 | ¥16,000 | ¥14,500 | ¥1,500 — 9.4% |
| 17:00–23:00 | ¥17,000 | ¥14,500 | ¥2,500 — 14.7% |
The badge on the coupon says 10%OFF.
That's exactly right for the morning, a rounding-up for midday, and it understates the evening by more than four points. The sale's real mechanism isn't a percentage at all — it collapses the 11:00–17:00 and 17:00–23:00 bands into one flat ¥14,500, which is to say it deletes the evening cover charge entirely. The biggest discount on offer is the one nobody put on the banner.
I've read the opposite of this so many times that it took me three passes to believe it. Most shops pick the largest defensible number and print that. This one picked the smallest.
Per minute, free choice, weekday: ¥270 in the morning, ¥290 the rest of the day — against a board whose best unassisted rate is ¥300. The sale beats every standard price at every hour.
Where ¥13,500 Actually Lives
Now the part the banner doesn't mention. 土日祝 adds ¥1,000, and that surcharge applies to the sale price too.
The sale runs fourteen days. Of those, August 1 and 2 are a Saturday and Sunday, August 8 and 9 are the next Saturday and Sunday, and August 11 is 山の日, a public holiday. Five of the fourteen days carry the surcharge — including the opening weekend, which is to say the sale launched on two consecutive days when its headline price wasn't available.
Today is Sunday, August 2. The ¥13,500 does not exist today. Today it's ¥14,500 before 11:00 and ¥15,500 after.
Stack the two conditions and the advertised number lives in a startlingly small box: the 9:00–11:00 band, on the nine non-surcharged days. Two hours a day, nine days — eighteen hours inside a sale that spans about 196 open hours. Under ten percent of the promotion.
That isn't a trick, and I want to be precise about the distinction. Both conditions are printed, in the same box as the price, in plain language. It's simply that "¥13,500" and "the price you will pay" are different objects, and the shop is under no obligation to do that multiplication for you.
The ¥14,500 tier, by contrast, is genuinely broad — nine days, twelve hours a day, and it's the tier carrying the 14.7% cut. That's the real offer here. The morning price is the advertisement; the afternoon-and-evening price is the product.
Free Choice Isn't Blind Here
The sale is フリー限定, and at most shops that restriction is the catch — you're buying a discount with uncertainty. Here it's cheaper than it looks, because of a policy the group prints across every shop page:
料金を頂く前に必ず写真をお見せしています。写真をご覧になってお気に召さない場合はご入店されなくても結構ですよ～ん。
You're shown photographs before you pay, and you may decline and walk out without entering. That's an unusual amount of optionality to hand a walk-in, and it changes the arithmetic entirely: フリー at this house isn't a blind draw, it's a look-then-decide. Which means the sale's one restriction costs you very little, while the nomination fee it waives is worth ¥2,000–¥4,000.
Concretely, on a weekday evening: sale, free choice, 50 minutes = ¥14,500 (¥290/min). Standard price with a ¥2,000 nomination = ¥17,000 + ¥2,000 = ¥19,000 (¥380/min). That's a ¥4,500 gap, and it is the largest single decision on this price sheet.
The trade you're making is real but narrow: you get to see who, you don't get to pick who. Given the shop lists twenty-one women on today's board with shifts running 9:00 to 23:00 — and six slots already flagged 予約満了 by early afternoon — the pool at any given hour is not thin.
The August Calendar Is Card-Gated
Five events run alongside the sale, and three of them require a card:
- 団体割, all month — ¥500 off for two guests, ¥1,000 for three or more. Not combinable with the sale, and the sale is worth more, so this is dead until August 15.
- ニューフェイス, all month — ¥1,000 off the course when you nominate a new-face girl. But it requires nomination, and the sale is free-choice-only, so you're choosing between them. Nominating a new face at ¥2,000 runs ¥18,000 for an evening 50 against the sale's ¥14,500. The sale wins by ¥3,500.
- 口コミ投稿 — post a review on Heaven or Fuzoku Japan, get a ¥1,000 voucher for next time.
- 感謝の意を込めて, Aug 17–23 — vouchers on the way out, scaled by course length.
- 着たままコス, Aug 24–31 — the ¥2,000 clothed-finish option free on 60 minutes or longer, limited stock, no reservations.
Here's the nuance that matters, because the wording is easy to misread. The gate on those events is メンバー様・常連様カード — and the members card is handed to every first-time guest. So "card holders only" means "anyone on their second visit." That's a soft gate.
The hard gate is the other tier. One stamp per visit, twenty stamps to become a 常連様, registered by name and mobile number with a one-ring callback to verify. The reward is ¥1,000 off, all time, every visit, plus half price on the clothed-finish option and the group's shop-specific perks — and the card works across every Harekei location nationwide.
Twenty visits. At the sale's ¥14,500 that's roughly ¥290,000 of spending to unlock ¥1,000 a visit, which pays for itself over the following twenty visits. That's not a loyalty program aimed at you or me. It's aimed at someone with a standing Thursday.
There's one more mechanic I liked, purely as design: bring any three expired discount tickets from any Harekei shop in Tokyo, Saitama, Yokohama or Kawasaki, and get ¥1,000 off on the spot. Dead paper redeemed at a fixed rate. It doesn't combine with the sale either — so during the first half of August, the ticket economy and the discount calendar are mutually exclusive, and the vouchers those review events hand out can't be spent until the sale ends.
Practical Notes
Same-day phone bookings open at 8:30; previous-day phone from 12:30; web reservations run 24 hours and take bookings up to about a month out. No cancellation fee — cancel by phone or Heaven chat. Rooms have showers and baths, and the building is, per the shop's own description, yellow, pink and white, which in that part of Nakano is genuinely the fastest way to find it. The listed age band on Cityheaven is 18–29. The shop files under 風営法 notification, prints an explicit prohibited-conduct list, and states plainly that 本番行為 requests end the session with no refund.
The Verdict
- Price transparency: ★★★★★ — twelve cells, one equation, no remainder, every fee published including the nomination range and the extension rate. The stacking rule that reprices 80+ minutes is printed too, if in small type. I went looking for the seam and there isn't one.
- Value, morning: ★★★★★ — ¥300 a minute flat at any length, and during the sale ¥270 for a 50. In central Tokyo, in a room with a bath, that is a real number.
- Value, evening: ★★★☆☆ — ¥329–¥350 a minute standard, and the stacking rule makes long evening bookings the worst per-minute buys on the board. The sale fixes this for fourteen days and then it's back.
- Honesty of promotion: ★★★★☆ — a sale advertised at 10% that delivers 14.7% at its best hour is the opposite of the usual complaint. Half a star off only because the headline price lives in 9% of the sale's hours and the banner doesn't say so.
- Loyalty structure: ★★☆☆☆ — twenty visits to reach the real discount, with three of five August events gated behind a card. The card is free on visit one, which softens it, but the tier that pays is a long way up.
- Going back: ○ — on a weekday morning during the sale, without hesitation.
The read I'd hand a friend standing at the north exit with the Broadway crowd flowing past: this is the most legible price sheet I've taken apart on this site, and legibility is worth money. You don't need to outguess this shop. You need to answer two questions before you walk in — how many minutes, and what hour — and the board will do exactly what it says it will do.
Answer them this way, if you want the short version. Go before 11:00. Take the sale's 50 at ¥13,500 on a weekday, or the ¥14,500 tier any afternoon and pocket the 14.7% they forgot to advertise. If you want more than seventy minutes, take it in the morning, where the stacking rule can't reach you. And if you're paying ¥3,000 or more to nominate, book short and extend in the room — the math flips, and it flips exactly where you'd never think to look.
Twelve numbers. One equation. First visit logged.