Purikura - Print Club

Purikura is the Japanese abbreviated form of print club. These machines are ubiquitous throughout the country, and are somewhat related to photo booths like we have the States. However, the difference is in the level of technology, complexity, and sheer coolness.

These booths are extremely popular with females in their teens and twenties and nearly every arcade in Japan has at least one. Some commit a whole floor to them and others have sections reserved for women only. Occasionally, you can find arcades that where you can rent costumes to wear while you pose for the photos, but this is normally restricted to areas like Shibuya.

Multiple companies produce the booths, so you can find a wide variety of features. Normally, malls or arcades will have more than one booth and each will have an external catalog that allows you to preview the background and graphic options available. Four people can easily fit into the average booth.

A basic visit to purikura machine follows these steps:

• Upon entering the machine, you deposit your yen (typically ¥400/$3.50)
• Next, the machine may ask you to select either a grouping of backgrounds based on a theme or allow you to pick individual backgrounds
• The digital display will then begin to count down while you are able to preview yourself and strike your pose before the picture snaps!
• After selecting the pictures you want to keep (usually 4), you move to the back of the booth where you can customize the images with frames, icons, phrases, and pen tools. [Examples]
• Finally, you select the number of images you would like to print (8, 16, 32), which is usually based on the number of people that will be splitting the printout.
• While waiting for the sticker page to print out, some of the machines will have simple video games to play or “fortunes” that you can read

My indoctrination into purikura was a trial by fire. Admittedly, my Japanese is not very good and my reading of Japanese is even worse. Unfortunately, these machines were all Japanese all the time (don’t believe the hype about wasei-eigo) and decisions have to be made fast, so you don’t get to mull over the kanji before committing to a choice. The first couple times, my homestay sister made all the selections and then I learned my way around the software’s prompts by memory.

Of all the backgrounds, my favorite is the "horror" themes. It took me several tries with my home-stay sisters before we were finally able to snap one with the appropriate look of fear on our faces. The next problem was trying to add the perfect graphics. The background scenery only takes you so far. The most essential elements of purikura are all the extra icons and graphics that can really take a photo over the top. In general, the more decoration, the better. My favorite purikura shot is of my home-stay sister Yuki and I in a horror theme, with freaky white arms reaching up to grab us. My BF really enjoyed selecting illogical graphics to add. For example, we have one shot where there is a rooster on his shoulder.