PURIKURA

"Let's take Purikura!" can be often heard from the young on the streets in Japan. Purikura, or sticker pictures, are constantly taken by many people, especially girls in grade school when they are hanging out with friends out in the city.

Many people like to take Purikura as keeping memory of their hangouts with friends. Many even own a “Puricho”, which is a small notebook where they keep all the purikuras taken in the past. It is similar to a photo album filled with pictures, since it documents the fun times people have with their friends. What's so good about Purikura is that they are fast, cheap, fun and easy. Purikura can be taken and developed within few minutes! Also, the price is JPY 400 for a page of stickers, which is not bad at all. They are fun because Purikura can be customized: you can draw on them, write on them, and put pictures on it. Most importantly, it is very easy because the machine will tell you exact directions while you are by it.


When people are hanging out with friends, many like to show each other their Purichos taken in the past to each other. Not only is it fun to look at fun pictures, but it also increases conversations as one question another about things. Such questions could be like which machine did you take this at? When was this? and How did you decorate it like this?

It is probably worth taking purikuras as one of the many memories from Japan!