Employing pretty girls to wait on guests is one of the oldest custom-driving tricks in the book, but in Tokyo the idea is taken to a new level – influenced by the geisha tradition, but with a modern twist, with the new trend for "maid cafes", where girls dress up in accordance with a certain theme, that has developed over the past 10 years.
In the past he's asked the kids, instead of servants, to wait on guests at the compound.
On the Sunday he and his wife wait on guests in the makeshift Fishy Fishy Nam Nam restaurant, staffed by a mixture of volunteer locals and some of Norway's most celebrated chefs.
Hosts may leave a loaf of extra-special banana bread waiting for guests on arrival, for example.
In Tjarios Agan Permas, for instance, Hajji Serbanna displays his hypocrisy by damning usury as haraam (sinful) while charging high interest rates for a loan, and refuses to complete the mandatory prayers because he is waiting on a guest bearing large gifts.
Waiting on the porch, Ronald and Nancy looked unhappy with our new guests.
Meanwhile, half the tables still had uneaten lobster appetizers waiting for guests who had never taken a seat, while others were already on dessert.
On the shores of the lake, I found three bedraggled yurts, a kind of primitive motel, waiting for guests.
Waiting until the guests had disembarked, Van der Werf casually took a picture of another driftnet piled on the aft deck, gave the captain a friendly nod, then hopped ashore.
A little throng of touts and guides was waiting on the Tarmac, bearing placards advertising Phu Quoc's half-dozen or so guest houses and hotels.
